ON SS. VICTOR THE SOLDIER AND CORONA
MARTYRS IN EGYPT.
ABOUT THE YEAR CLXXVII
PrefaceVictor the Soldier, Martyr in Egypt (S.)
Corona the Matron, Martyr in Egypt (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR G.H.
[1] So noble a pair of Martyrs were SS. Victor and Corona, that they must of necessity be multiplied, on account of the many Churches which contend over their various Acts, patronage, and the sacred Relics of their bodies. We gave some specimen of this matter on the XX day of February, where we reported SS. Victor and Corona Martyrs, but whom we could attribute to no certain place, every decision having been deferred to this XIV of May. Would that we could now furnish it with some satisfaction of the litigating parties! Furthermore this one thing we assert to each, The Latin Acts from MSS. that we, carried away by no favor of parties, labor for the unearthing of truth alone. Out of the various martyrdom Acts which we have collected, we judge the more certain to be, first, those which we obtained from the Roman MSS., preserved in the Vallicellan library of the Fathers of the Congregation of the Oratory of S. Philip Neri, and sent to us by Cardinal Caraffa: then those which we ourselves had described from the most ancient parchments of Trier, of the Imperial monastery of S. Maximinus, then those which we found in the Utrecht MS. codex of the Church of S. Salvator. We know that all these are also extant in the MSS. of Lætia in Hainaut and other Ardennian ones of the monastery of S. Hubert, but which we did not wish to have described for us, since the other three exemplars seemed to suffice, especially because we had noted that these had been contracted from the larger Acts. But we give fuller than all from the second volume of the Acts edited by Boninus Mombritius about two hundred years ago, and these we compare with the said other MSS. Greek versions were also found at the monastery of Grottaferrata in the Tusculan territory, The Greek versions are less approved. and rendered into Latin by William Sirleto, and edited under the name of Simeon Metaphrastes in Lipomanus, volume 7, part 2, and Surius on this XIV of May, and so they are cited by Baronius in the Notes to the Roman Martyrology. But because these were translated from the Latin by some younger writer and a monk of the said monastery, we judged that they should plainly be omitted, since they can be read in the said authors. And we wish that one consult what we said on the III day of April, concerning similar Acts found at Grottaferrata, in §2 to the Acts of SS. Agape, Chionia, and Irene.
[2] The memory in the Fasti of S. Jerome, The sacred memory of these two Martyrs on this XIV of May is inscribed in the ancient copies of the Hieronymian Martyrology in the first place, in these words: In Syria, of Victor the soldier and of Corona, who suffered together. The Venerable Bede in his genuine Martyrology, edited by us before the 2nd volume of the Acts of March, from the said Martyrology prefixed these words: In Syria; the remaining words he took almost entirely from the ancient Acts, which we have promised to give from Mombritius, and in this manner he has rendered them to us more certain, as to the great antiquity necessarily to be attributed to them under such a witness. Wherefore receive that elogium here, that you may be able to compare it with the said Acts: On the same day, in Syria, the birthday of Victor and Corona under Antoninus the Emperor, of Bede, Sebastian being Duke of Alexandria. Now Victor was a soldier from Cilicia, whose fingers Sebastian ordered to be broken in his confession of the faith and torn from the skin. Then he ordered him to be cast into a furnace of fire, where, remaining for three days, he was not harmed. Then, ordered to drink poison, he did not die: but rather converted the poisoner to the faith. Then it was ordered that the sinews of his body be removed: then boiling oil to be poured upon his private parts. After these things he ordered burning lamps to be applied to the sides of him hung up. After this vinegar and lime to be mixed together and given him in his mouth: then his eyes to be put out: then for three days he was ordered to be hung by the head; while he still breathed, he ordered him to be flayed. Then Corona, since she was the wife of a certain soldier, began to call B. Victor blessed for the glory of his martyrdom. While she was doing this she saw two crowns fallen from heaven, one sent to Victor and the other to herself. And when she also protested this in the hearing of all, she was seized by the Judge, and it was ordered that two palm trees be bent toward each other, and that Corona be bound with hempen ropes on each hand and each foot, and the trees thus be let go. While this was being done, Corona was divided into two parts: now she was sixteen years old. Then likewise Victor, beheaded, also merited the triumph of perennial victory. Thus Bede, of Rabanus, Ado, Usuard, etc. which things almost the same have Rabanus, Ado, and Notker, and from thence Usuard excerpted some, but with the phrase little changed they are read in today's Roman Martyrology. There agree the author of the Martyrology printed under the name of Bede, Bellinus, Grevenus, Maurolycus, Molanus, Canisius, Galesinius, and others in Martyrologies written by hand and printed in type. Peter de Natalibus, in book 4 chapter 168, asserts that the elogium which he edited belongs to Ado in his Martyrology, taken from B. Jerome. But a greater encomium from their deeds, which we said were given here, Vincent of Beauvais edited in book 10 of the Speculum Historiale, chapter 107, of Vincent of Beauvais, and almost the words of this man S. Antoninus transcribed in the first part of his Histories or Chronicles, title 7, chapter 6, §9, except that in this latter S. Victor is said to be from Sicily in both Lyons editions of the year MDXXVII and MDLXXXVI; whereas in Vincent, in the Venetian edition of the year MDXCI and the Douai one of the year MDCXXIV, is read S. Victor the soldier from Cilicia, as it is held in all the Latin Acts and the cited Martyrologies.
[3] In the Greek Acts, adorned by a monk of Grottaferrata, S. Victor the soldier is said to be Italian by birth, but these things could seem wrongly transferred from Sebastian the Duke to Victor. For on the XI day of November, on which the Greeks venerate them, in the Menologium of Basil the Emperor these things are read: Victor, under Antoninus the Emperor and Sebastian the Duke in Italy, in the Menologium of Basil was apprehended, and since he could not be brought to deny Christ, the joints of his limbs being first dislocated, he was cast into a furnace: then a deadly drug, which had been offered to him by a magician, being drained, and affected by no harm at all, he converted the magician to Christ. But his eyes being torn out, he was beheaded. But holy Stephanis, or Corona, having beheld those torments, and having proclaimed the highest felicity of the saint, was apprehended, and bound to two palm trees, which had been twisted together by an immense straining of forces, and the bonds being suddenly cut, she was torn apart into two parts. Thus far there, which things are reported somewhat more fully from the Acts themselves in the printed Menaea and in Maximus the Bishop of Cythera; and the Menaea. but Sebastian is there said to be Duke in Italy, and S. Victor not beheaded, but stripped of his skin to have rendered his spirit to God. But S. Corona or Stephanis, having left her husband, to have been in widowhood: which things please less. Therefore Sebastian could have been an Italian, and Duke of Egypt appointed by Antoninus, at which time there was at Alexandria a certain Christian man from Cilicia, Victor the soldier. For, as is said in the Notitia of the Dignities of the Roman Empire, section 1, there were two Dukes through Egypt, of Libya and of the Thebaid: and below in the Acts toward the end S. Victor is said to have suffered with S. Corona, on the eighth of the Kalends of May at the ninth hour, under the Emperor Antoninus, the most impious Duke Sebastian acting in the Thebaid of Egypt, against the city which is called Lycos, by others Lycopolis, a city there formerly Episcopal in the province of the first Thebaid under the metropolis of Antinoë.
[4] But that they are said to have suffered on the VIII Kalends of May, suggests a way of loosening a knot difficult to disentangle, Whether one pair suffered in Egypt, another in Syria, namely how those who on this day, the XIV of May, are reported in the copies of the Hieronymian Martyrology to have suffered in Syria, are other than these who, on the said VIII Kalends of May, are reported in the same to have suffered at Alexandria—Corona, Victor with other companions; and Corona, who is everywhere celebrated as a Virgin, is reported without such a title in the most ancient transcript of Echternach. Concerning whom, on the day before, or the IX Kalends of May, in the Martyrology of Florus together with the genuine Martyrology of Bede edited by us, these things are read: In Egypt the passion of SS. Victor and Corona under the Prince Antoninus, of whom Victor, after the tearing out of his sinews and the pouring of fervent oil upon his private members, and after the wrenching out of his eyes, was hung downward, flayed, and thus beheaded. But Corona was divided by two trees. Thus far there. Whether therefore some Martyrs are to be said to have suffered in Syria, others in Egypt, who nevertheless were by the above-mentioned Martyrologies fused into one and the same pair of Martyrs, we leave to the judgment of others. In the Greek Acts they are said to have suffered on the fourteenth day of the month of December, in the city of Dermascus. But in regard to this they followed the Greeks,
and named Damascus as the arena of the Martyrdom, Baronius in the Annals at the year CLIV, Ferrarius in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, and in the Topography to the Roman Martyrology. and a third elsewhere, But just as in the assigning of the XIV day there was an error, so the city of Damascus could have been added at the discretion of the author. Different from these is a third pair of Martyrs, reported by us on the XX day of February, but, as we said, attributed to no place, and to each is assigned a sacred memory in the most ancient copies of the Hieronymian Martyrology and other ancient Fasti. Furthermore the diverse bodies of Saints of this name favor their multiplicity, which in various Churches from the most ancient times are preserved with the highest veneration, as we shall report below after the Acts themselves. Indeed Martyrs, called by the name of Victor, in the four prior months elucidated by us, or even more. are easily found to be sixty, and in this month of May very many Victors are celebrated. Why should not from time to time, even to some, whom the name of a woman suffering at the same time concealed, the appellation of Corona have pleased?
THE ACTS OF THE MARTYRDOM
edited by Mombritius and collated with several MSS.
Victor the Soldier, Martyr in Egypt (S.)
Corona the Matron, Martyr in Egypt (S.)
BHL Number: 8559
FROM THE MSS.
CHAPTER I.
The profession of faith. The breaking of the fingers. The casting into the burning furnace without injury.
[1] In those days, a persecution being made against the Christians by the Emperor Antoninus, in the times of Sebastian Duke of Egypt, there was at Alexandria a certain Christian man from Cilicia, by name Victor, a soldier, fearing God from infancy: to whom the Duke said: Victor, letters have come to me from Antoninus, commanding that the Christians sacrifice: S. Victor, invited to sacrifice, asserts himself a Christian: but those who refuse to sacrifice to the gods shall be in great condemnation. Therefore, Victor, sacrifice, lest your soul be endangered. Victor said: For I am a soldier of the great immortal King Jesus Christ: for the kingdom of this Antoninus is unstable and perishable: but the kingdom of my Lord Jesus Christ is ever stable and incorruptible, and has no end. Sebastian the Duke said: And you, belonging to our King, obey him and sacrifice to the gods. Victor said: I indeed served him, and I obeyed him: but because in my heart I worship my God, therefore the devil shall not conquer me. This alone know, that over my flesh you have power, but to destroy my soul you have not. God alone it is who has power to mortify and to vivify the body and the soul; to Him glory and honor, praise and dominion forever and ever. Sebastian the Duke said: I see that you have great wisdom in speech. Victor said: This wisdom is not mine: but the Lord gave it to me. prepared to endure any torments, Sebastian the Duke said: Deliver yourself from evil torments. Victor said: I for this gladly am tortured, and am the more strengthened: because God has deigned to bring me to this, that for the testimony of Him I might be able to be tortured, and to come into the hope of the eternal King. Sebastian said: Are you a lector or a Deacon, who have such eloquence in speech? Victor said: I was not worthy to have such grace, but the grace of Christ brought me to this. He it is who gives to the upright in heart, and to those who keep His commandments, wisdom and prudence out of His riches. As therefore the farmer, if he tills his field well, when the rain comes brings it to its fruits; so also the wisdom of God raises up all who hope in Him, and does not permit the enemy to come upon them; but rather brings them fruitful to God. Sebastian the Duke said: Is therefore now your thought rather to die than to live? Victor said: This is not death, but eternal life, if I shall persevere in this, enduring your torments. Sebastian the Duke said: This counsel therefore you have held? Victor said: Even so.
[2] Then Sebastian ordered his fingers to be broken, until they came out from his skin. Then S. Victor said: I give thanks to my God, because His grace has drawn near to me through my Lord Jesus Christ. Sebastian the Duke said: enduring the breaking of his fingers, he is the more strengthened. Acquiesce and sacrifice to my gods, that you may not die badly. S. Victor says to him: This I shall never do, that to stones and graven images, to which you yourself are like, I should sacrifice. But I sacrifice to the living God, who made heaven and earth, the sea and all things which are in them: to Him alone shall my soul serve: for to you I never consent. Then Sebastian, filled with fury, ordered him to be cast into prison.
[3] But on the next day he ordered S. Victor to be presented to him: to whom also he said: Why do you not accept your provisions? S. Victor answered: Because by force and unjustly it is exacted, therefore I will not accept nor eat. For I have my spiritual food, and I shall not hunger forever. unharmed in the furnace of fire Then the Duke, filled with anger, ordered him to be cast into a furnace exceedingly burning, that the fire might consume him. Then they, taking him, brought him to the place of the furnace. And looking up, S. Victor to heaven said: God of our fathers, hear me a sinner: because for Your sake I suffer these things: and grant me to remain whole in Your sight: preserve me from the fire which they have prepared for me: that those who have not known You may know that You are God. And signing himself with the sign of Christ he entered into the furnace: and he was glorifying the name of the Lord in the furnace of fire, saying: I give thanks to You, God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, because as You visited Ananias, Azarias, and Misael by sending the Holy Spirit, and freed them from the furnace of fire; so You have done also to me a sinner, and have not forsaken me hoping in You. But after three days the Governor ordered the furnace to be opened, after three days he is found. that they might collect his bones: and a multitude of soldiers gathered, and they heard him chanting praises to God in the furnace and giving thanks. But the soldiers, opening the furnace, saw him unharmed, and said to him: Come forth, the Duke calls you. But when S. Victor had come to the Governor, the Governor said to him: How have your magic arts thus prevailed, that the fire did not harm you? Tell me, in what manner by your sorceries you extinguished the fire? To whom he: I give thanks to my God, because I am not a magician, as you say, but a Christian I am.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER II.
The preservation from poison twice taken. The constancy of mind in the cuttings, the burning, and the flaying.
[4] Poison twice taken, he remains unharmed, Then he ordered a deadly poison to be prepared, and to be given in meats by a sorcerer, that he might eat of them. S. Victor said: I would not dare to touch the meats, unless trusting in the power of my Lord Jesus Christ: and therefore, that I may show you that I can dissolve all your sorceries, I both take of these meats, and praying I eat. And taking it he ate, and felt nothing evil. Then the sorcerer brought him other worse poisons and said: Eat now also: and if you shall eat, and shall have suffered nothing evil, I will abandon all my sorceries, and will believe in the God whom you worship. And B. Victor ate, and did not die. The sorcerer said to him: Hail to you, Victor: for you have conquered and have proved stronger than I, and have saved my soul perishing from hell, that henceforth I may live. For as a bronze statue grows old, he instructs the converted sorcerer. and at the last is wiped clean and renewed; so also man grown old in his sorceries God has converted through you, and has saved in His grace. And straightway that sorcerer burned all his books, and renounced all his substance. And S. Victor taught him concerning all things that pertain to the faith, and sealed him in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[5] After these things Sebastian ordered that they bring back before his sight S. Victor, to whom also he said: Victor, sacrifice to the gods, and be wise. S. Victor said: I have ever been wise. Sebastian said: But now you have become a fool. To this he: The foolishness of this world God has chosen, that He may make void your wisdom. Then Sebastian said: Constant in the faith, Where is it written? S. Victor said: B. Paul the Apostle said these things. Sebastian answered: Then is Paul God? S. Victor said: Paul is not God: but he is an Apostle of God. As a wise architect in the temple of God laid a foundation, which is built up in the completion of a fitting edifice meeting in Christ the corner-stone. Whence also he received wisdom from God with the fullness of the Scriptures, that he might show the way of salvation to those who wish to be saved. To whom Sebastian said: Refrain from that foolishness, and sacrifice to the gods: for these words are not useful to you. And Victor: I am not a fool, but I seek wisdom: for all are fools who listen to you and sacrifice to the gods, who themselves know not the true God: and as their father the devil, who from the beginning did not acknowledge the truth; so these are blinded in heart, and have not known the knowledge of the faith. Then the Duke, moved, ordered all his sinews to be cut off from his body. unmoved in the cutting off of his sinews S. Victor said: I in the name of my Lord Jesus Christ do not fear your torments. For a time do what you do, do not cease: but these torments cause me no pain. For as from the foot a thorn is removed, and after it all pain departs, and after these things comes rest; so also I, my sinews being cut off from my body, have rested exceedingly for the faith of Christ the omnipotent God. Again the Duke ordered boiling oil to be poured upon his private parts. S. Victor said: O wretch, why are you not ashamed, and with the pouring of oil, and do you not see how great is the power of my Lord Jesus Christ? For that burning which you prepare for me rather affords me refreshment; but for you it prepares an eternal punishment. O your unhappy madness! You do not recognize,
that to me the boiling oil is as water, which is given to a thirsty traveler, and he drinks that he may be refreshed; so also I am refreshed for the name of my Lord Jesus Christ.
[6] hung on the rack, and burned with lamps, Then the Governor, angered, said: Let him be hung on the rack. And when he had been hung up, he ordered burning lamps to be applied to his sides, and under the voice of a herald to cry out, and to say to him: Sacrifice to the gods, as by the Emperor it has been commanded. Then said Victor: Do not fail, wretch, with various torments; hypocrite, partaker with demons, do you think me to be terrified by these punishments? I do not fear your threats, because I have my Lord Jesus Christ, who strengthens me. And I will not hesitate to suffer punishments, awaiting those more desirable goods which have been promised to those who seek Him. And I bless You, Lord Jesus Christ, because trusting in You, I feel nothing of those things which the ministers of the devil have inflicted upon me. And so the impious Governor ordered, and is made to drink vinegar mixed with lime: vinegar and lime to be mixed together, and to be put into his mouth, and Sebastian added: Sacrifice: for I am much confounded in you. Saint Victor answered: Not your will do I do, but that of my God, that I may offer myself to Him a chaste sacrifice: since He has in His power my body and my soul. But the Governor, angered, ordered his eyes to be torn out by the executioners. Then S. Victor said to the Governor: Senseless one, do you hope to alienate me by these punishments from the love of my God and Savior Jesus Christ? But you cannot, because I have my strengthener and Savior, the same Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. If you have blinded the eyes of this body, by the inner light I shall see more with the eyes of the soul.
[7] hung head downward, Sebastian the Duke said: You compel me to lay upon you many worse torments. And he: I give thanks, he said, to my God, and however you wish, torture, sparing me nothing. I am prepared to bear all things, God giving strength. Then the Duke ordered him to be hung head downward for three days: b until his cartilages should draw blood to the ground. But the soldiers, as they had been ordered, left him hanging for three days: and after three days the soldiers came to see whether he were dead, or were still living. he enlightens the blinded ministers: And when they saw him alive, they were straightway made blind. Then S. Victor said: In the name of my Lord Jesus Christ, for whose love I am thus hung up, let your eyes be opened. And straightway their eyes were opened. And returning to Sebastian the Duke, they reported all to him. c
[8] ordered to be flayed Again Sebastian ordered him to be flayed. Victor the Martyr said: Even if you take from me the skin of my flesh and the garment of my bones, the garment of my soul you cannot take away, because I am clothed with faith and the love of my God. When therefore he was being flayed, and was placed in pain, with his eyes lifted up he thus poured forth prayers to the Lord, saying: Lord God omnipotent, my soul is placed in its departure, confirm me, and hear me, he implores the help of God: and have mercy on me: and let Your mercy come upon me, as upon all who have pleased You. Lord God, receive me, and forsake me not: neither despise me, my God: and cast me not from Your face, and desert me not in the time of my pain. And now I give thanks to You, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God: be present as a help to me Your servant, and aid me from these pains. Permit me not to be conquered by this most profane judge: for You know that for Your name's sake I suffer all these things.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAPTER III.
The Martyrdom of SS. Corona and Victor.
[9] S. Corona strengthens Victor with examples of the old law: Then a certain woman, the wife of a certain soldier, by name Corona, who was about sixteen years of age, cried out, saying: Blessed are you, Victor, and blessed are your works. Your sacrifice has been received, in the manner of the sacrifice of Abel: since you have offered yourself to God in sincerity of mind, and God has received you: in the manner of Enoch the just, you have been translated, that you might not taste the death of this world, until the time of the promise should come. You have been justified like Noah, perfect in his generation; and as he, so also you in all things are perfect and just. You have believed God like Abraham, who offered his son Isaac. You have endured persecutions like Jacob, whom Esau and Laban were persecuting. You have become like Joseph, who governed the inhabitants of the land of Egypt in the time of famine. You have persevered in the endurance of most steadfast Job, who bore many persecutions, until he conquered the assaults of the enemy. They have been zealous against you like Isaiah, who was cut through the middle. God has received your sacrifice, like that of the Prophet Samuel. You have become an odor of sweetness, like Eleazar in his priesthood. God has received you like Daniel. The fire did not touch you like the three holy children, Ananias, Azarias, and Misael in the burning which Nebuchadnezzar the King brought upon them, because they offered sacrifice to God. You have hoped in the Lord like David. You have received the wisdom of Solomon, until you conquered all the wrestlings and the circumvention of the devil. And when this woman had spoken these things, she added, saying: Behold, I see two crowns borne down from heaven by the hands of ten Angels: to you shall be given the greater, but to me the shorter. a Although frail, I do not fear the threats of the Duke; the kingdom of Christ, as one strong, I shall inherit.
[10] And when the Duke had heard her saying all these things, moved, he ordered her to be brought to him, and said: How many years old are you? To whom Corona said: I am sixteen years old. Sebastian again said: When were you married? To whom Corona: A year and four months ago. And he: Therefore, he said, come forth and sacrifice to the gods. Corona answered: I am called Corona Crown, constant in the faith and do you persuade me to lose my crown? To this Sebastian: Why do you so quickly strip yourself of adornment? Corona said: This I have considered with myself, to do away with temporal adornments by the glittering of the body, that I may be able to come to meet Him in whom I believe, Jesus Christ the immortal spouse. For an earthly spouse is temporal and mortal; but Jesus Christ is more indulgent toward the penitent, who is never dissolved. Sebastian the Duke said: Sacrifice to the gods. Corona answered: For this reason I do not sacrifice, that I may receive a crown from God. Then the Duke ordered two palm b trees to be bent down by the soldiers, and B. Corona to be bound with hempen ropes on each side by her hands and feet: and he ordered the soldiers suddenly to let go and divide. And when this was done, bound to the trees she is rent asunder. she was divided into two parts: and thus most wise and good Corona consummated her contest, faithfully fulfilling her martyrdom in the Lord.
[11] Then S. Victor said: I give thanks to my God, who has given me this constancy of my nobility unto the end. For he hastened his step, now soon to be crowned with victory: and stretching out his hands to heaven, he said: I give You thanks, S. Victor is beheaded. Lord Jesus Christ: because my strength has been consoled, and You have not permitted my soul to perish: but have given me the grace of Your name. And now, Lord, receive my spirit in peace. And when he said these things, the executioner struck him. And after S. Victor was beheaded, there went out from him blood and milk. But the peoples standing around all wondered at his sufferings unto the end: and many were increased in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. S. Victor the Martyr and B. Corona suffered on the eighth of the Kalends of May, at the ninth hour, under the Emperor Antoninus, the most impious Duke Sebastian c acting in the Thebaid of Egypt, against the city which is called Lycos, blessing God and our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.
ANNOTATIONS.
ANALECTA
Concerning the cult and Relics of these Martyrs in very many places.
Victor the Soldier, Martyr in Egypt (S.)
Corona the Matron, Martyr in Egypt (S.)
BY THE AUTHOR G. H.
[1] John Baldus, Canon Penitentiary of the Church of Osimo in Picenum, edited the Lives of the Illustrious Martyrs Victor and Corona, The bodies of SS. Victor and Corona are said to be first at Osimo, and of S. Leopardus the Bishop and of other Saints laid to rest in the Church of Osimo, which he inscribed to Augustine Galaminus, Cardinal of Ara Coeli and Bishop of Osimo, created in the year MDCXX. This author sets forth the said Lives of Victor and Corona in Italian through XI chapters, and to them subjoins the Martyrdom of B. Philip: and in them he treats of the translation of these bodies to the Church of Osimo, chiefly from the monuments of the Bishops of Osimo, collected by Gaspar Zachius, a man most cultivated in Greek and Latin letters, who, Secretary to Cardinal Bessarion, and familiar to Pope Pius II, by the latter was declared Bishop in the year MCCCCLX. But in this author's words, in the Life of B. Philip, Baldus thus writes concerning Gentilis the Bishop: The bodies of the eminent Martyrs Victor, Corona, and Philip, brought from Alexandria of Egypt to Numana, and then to Castel Ficardo, he led from that place to Osimo: and at greater length in chapter 10 of the Life of SS. Victor and Corona, in the words of the same Zachius, the same matter is thus set forth: In the year of Christian salvation MCXCV, formerly translated from Alexandria to Numana, thence to Ficardo, and to Osimo. in the time of Celestine III, there presided over the Church of Osimo Gentilis the Bishop, a magnanimous man. He the Church,
formerly humble and short, raised up, and made it almost twice as long: constructing the Holy of Holies with magnificent work, in it he placed the Episcopal seat of marble: and the high altar dedicated to the Mother of the Savior he erected, and beneath it assigned a place to the Relics of the Saints. He also brought the bodies of the eminent Martyrs Victor and Corona and Philip, conveyed from Alexandria of Egypt to Castel Ficardo, from that place to Osimo, which beneath the confession in a marble chest, set near the wall to the south, are honorably enclosed. Thus far there, which things, with the phrase changed, are read in Ughelli, volume 1 of Italia Sacra, in the Bishops of Osimo, and their bodies are said to have been brought from Alexandria of Egypt to the city of Numana, which is commonly called Humana, formerly Episcopal on the Adriatic Sea, overthrown by the Goths, between which and Osimo is Castel Ficardo. Louis Jacobillus, in volume 1 on the Saints of Umbria, on this XIV of May asserts that in the city of Humana a temple was erected to S. Victor, and that the translation to the city of Osimo is commemorated on the XVIII day of September, on which day also we shall say below that his memory is venerated elsewhere.
[2] Another place, famous for the cult and relics of these Martyrs, is Utriculum, or Otriculum, a city of Umbria near the Tiber in the diocese of Narni. It formerly had its own Bishops in the ancient city, now destroyed, about a thousand paces distant from the present one: where a Cathedral church is said to have been dedicated to S. Victor the Martyr, secondly at Otriculi and in it S. Fulgentius the Bishop (concerning whom there is treatment on May XXII) about the year DXL is said to have found the body of S. Victor, and to have constructed an altar over it, Jacobillus relates, on account of an ancient charter, brought from the ancient Church into the present Collegiate one, inscribed with these letters: With God's help, Fulgentius the Bishop, having found the body of the blessed Martyr Victor, in Christ's name constructed an altar over it. translated at various times, But in another parchment charter these things are read: From the temple of the Divine Victor on the Tiber, in the year of the Lord MCCCXVI, the bodies of the holy Martyrs Fulgentius, Elozymus, Nectarius, Leopardus, and Corona, translated, rest beneath this altar; where in marble this inscription is held: Here rest SS. Fulgentius, Lozymus, Nectarius, Leopardus, and Corona, Martyrs of Christ. But the body of S. Victor the Martyr, as Jacobillus there relates, was in the year MCCCLI on the V day of November, then a Sunday, from the Church on the Tiber dedicated to him, translated to the Collegiate Church of Otriculi sacred to the Virgin Mother of God, and beneath the high altar with the bodies of the other Saints deposited. His head is preserved separately there, and on his birthday is carried in a solemn procession through the territory of Otriculi. Moreover among the other Relics of this Church there is held in veneration a part of his finger. Images also of SS. Victor and Corona, and the mysteries of their martyrdom, are seen in the same Church; and their feast from the most ancient times is celebrated in the town and territory of Otriculi, concerning which these things are read in the Martyrology of the said Church: and celebrated with solemn memory until now. On the XIV day of May. Of the Holy Martyrs Victor and Corona, Protectors of Otriculi, a feast of precept. On the XXX of May, the Dedication of the altars of SS. Victor and Corona. On the third Sunday of May, the Translation of the bodies of the holy Martyrs Fulgentius Bishop of Otriculi, of Corona, etc., Protectors of Otriculi, made in the year MCCCXVI from the Church of S. Victor to the Church of S. Mary within Otriculi. On the XIV of July, the Dedication of the Church of S. Victor the Martyr. On the fifth day, or on the first Sunday of November, the Translation of the Body of S. Victor, made in the year MCCCLI by R.F.F. Augustine Bishop of Narni in the Church of S. Mary of Otriculi.
[3] Thus far there, which things please more than certain Acts furnished by Jacobillus, and described by him from an Otriculi MS.; in which S. Victor the soldier is said to have come from the province of Cilicia into the city of Otriculi, Did they suffer at Otriculi? to have strengthened forty-six Martyrs amid torments, and after the completion of their martyrdom to have hidden their bodies, and to have carried them on his own shoulders, and to have buried them in a crypt near the city; and therefore to have been seized and led to Sebastian the Duke, and then the rest is appended from the Acts already given. But those things, necessarily said of another Martyr, and perhaps also a Victor, were accommodated to these Acts. We have from the Utrecht MS. of S. Salvator a Sermon on the Martyrdom and translation of SS. Victor and Corona from Otriculi to Aachen: in which these are reported to have been found at Otriculi by Cyrinus Governor of Italy, and tortured with various torments and slain, and finally buried in the ancient city. Where Lozinius a boy is narrated to have been raised from death, another, dumb and blind, seized by a demon, and a leper and a lame man cured. But Otriculi having been devastated, they had unlocked the bodies of these Saints buried in a mean place, and the bodies brought to Aachen by the Emperor Otho? which Otho the Emperor, crowned at Rome, had carried to Aachen: where in the chapel of S. Mary built by Charlemagne, each one beneath the altars they were deposited, and there, by the grace of God assenting, many miracles of healing were performed. Which things again seem to have been said of other Martyrs.
[4] The third place, famous for the Relics and cult of these Saints, is the Episcopal city of Feltre, in the March of Treviso, on the confines of the territories of Trent and Venice, situated above the high mountains of the Carni. There, says Octavius Cajetanus, the bodies of the Saints Victor and Corona were deposited in a temple, which to S. Victor outside Feltre, about two miles distant, Thirdly at Feltre was constructed and dedicated, where their birthday is venerated on the day before the Ides of May: but the festal day of the translation is kept on the XIV Kalends of October with a great concourse of people flowing in, at which time the illustrious merits of the Holy Martyrs are shown by frequent miracles from God. in a chapel which, built in 1096, Nor only in the City of Feltre, but through the whole Diocese is that translation celebrated. The chapel, in which the bodies of the Saints Victor and Corona were first deposited in the ground, John of Vidor, illustrious in fame, in the year after the birth of Christ MXCVI adorned: which by his son Arbo, the same being Bishop of Feltre, within five years was dedicated. Thence raised into a chest; which was opened, when Charles, the Fourth Emperor of this name, was held by the desire of seeing them. At last in the year MCCCCXLVIII, enclosed in a leaden coffin, they were placed in magnificent marble. We subjoin the inscriptions which testify to the things said before.
[5] The first inscription, in the Chapel of the holy Martyrs Victor and Corona, on the back. From the beginning of the public redemption, in the year MXCVI, in which there was a fall of stars, and also a movement of Christians against the Pagans, John of Vidor, as mighty in heart and arms as in riches and glory, the honor of his country, worn out with old age, founder of the hall, on the XVI day of September, by his son Arbo the Pontiff, was commended to the Most Blessed Martyrs Victor and Corona. The second inscription, on the back of the chest of the holy Martyrs. In the year MCI from the Incarnation of the Word, on the II Ides of May, and consecrated in the year 1101 the Emperor Henry Caesar III, this Sanctuary was dedicated to God of heaven Himself, and to the Blessed Mary ever Virgin, and here are contained the relics of the Apostles Peter and Paul, of Philip, James, Stephen the Protomartyr, Stephen Pope and Martyr, Marcellinus and Peter, and of the holy Soldiers of Christ Maurice, Marcellinus, George, and Christopher, and of the Blessed Martyrs Victor and Corona, whose bodies here below rest in Christ Jesus, Arbo, the unworthy Pontiff, dictating. The third inscription. In the year of the Lord MCCCLV, the XXVI of May. where in the year 1355 placed again in a tomb, Charles the Emperor reigning, the Prelate James, Bishop of Feltre and Belluno, presiding, the bodies of the illustrious Martyrs Victor and Corona were placed again in this tomb, and seen by the said Emperor. The fourth inscription, around the chest of the holy Martyrs. and in 1448 enclosed in another tomb. In the year MCCCCXLVIII in the month of March, in the III Indiction, the bodies of the holy Martyrs Victor and Corona we have religiously raised hither from the earth, which are enclosed in lead and double marble, the most Illustrious Senate of Venice ruling, the Prelate Henry Scarrampo of Asti, the Praetor Louis Fuscarenus, an interpreter of both Laws.
[6] Thus far those inscriptions, of which the first and second are printed in Ughelli, volume 5 of Italia Sacra, in the Bishops of Feltre, and the eighth of these, Arbo son of John of Vidor: but all are held in Octavius Cajetanus, volume 1 on the Lives of the Sicilian Saints, in the Animadversions on the martyrdom of SS. Victor and Corona; whom he attempts to claim for Sicily, relying on certain Acts preserved in an MS. codex at Feltre at the monastery of S. Jerome, That they suffered in Sicily and thence the bodies were brought, which he himself edited, but with the diction a little changed. That history is the same which we edited above, but out of someone's mere good pleasure, at the beginning and end some things are twisted into another sense. This then is the exordium: The Emperors M. Aurelius and L. Verus reigning, Victor a Christian soldier was acting in Sicily, at which time Sebastian presided over the island. He, having received the mandate of the Emperors against the Christians, orders Victor to be set before the tribunal, etc. But toward the end these things are held: B. Victor's body was brought from Sicily into the city of Feltre by his own people. For confirmation Cajetanus adds some authors, namely S. Antoninus, who described his elogium from Vincent of Beauvais: but where this latter has Cilicia, by the error of the copyists it seems to have been written Sicilia. Then Peter de Natalibus, who, as we said above, in book 4 chapter 168 gave the elogium of these Martyrs from Ado, asserting they suffered in Syria on the day before the Ides of May, then in book 8 chapter 89 sets forth the same elogium more at length, and says they suffered in Sicily on the XIV Kalends of October: from which it is clear that this Author thrust forth diverse things about the same persons, as he found them in diverse writings, without any examination: would that he had done so in these alone! Here the Greek word Stephana deceived him, which he did not think to be called in Latin Corona, as also Galesinus, while he follows Peter de Natalibus. it is asserted on plainly slight authority. More accurate were Grevenus in the additions to Usuard, and Canisius in the German Martyrology, asserting that Stephana is called in Latin Corona, and is venerated on the XIV day of May: on which day also the people of Feltre celebrate their birthday, and the feast of the translation on the XVIII day of September.
[7] To the foregoing Cajetanus adds James of Genoa, whose Legend of the Saints or Lombard History, with the adjoined Legends, we have printed at Cologne in the year MCCCCLXXXV, and at Strasbourg in the year MCCCCXCVI, as also another supplement printed at Milan in the year MCCCCXCIV, but everywhere without mention of these Martyrs. Cajetanus perhaps had some later edition, into which some interpolator inserted the elogium of these Martyrs, which however, whether it be so or not, matters little; since not even the Genoese Legend itself is of any authority. Finally there are alleged Menerbius the Camaldolese Abbot and M. Marulus; as though these asserted that they suffered at Messina in Sicily: of these I have not seen Manerbius. Marulus, in book 5 chapter 6 cited, treats of S. Stephana and Victor, but without mention of Messina, having nevertheless imitated Peter de Natalibus in Sicily
writes that they suffered. Finally Philip Ferrarius is alleged: but he in the general Catalogue, on the XVIII of September, reports SS. Victor and Corona Martyrs and Patrons of Feltre, and in the notes asserts they suffered in Syria, not in Sicily, as is read in Galesinius: and the same he asserts in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy on the XIV of May. These things it pleased to set forth, on account of Cajetanus, asserting that several commemorate at Messina in Sicily a Victor and Corona slain for the faith, rather than in Egypt or Syria; that it may be clear what sort these are. We have the proper Offices of Sicily and chiefly of the Church of Messina, printed at Messina in the year MDCXXIV, but without any mention of SS. Victor and Corona Martyrs.
[8] Therefore these being set aside, we admit the Inscriptions themselves above reported, and those which are held in the third are confirmed from the deeds of Charles IV the Emperor, who, as the Cortusii authors, his contemporaries, narrate in book II chapter 1, in the year MCCCLIV, Indiction VII, on the XIV day of October, rode from Bohemia to Udine: The head of S. Victor given to Charles IV the Emperor. who, passing through Sacile, Conegliano, Feltre, on the first day of November entered Bassano. In his retinue was the Patriarch of Aquileia, his brother: whose diploma concerning the Head of S. Victor then given to Charles the Emperor, which is preserved in the archive of the Church of Prague, described from the autograph, Fr. Theodore Moretus of the Society of Jesus sent us from Prague in the year MDCLIV, he being then Rector of the college of Glatovia, in these words. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. The glorious God is glorified in the veneration of His Saints, when the Relics of those, the hairs of whose head He promised should not perish, are cultivated by the faithful of Christ with worthy devotion, and especially by those whom, by the highest providence, He has girded with the sword of justice for the protection of His Church and the governance of the commonwealth, and for the strengthening of the Catholic faith has clothed with the breastplate of providence and temperance, and with the comeliness of faith, hope, and charity, has surrounded with the shield of fortitude. Be it known therefore, We, Nicholas, by the grace of God Patriarch of the holy See of Aquileia, wish to be known to all, that when the Most Serene and Most Victorious our Lord, the Lord Charles, by the grace of God King of the Romans ever Augustus and King of Bohemia, came to the city of Feltre, the same Prince, most illustrious, most devout, kindled with zeal, humbly visited the holy Church of Victor the Martyr, situated outside the walls of the same city not far off on the hills, in which the same Martyr shines with famous miracles. Where the Prince himself, the most sacred Relics of the said Martyr being found, although by the fullness of his power it was lawful for him without contradiction of anyone to take them, humbly besought that the Head of the said Martyr Victor, in fact and in name, be given to him; not that this light be darkened under a bushel, but that, the flame of so great a brilliance and light being spread by the pious King, the same Martyr be venerated also among foreign nations. And since a Head of this kind, besought with such great prayers and bought with the price of devotion, could not nor ought to be deservedly denied to the Ruler of the World, with the unanimous consent and assent of the beloved sons in Christ, the Dean and Chapter of the Church of Feltre, subject to us by Metropolitan right, and through the same Dean and Chapter, the Episcopal See being then vacant, with the applause of the whole people of the same city, it was delivered to the aforesaid Prince. And that this may the more truly be believed by all, and not denied by rivals, we have ordered these our letters by Metropolitan authority to be made in testimony of the premises, and to be strengthened with the protection of our pendant seal. Given in our land of Sacile of the Aquileian Diocese, on the first day of the month of November in the year of the Lord's Nativity one thousand three hundred fifty-four, in the seventh Indiction. Thus far the diploma.
[9] Then, appointed on the XI Kalends of December Bishop of Feltre and Belluno, was James de Bruna, who in the next year MCCCLV, on the XXVI day of May, placed again in a new tomb the sacred bodies of SS. Victor and Corona, before, toward the end of October of the preceding year, seen by the said Charles. But he, having set out thence to Rome, with his wife, was crowned Emperor with a golden crown on the V day of April, on the feast of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ; and thence, about to return into Bohemia, was at Pisa on the XXVI day of May, and in the month of June, making his passage through Lombardy, entered the valley of the Valcamonica, and thus through Germany returned to Prague, as these things are indicated in the Cortusii. and at Prague deposited with his arm-bones Thomas of Czechorod, Dean of Prague and Bishop of Samadria in Hungary, in the Diary of the Relics of the Metropolitan Church of S. Vitus at Prague, on this XIV of May, has these things: The head of S. Victor the Martyr, brought by Charles from Feltre out of Italy in the year MCCCLV, and with the Relics of S. Corona. in which he returned. He adds also an arm, and: On the same day, of S. Corona the Martyr, who was the companion of his passion, and is called by another name Stephana: whose Relics, as also those of S. Victor, are placed in the tomb of the Divine Vitus. In the MS. Martyrology of the said Church of Prague, on this XIV of May, these things are read: In Syria, of the holy Martyrs Victor the soldier, whose head and arm Charles the King gave to the Church of Prague, and of Corona, formerly called Stephana, under Antoninus the Emperor… whose bodies are in the tomb of S. Vitus.
[10] Nor is this the end of those who glory in the possession of these Martyrs, each rather arrogating a right to himself. Among these also is, in the cemetery of Calepodius on the Aurelian Way, the famous Church of S. Pancras, as we said on May XII at his Acts. Beneath the altar of this Church, The same bodies are said to be at Rome. set in the left nave, formerly were deposited the bodies of SS. Victor and Corona the Martyrs, the ancient tradition there is: but in the year MDLXX, when that altar had been translated from the left nave by command of Pius V the Supreme Pontiff, by Ptolemy Gallio the Cardinal they were at the same time translated, and again beneath it placed again. Octavius Pancirolius, in the Hidden Treasure of the city of Rome, region 8, church 6, judges that in the third year after their martyrdom they were translated hither, because S. Victor is read in the Greek Acts to have foretold similar things concerning the translation of his own body. Concerning the same sacred bodies preserved there treats also Pompeius Ugonius in the History of the Roman Stations, chapter 54.
[11] Finally Philip of Bergamo, in book 6 of the Supplement of Chronicles, treating of the city of Rimini, writes these things: Adorned moreover is this very city by S. Gaudentius its own Bishop and by S. Victor the Martyr and holy Corona the Virgin and Martyr, and at Rimini. namely by their patronage and relics. S. Gaudentius is venerated on the XIV day of October, to whose honor a temple, in which his sacred body was deposited, with an illustrious Abbey erected near the city, is extant, and several relics of Saints are honorably preserved in it: concerning which a little book is extant, written by command of Joachim the Abbot, and to us transmitted by Fr. Francis Via, Rector of the College of Rimini of the Society of Jesus, to be edited with the Life of S. Gaudentius: but Ferdinand Ughelli forestalled us in volume 2 of Italia Sacra, when, treating of S. Gaudentius among the Bishops of Rimini, he inserted the same little book into it. Therein are indicated the Stations of the Church of S. Gaudentius, where the fifth station is in the chapel of S. Corona, and in it a stone altar with a sepulcher likewise of stone; in which is the body of S. Corona the Virgin… The eighth station is in the chapel of the holy Martyrs Valentinus and Victor, where there is a stone altar, and next to it behind is a stone sepulcher: in which are the bodies of the aforesaid Martyrs Valentinus and Victor, which were there wonderfully found with the body of S. Gaudentius, and there placed again in a marble sepulcher, with the greatest honor and with hymns and spiritual canticles. Thus far there. Among the Patrons of Rimini is S. Julian the Martyr: whose Acts, to be edited on the XXII day of June, the said Francis Via transmitted: to which Acts this title is held: There are other bodies of the Saints of Rimini here to be noted, and in the first place are reported those of S. Victor the Martyr and S. Corona the Virgin and Martyr, and the Supplement of the man of Bergamo indicated above is cited. Meanwhile no mention of their cult is held in the Calendar of the Church of Rimini, accustomed to be printed yearly, nor in Ferrarius among the Saints of Rimini. But his cult could have persevered in the monastery of S. Gaudentius. Wherefore, since the birthday is unknown, it pleased to suggest these things here.
[12] Some MS. codex on the Lives of the Saints was formerly with Leo Allatius, The cult among the Sienese, the Dijon people, and the Compostelans, in which among other things was noted, The Passion of S. Victor and Corona, Patrons of the Church of Siena. But the Acts of the Martyrdom themselves seemed the same as those which we indicated above to be held in various MSS. At Dijon also in Burgundy the feast of SS. Victor and Corona under the rite of a greater double on this XIV of May is celebrated in the collegiate Church of S. Stephen, and the Lessons of the second Nocturn are taken from the Acts of the martyrdom edited by Lipomanus and Surius. But what cause in these and other Churches, which we do not care to investigate all, has promoted the patronage or cult of these, we do not know. Both are venerated under a double rite in the Church and diocese of Compostela, because the Head of some S. Victor is preserved in that Church. In the Picentine and Amalfitan Duchy, Scala, an ancient city and formerly ample, among the people of Scala, S. Stephania, as appears from its ruins, on the shore of the sea is situated, which, nearest to Amalfi, is distant from Ravello by only one mile. There is there a Church of S. Stephania, from which two bones of S. Sabina with other Relics were formerly translated to the Cathedral Church of S. Lawrence. But Constantine, of the Afflitto family, Bishop of Scala, in the year MCCXIV dedicated the altar of the Church of S. Michael, near the Church of S. Stephania of the right of patronage of his own family. These things at greater length are read in Ughelli, volume 7 of Italia Sacra, in the Bishops of Scala: but Ferrarius in the general Catalogue, on the XVIII day of September, asserts whom Ferrarius believes to be S. Corona. that S. Stephania the Virgin and Martyr is venerated in the city of Scala, and a Parish Church dedicated to her: and judges her to be the same as S. Corona; who on the said XVIII day of September, as we said above, is venerated with S. Victor in several Churches. Concerning her then more accurately is to be treated, especially if some ancient monuments are supplied.