Victor the Moor

ON ST. VICTOR THE MOOR

MARTYR AT MILAN.

A.D. 303.

Victor the Moor, Martyr at Milan (S.)

By G. H.

The memory of St. Victor the Moor the soldier is most celebrated among all the Latins, crowned with martyrdom at Milan in Insubria

crowned with martyrdom. The four ancient

copies of the Hieronymian Martyrology open this

May VIII in this manner: Memory in the sacred fasti on May 8, On the VIII Ides of May, at Milan

of Victor. The more ancient Martyrologies agree,

the Reichenau near Constance, the Augsburg of St. Udalric,

the Vatican of the Church of St. Peter, the Dijon, the Arras,

and others: in some of which these things are read:

At Milan of St. Victor Martyr, beheaded. Usuard

adorns him with this eulogy: VIII Ides of May. At Milan

birthday of St. Victor Martyr, who from his earliest age

at the urging of Maximian to sacrifice, persevering most bravely

in the confession of the Lord, was first severely

beaten with cudgels, but by the protection of God free of pain;

then drenched with molten lead, but in no way

harmed; finally completed the course of his glorious martyrdom

by the cutting off of his head. Similar or even longer

eulogies drawn from the Acts have in their Martyrologies

Rabanus, May 7, Ado, Notker and other later writers along with today's

Roman Martyrology. But the day before, his solemnity is celebrated

in an ancient MS. of the Queen of Sweden, edited by Lucas Holstenius in his

Animadversions on the Roman Martyrology, in these words: On the Nones

of May at Milan birthday of St. Victor Martyr, May 14, whose

passion is celebrated there. Another and that solemn veneration

recurs on the day before the Ides of May, or on the XIV day of the said May,

when his sacred body is said by St. Maternus Bishop of Milan

to have been buried, as is said below in the Acts: and this feast

of translation is indicated in an ancient Missal of the year MDXXII, and

Ferrarius: likewise under the name of Maurus with a long eulogy in

the Viola Sanctorum, printed at Hagenau in the year 1508, and in the MS.

Florarium. But on the following day May XV, which is the Octave, and May 15, again

Victor Martyr at Milan is referred to in the four ancient

copies of the Hieronymian Martyrology, and another MS.

of the Queen of Sweden mentioned above. But whether there it concerns the same Victor,

or another different one, is uncertain to us,

as on that day among the Passed-over we note.

[2] Church of St. Victor at the Body. There are several churches dedicated to St. Victor in the city and diocese

of Milan: the chief among these can be reckoned the church

of St. Victor, called "at the body," because in it his sacred

body is preserved. This, distant a hundred and more paces

from the Ambrosian church, was formerly called Portiana,

and for some time the Metropolitan. There is buried Arnulph

the second of that name Archbishop of Milan,

surnamed of Arzago, who sat from the year a thousand and one,

up to the year nineteen above a thousand,

and constructed a new church of St. Victor at the Body,

with a monastery of the Benedictine Order; with the Benedictine monastery, now Olivetan: but

this Abbey afterwards given in Commendam, and at length

in the year MDVII transferred to the Olivetan Fathers, by whom

in the year MDLX a new church began to be erected, to which the bodies

of SS. Victor Martyr and St. Satyrus brother of St. Ambrose

were translated in the year MDLXXVI: of which matter accurately

treats Giovanni Pietro Puricelli, in the Monuments of the Ambrosian

basilica chapter 19. When, he says, the Olivetan monks

had asked the holy Cardinal and Archbishop Charles

Borromeo, that by himself or another

he would inspect the sacred Relics, which were in the old

basilica, and which were to be transferred from there to the new;

Body of St. Victor translated in the year 1576. Charles himself was at length present there on Friday

the twentieth day of the month of July, and thus in the public Document,

drawn up six days later (in which all the acts of this

Visitation of the Relics and then of the Translation

and Reposition are recounted in order) we find written,

which we also transcribe from there.

[3] In the presence of the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend

Lord Charles, Cardinal Presbyter of the title of St. Praxedis,

under the major altar of the church of St. Victor was found

a certain marble box, constructed of six stones

mutually adhering with leaden plates:

in which were found the Bodies of the most glorious

Saints Victor Martyr and Satyrus Confessor,

separated from each other by a clear interval. For the body

of St. Satyrus was on the left of St. Victor, and on the head of the same

rested a brick stone (a sign of the greatest antiquity)

on which were read written these words; namely

S. Satir. But on the right of St. Satyrus was placed

the body of St. Victor, having a brick stone in every way

similar to the above-mentioned resting on it: on

which these words were read, namely S. Victor,

whose letters V and T were written in retrograde fashion.

And all these things in the presence of the very Reverend

Lords, Rodulph de Cruce Primicerius of the major

Church of Milan, John Francis a Basilica Petri

Ordinary of the aforesaid Church, both dwelling

in the Canonica: Pietro Galesinio Apostolic Protonotary,

Abbot of St. Ambrose Major of Milan,

Prior of the same Church, and Abbot of St. Victor.

Thus there. The said Galesinio in the Notes to his Martyrology

and the day VIII May, the head placed in a silver case in the year 1602. where he treats of St. Victor, attests

that he was present at this Translation. Afterwards, as the same

Puricelli teaches, both Heads, of Victor

as well as of Satyrus, in the year of Christ above one thousand six hundred

and second, on the twenty-third day of March,

before Antonio Seneca, then Dean of the Metropolitan basilica

and others, they solemnly drew them out of the chest,

in which that holy Charles had once placed them, and placed them in

two silver heads, that they might be carried among sacred

processions, and exposed to the people for veneration

on certain days. Of which matter a public

document also exists, drawn up at that time by Jacobus

Antonius Cerrutus, Notary of the Archiepiscopal Curia.

[4] These things Puricelli, who from this concludes that the head of St. Victor

Martyr, which is preserved among the Volaterrans, is not

of this Martyr of Milan, although Raphael Volaterranus

book 20 of his Anthropology wrote in the beginning of the XVI century,

There is also at Volaterra the head of St. Victor M. and after him Lucas Alemannius made

Bishop of Volaterra in the year MDXCVIII affirmed it, and took care that it be inscribed

on a marble stone erected at the left of the major altar. We treated

on February III of S. Candidus Roman Martyr, whose body

is preserved at Volaterra, and we likewise indicated that a notable writing

drawn up by public authority concerning all the Relics

was made and sent to us: in which is exhibited the most ancient

monument preserved in the sacristy, by which is indicated

the church dedicated by Pope Calixtus II in the year MCXX on day XX

of May, and at the end these things are added: Moreover the Pope

gave to the Church and Clergy and people of Volaterra a most devoted

head, adorned with gold, of the most invincible Martyr St. Victor

as a gift: which by the Clergy and people was humbly received

as Protector and Patron of the city. Thus

there: which more broadly from Volaterranus and others Ughelli sets out in book

1 of his Italia sacra in the Bishops of Volaterra, and exhibits a sculpted figure

of the very skull: and again Puricelli in the Nazarian

Dissertation chapter 46 number 20. But because of no

month are Saints published by us, but that among them are ten,

twelve, sixteen or more Martyrs, called by the name of Victor,

besides others called Victorius, Victorinus, Victorianus,

we judge that the head of some Saint Victor

and other bones of his were sent from Rome by Pope Calixtus

or given in person. So that prudently was assumed by the Volaterrans for his

veneration not the day VIII May,

on which St. Victor was crowned at Milan, but May XIII,

on which another Victor could have died as Martyr: and such is given by us

at Polentia, but perhaps crowned elsewhere. and indeed (as we say there) in Picenum between

Macerata and Septempeda. But what if on May XIII

he was assumed, because on that day was received the sacred head and

exposed to public veneration? Then we should rather judge

these to be the Relics of some Saint who suffered at Rome. Thus also we

at Antwerp, in the church of the Professed House of the Society of Jesus, have

the body of St. Victor Roman Martyr, and for his

veneration we chose the Sunday after the feast of St. Martin

Bishop of Tours. But these things we leave to the decision of the Volaterrans,

and we return to the churches dedicated to St. Victor.

[5] Church of St. Victor at the Golden Heaven. Another therefore is the church of St. Victor, formerly called

at the Golden Heaven, now called of S. Satyrus, near the Ambrosian

basilica, from which it is scarcely ten paces distant, and in that

basilica is the altar of St. Victor at the Golden Heaven. Moreover

according to Puricelli praised above, of the same St. Victor,

as Patron and Protector, the effigy is there seen

still most ancient, elaborated in mosaic work, in the very

apex and summit of the church, vaulted and gleaming with gold

all around. Whence from such an apex

and gilded summit seems to have arisen that very name of St. Victor

at the Golden Heaven. Moreover the effigy

itself is fashioned in this very way. As much with the right

as with the left hand he separately bears a Cross,

inscribed with larger characters in the transverse part.

On the right is thus inscribed Pane gratiae,

but on the left thus, Faustin. and there is also thus

held in the left hand an open book, inscribed

Victor, lest anyone could doubt of which Saint

that effigy was. Thus there Puricelli, in which is also the head of St. Victor, and after several pages

he adds, that the Ambrosian monks claim for themselves the Head of the same

Victor, but for the greater part

mutilated: and this perhaps can more easily be reconciled with the credulity

of the Church of Volaterra. St. Ambrose in

his sermon for the feast of SS. Nazarius and Celsus Martyrs asserts,

that the city of Milan possesses peoples of Martyrs: perhaps of another who suffered at Milan. from

these on May VI we gave the catalogue of LXXIX Martyrs expressed by their

names, and among these three called Victor,

again on May XIV we shall give four Martyrs, and the leader

of these Victor, crowned at Milan. Why not should we judge

some head of these to be in veneration among the Ambrosian monks?

But also let the Milanese themselves resolve this controversy among

themselves.

[6] other churches of St. Victor Two other basilicas the same Puricelli indicates as still

existing, one called of S. Victor at the Elm, the other of St. Victor

at the Theater. It is said below in the Acts

that S. Victor was led to a little wood, which is called At the Elms,

where the Emperor had his garden, and there beheaded.

But when before St. Victor had fled, he was found

in a stable before the theater. Hence to the perpetual memory

of St. Victor, churches were erected to him there. Paul Morigi

in the Sanctuary of Milan page 140 describes the church

of St. Victor at the theater, and asserts that among various

Relics, some also of St. Victor are preserved there.

We have moreover illustrated on day XIII February the Life

of SS. Haymo and Veremundus brothers, who in hunting

were to be torn by boars, beheld at the top

of a hill a church constructed and dedicated to St. Victor the Moor,

who having attained the laurel of martyrdom at Milan, in many

churches of that diocese is honored; vowed themselves there

to build a monastery, and they constructed and endowed it for Virgins of the Benedictine

Order, in Meda

a village of the diocese of Milan. The said

Morigi also mentions on page 237 the Collegiate Church of St. Victor

constructed in the ancient town of Varese. And these things abundantly

suffice, that the ancient cult and veneration may be held for certain:

to which can be added what we subjoin below to the Acts taken

from St. Gregory Bishop of Tours.

[7] St. Victor suffered under Maximian Herculius, But at what time St. Victor suffered, and with what

faith the history of the Passion has been written, must be set forth in a few words. The Acts have

that under the reign of the Emperor Maximian, in the city of Milan

there was a great persecution of Christians,

namely as we said above when that city according to St.

Ambrose possessed a people of Martyrs. This was Maximian

Herculius who reigned with Diocletian, and

lived for the most part at Milan, enlarged the circuit of the city

and surrounded it with a wall, made a palace lofty with two

towers: moreover by erecting statues, signs, columns

everywhere he strove to make it most similar to Rome:

as Tristan Calchus tells in book 1 of the History of Milan

near the end. and Anolinus the Counselor Furthermore in persecuting Christians there was at hand

Anolinus, a Counselor of similar mold to Maximian,

a man most ferocious in shedding the blood of Christians,

whose cruelty is explained by the Acts of SS. Nabor and Felix

slain at Lodi Pompeia on July XII, and of SS. Firmus and

Rusticus crowned at Verona on August IX: whose Acts thus

begin: When the most impious Emperor reigned, in the city

of Milan, there was a great persecution of Christians

etc. We have indicated more about Anolinus on March XXIII

at the Life of St. Proculus Bishop of Verona number 6.

The same Anolinus in torturing St. Victor, while at Milan

Maximian was present, played the principal part.

Nor is there any difficulty here: but for the matter to be believed to have been done

in the same year in which Maximian himself died, which follows from the Acts,

and indeed in the sixth year after he had abdicated the Empire,

is not without difficulty.

[8] Acts that bear the authority of an eyewitness. Those Acts from ancient monuments about two hundred

years ago Boninus Mombritius of Milan published, and

inscribed to Cicco Simonetta, Secretary of the Dukes of Milan.

We have copied the same from the MS. codex of the library

of Cassino written in Lombardic letters, likewise from the very ancient

codex of Trier of the Imperial monastery of S. Maximinus,

and we have found in the Ms. of Christina Queen of Sweden marked number XIII.

The same Pierre Francois Chiflet sent us

drawn from a Ms., but abridged. The same Lawrence Surius edited,

but with the style here and there somewhat polished: a compendium

of the same exists in the Breviary of Milan according to the institution

of St. Ambrose printed in the year MDXXXIX, in which three Lessons

drawn from this Life are prescribed, on this VIII

May, on which he suffered, to be recited at Matins. A notable

eulogy also taken from the same is inserted in the Missal

of Milan printed in the year MDXXII, which is wont to be recited in the Preface

of the Mass. All these things bring it about that one understands

that those Acts of the Passion, which I said, were everywhere and without

scruple received. Nor do I think the truth of the martyrdom should be doubted:

I fear nevertheless that the Acts themselves are not so ancient

and sincere as the last paragraph makes them appear; in which

after it is narrated, how Anolinus adjured the recorders of the Palace,

that each one would bring forth whatever he had

papers or documents concerning the martyrdom of Victor, and these

he had burnt before him; thus then it is read: Then I

also Maximianus, notary of Maximian the Emperor,

paganism: and yet by night with lamps in

the Hippodrome of the Circus I wrote these things, as I could

retain in memory, because I dwelt there: and

I adjured, that if anyone should find this writing,

he would not deny it to a Christian man. All these things I Maximianus

with my own eyes saw, with God as witness and the holy Trinity.

[9] such things they are not, He would have written therefore those Acts, not only as an eye-witness,

but also would have written with fresh memory, with the persecution still continuing:

but his writing he did not dare to deliver by himself

to a Christian man, and would have left it rashly thrown out in public.

For what is more rash than where so many idolaters were;

who seemed about to snatch it more quickly, than according to the wish of the writer

to deliver it to Christians, to hope that

it would come into their hands? What more incredible than

that to that nocturnal and furtive writing the author himself would have appended his

name, and wishing to lie hidden, would have wanted it to be made known to whoever found it,

with manifest peril of his own life?

For the preservation of which yet he confesses an impious oath was conceived by him,

so feeble was he in professing the faith of Christ.

How therefore is so ill-cautious a precaution not suspect?

[10] but when idolaters were already called Pagans Nevertheless I am moved by this, that I see the Gods of the Pagans

and Paganism named: for I shall never believe

anyone living in the time of Maximian would have written so. Iacobus

Gothofredi at the Theodosian Code book

16 title 10 on Pagans, refers the most ancient mention

of such a name, which he has hitherto been able to find,

to the beginning of Valentinian and Valens, or the year of Christ CCCLXV:

and no one doubts but that this phrase had its origin from Christians,

so begun to call idolaters contemptuously, after

their superstition, proscribed by Christian Emperors,

departed from the cities to the villages: which the reader will be able to see

learnedly discussed by him. To me it does not seem that much is needed

to prove this, which the very name as it were speaks of itself.

For not in the way that Christians said Gentiles and Heathens,

a word employed from the beginning of the Church, written when Christianity flourished: thus

would you think Pagans were said, as if by the failure of Latinity Pagus

was said for the whole Roman Empire, and in that sense

was called the Pagan religion, which was held everywhere by all.

But that with a stricter and more Latin notion,

Pagans were called as it were rustics and country-dwellers,

we can prove from this, that in our Teutonic tongue

we have received from our ancestors no word that responds to the Latin one,

except one to which that vile and full of contempt

signification is subjoined, when we call idolaters Heydenen,

from the noun Heyde, which to us even now denotes

a field, and indeed an uncultivated one, because outside the places of common

habitation, to those almost desert places they were relegated, where

they exercised their ancestral superstitions as best they could.

[11] with not the best faith, Whoever therefore he was, who either first composed these Acts

from the tradition of his elders, or interpolated those anciently written;

in the part where he wished to gain for them the greatest

authority of eye-witness testimony, in this same part he detracted from them

even the simple prerogative of good faith, while he is found to have used fraud.

Wherefore neither do we now dare to trust that note of time,

which the Saint would have made, ordering it to be announced to Maximian, that

in this year he would die: For by the authority of so wavering faith

it becomes hardly probable, that a man, however hostile to Christians,

at that time could have been at leisure to harass them,

at which he should have been wholly intent on stabilizing what he was rashly

presuming to resume the Empire, and therefore they do not persuade that the matter was done in the year 310. in the very

attempt of carrying out the matter being suppressed and extinguished. Therefore that fatal persecution,

of which the Acts of many other Saints make mention,

and in which St. Victor triumphed (no account being had

of those words so rashly added) I shall refer

to the last year of Diocletian and Maximian co-reigning,

of Christ CCCIII, in which Maximian, present at Milan,

presided over the cruel butchery. Nor will I make much

of what the Saint is said to have threatened the tyrant, that when

he should be dead no burial would receive him, unless his

shins were broken: because I read no such thing elsewhere, but well

in Eusebius at the end of book 8, that he ended his life by a noose,

according to a certain prophecy of demons, deservedly afflicted by such

punishment for the very many crimes

he had committed; and that at Marseilles, where he had fled,

with Maxentius III sole Consul, as Idatius writes, that is

in the year of Christ CCCX.

ACTS OF THE MARTYRDOM

From MS. Codices and Mombritius.

Victor the Moor, Martyr at Milan (S.)

BHL Number: 8580

FROM MSS.

[1] Under the reign of the impious Emperor Maximian, in

the city of Milan there was a great persecution

of Christians. There was however there a certain soldier,

Then the Ministers reported to the Emperor

saying: Lord most clement Emperor, Victor

the Moor, having become a Christian, blasphemes our gods,

and says they are demons. Then the Emperor

indignant ordered him to be apprehended and brought to him:

to whom also he said: Before the Emperor he professed the faith, Victor our soldier, what did you think

was lacking to you, that you should have made yourself a Christian? Victor replied:

I have not lately been made a Christian,

but from the beginning of my life. The Emperor Maximian

said: Therefore, as you assert manifestly, are you a Christian?

Victor replied: I am manifestly a Christian,

and I adore Christ Jesus the son of the living God born of the Virgin Mary,

and I believe with my heart, and with my mouth I do not cease

to praise. Then the Emperor Maximian, filled with anger,

ordered him to be sent to prison near the Circus, by which way one goes

to the Ticinese gate, and to be diligently guarded, saying

to him: in prison he is tortured by hunger: Go Victor, consider with yourself how

you can escape the horrid torments, which will fiercely tear you,

if you are unwilling to sacrifice. Sent therefore into prison

he spent there six days, and the Emperor ordered that neither

bread nor water should be given to him. But on the seventh day Maximian

the Emperor ordered the tribunal to be prepared in the hippodrome

of the Circus, and ordered St. Victor to be led forth, and said

to him: What is it Victor, what have you considered concerning your salvation?

S. Victor replied: My salvation and my strength

is Christ: by whose spirit I am nourished, whom

I have received in my bowels.

[2] Then the Emperor Maximian, filled with wrath,

ordered cudgels to be brought, and in his sight him to be stretched out

and beaten, ^a and three teams of three to take turns and to cry to him:

Sacrifice to the gods, whom the Emperor and all adore.

And when he had been beaten, he is beaten with cudgels: he ordered him to be raised: to whom also he said:

Victor, hear my counsel, and approach and serve

these gods: because no one can better serve them

than you, especially since you are an honored hound. S. Victor

replied: Blessed David the King and Prophet teaches

saying: All the gods of the gentiles are demons, but our God

made the heavens: if therefore from the beginning they are called

demons, ^b how shall I adore them? Ps. 95 Then Maximian

the Emperor said to him: he scorns honors and gifts: Behold I give you the honor

of Master of the soldiers, and gold and much silver,

and offices and possessions, only sacrifice to these gods,

whom we worship. Victor replied: I have already said,

and I will say again: I will not sacrifice to demons,

but to God I offer myself as a sacrifice of praise: because

it is written, everyone sacrificing to demons and not to God

shall be eradicated. Exod. 22 Anolinus, Counselor of the Emperor, said:

Victor, honors are promised you by the most clement

Emperor: why do you not sacrifice to the gods, whom

the Emperor adores, and to whom he bows his neck?

S. Victor replied: I do not accept the rewards promised by you:

but from my God I daily receive ^c strength.

[3] Then the angry Emperor Maximian ordered him

again to be sent to prison at the gate, which is called

Roman; and there to be guarded by soldiers. And when there

he had been for three days, he ordered him to be led out of prison, and the Emperor

said to him: Victor, sacrifice to these gods,

whom true divinity has proved to be gods. S. Victor

replied: I do not sacrifice to the gods of pagans: it is shameful

for me that what I received in the sanctification of baptism,

I should desert, compelled by you, a corruptible man and placed

in every necessity. I do not do it:

do what you are about to do: because I know that he who fights for me

is stronger than you. Then the Emperor Maximian,

and Anolinus his Counselor, ordered cudgels

to be brought ^d and him to be stretched, and five teams of three to take turns,

and to shout at him, again he is beaten with cudgels. Sacrifice to the gods whom the Emperor and

all adore. Then S. Victor, when he was placed in pains,

did not feel pains: but thus he prayed to the Lord

saying: Lord Jesus Christ, by whose grain

I am daily nourished, my King and my God,

help me placed in these pains. Then the Emperor Maximian

said to him: Victor, take counsel for your blood,

and sacrifice to these gods, whom all adore. For

by the gods and by my safety and the state of the commonwealth,

unless you sacrifice, I will make you exhale your breath ^e by various

punishments. And do not hope that if you are punished by me,

the Christians will make you their Martyr, my servant:

but I order you to be cast there, where never your body

can be found. S. Victor replied: I do not

sacrifice: do what seems good to you: not of your servant

will you do as you have said, but of the servant of Christ. Then indignant

the Emperor Maximian, that he had answered him so,

ordered him to be sent again to prison at the gate

which is called Roman, and his feet to be stretched in the stocks.

[4] constant in various temptations, And when he was shut up there, Anolinus

the Counselor of the Emperor sent to him saying: Go, say to Victor:

Man, you have despaired badly of your life, ^f take counsel

for your blood, and do not provoke the Emperor any more

to wrath: hear my counsel and sacrifice

to our gods, and ask of the Emperor whatever

honor you wish: for by the gods and by the safety of the Emperor

many torments are prepared for you. S. Victor

replied to those who had come to him: Go, say to

Anolinus. Ps. 96 I do not sacrifice to the gods of the Pagans, because

Scripture teaches us, let all be confounded who adore

idols and who glory in their images. But I

adore the living and true God, that I may not be confounded

forever. And when this had been reported to Anolinus,

it was reported also to the Emperor: and they were exceedingly

angry. But on the next day the Emperor Maximian ordered

him to be led out of prison, and Anolinus said to him: Victor,

is your heart so hardened, that ^g you do not hear

the commands of the Emperor and sacrifice? S. Victor replied:

I do not sacrifice to unclean and senseless gods. Then the Emperor

ordered all kinds of torments to be brought before him,

and said to him: You see, Victor, what great torments

await you, if you do not sacrifice? S. Victor

replied: These torments, which you wish to inflict on me,

are nothing: he is drenched with molten lead, but greater ones will be prepared by my God for you

on that day of just judgment. Then the Emperor Maximian,

bearing this with indignation, that he had openly blasphemed,

ordered lead to be brought and to be melted, and

his whole body to be drenched. And when he was drenched,

thus he prayed to the Lord, saying: Lord Jesus Christ,

for whose name I sustain these things, help me and

free me, just as you freed the three immaculate boys

from the midst of the burning fiery furnace, and confounded the tyrant;

so send now and free your servant, without any harm. that Maximian

with his attendants may blush. And immediately

an Angel of the Lord was present, who made the lead so cold,

as if water lifted from a fountain, and his body was not

burnt in any part. Then extending

his hands B. Victor blessed the Lord,

saying: I bless you, Christ Jesus, son of the living God,

because you have deigned to have mercy on your servant, and have sent your

holy Angel, who has both cooled the lead,

and the wounds, which the impious Maximian inflicted on me,

has anointed with the ointment of your mercy. Then Maximian

began to be in stupor and all who were present, because

his body had not been burnt. Then S.

Victor said: I give you thanks, Lord God, father

of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has both cooled the lead,

and made me conquer horrid torments, do not

I beseech ^h make me to be overcome by these men.

[5] Then the Emperor Maximian ordered that he be led

to the gate which is called Vercellina: and while they were waiting

for what the Emperor would order, they rested there.

Then the soldiers who were guarding St. Victor fell asleep:

and rising St. Victor fled and hid himself ⁱ in

a stable before the theater. recovered from his hiding-place, Then the soldiers rising followed

him, and finding a little woman they asked

her, saying; Have you not seen a hoary man with torn garment

going this way? The woman replied,

and said: I have seen here a hoary man with torn garment

fleeing. The soldiers following along the way which is called

of the stable, came before the theater; and entering

into the stable, they found St. Victor hidden

before the heads of the horses. Then the soldiers ^k insulting

him led him out. Hearing this, Maximian,

that S. Victor had fled, was indignant with his soldiers,

and ordered other soldiers that he be led out of the city,

to the garden which is called of Philippus. But the Emperor

himself walking in the hippodrome of the circus, sent

to him ^l runners saying: Go, say to Victor: you have despaired

of your life, and you are unwilling to sacrifice: by the gods, if

you do not sacrifice, I shall make you undergo the capital

sentence. To whom S. Victor replied: Go, say

to your Emperor, what you are about to do, do quickly,

because I desire to receive my reward from God

my own, and condemned to death for whom I suffer these things, because it is time:

if it be pleasing to him, who gave me soul and spirit.

Then the Emperor Maximian ordered to be called ^m

executioners, and ordered them that he be led to the little wood which

is called at ⁿ the Elms, where the Emperor had his garden,

and there be beheaded. And when S. Victor was being led,

he said to the soldiers, who were leading him: Say

to the Emperor Maximian, that this year ^o he will die,

and when he is dead no burial will receive him,

unless his shins are broken. And when he had said these things

they came to the place, and he made his prayer saying:

I give you thanks, he is beheaded. Lord Jesus Christ, because you have not

separated me from your Saints, my fellow citizens [p] Nabor

and Felix. I bless you and give you thanks unto all

ages of ages. Amen. The prayer being completed

his head was cut off by the executioner.

[6] Then the Emperor ordered, that no one should bury his

body, that it might be devoured by beasts. And after six days

the Emperor sent his Quaestor with soldiers, The body preserved by beasts

to see if already by beasts or serpents it had been

devoured. Going however they found his body

intact, and in no part contaminated, and two

beasts, one at the head and the other at the feet, guarding

the body of S. Victor: and returning they reported

to the Emperor. Then the Emperor ordered that

his body be buried. After however permission had been given

that the body of the Martyr be buried, the Saint and most blessed

man [q] Bishop Maternus went, and found two

beasts, one at the head and the other at the feet, guarding

his body, and himself as if at that very hour he had been

beheaded. But the beasts, when they saw S. Maternus the Bishop,

gave place; and as long as they stood there,

until his body was lifted: he is buried by St. Maternus the Bishop: which

wrapping in linens, they brought not

far from that little wood, and buried him in peace. Then

Anolinus the Counselor ordered to be apprehended all

the recorders who were in the palace, and made them swear

by their Gods, that if anyone had any paper

or document, no one would conceal it. Then all swore

by the gods and by the safety of the Emperor that no one

would conceal it, and all the papers being brought, Anolinus

caused them to be burnt before him by the executioner: which deed

greatly pleased the Emperor. [r] Beheaded was

S. Victor on the Eighth Ides of May, and was buried by

S. Maternus the Bishop on the day before the Ides of May, with our Lord

Jesus Christ reigning with the Father and the Holy

Spirit, through all ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS.

ANALECTS

From St. Gregory Bishop of Tours book 1 of Miracles chapter 45.

Victor the Moor, Martyr at Milan (S.)

By his intercession captives are freed. Magnified at the city of Milan is Victor

the renowned Martyr, that he often releases

bound from prison-houses, and permits captives to go free.

Therefore at a certain time Apollinaris with

Victorius the Duke sought Italy, who they say at the city

of Rome was killed: and the inhabitants of the place held

Apollinaris as a captive, saying: You shall not see

your country, but worthy, as your satellite, you shall pay

penalties. Having threatened these things they sent him into

exile at the city of Milan. It happened

however that with the festival of S. Victor approaching, the people gathering,

he was also present at the vigils (for under free

custody he was kept released) and prostrated

before the tomb of S. Victor, when he had begun more earnestly to pray,

that the power of the Martyr might free him from this exile;

about the middle of the night going out from the church, he heard

one of the poor speaking to another and saying:

What do you think, O fellow-poor man, is the power of this

Martyr? I speak truly, nor am I deceived, that on this night

whoever a captive escapes by flight from his lord,

released he comes to his country, nor any longer thereafter shall be found.

These words of Apollinaris, as if an omen sent

by the will of God, receiving, again and again

prostrated to the tomb of the Martyr, he prays that aided by his power

he may be able to depart without impediment.

And soon calling a boy he ordered the horse to be saddled, saying:

Today we are to be released from the bond of this custody.

And ascending the heights of the Alps, with a multitude

of fellow travelers completed, they so passed through that by no one

were they questioned where they were going or whence they came.

And it is manifest that they were saved by the protection of the blessed Martyr from

this tribulation.