St. Victorian
Victorian, Frumentius & Comps.
Feast day: March 23
Death: 484
Martyr in Carthage with four other wealthy fellow merchants, including Frumentius. Initially named proconsul by Hunneric, the Arian king of the Vandals, he was seized and put under pressure to convert to Arianism. When he refused, he was executed with the other merchants after being tortured at Adrumetum.
Died at Hudrumetum in 484. When Huneric succeeded his father Genseric as the Arian king of the Vandals in 477, the African Catholics were extended a degree of toleration. But in 480, he again began persecuting priests and virgins and by 484 extended his rage to simple believers.
Victorian, a wealthy Catholic of Adrumetum, was appointed proconsul by Hunneric. He always behaved with fidelity toward the king until the day Hunneric sent a message to him demanding that he conform to the Arian perversity of the Faith. Victorian immediately gave his answer: "Tell the king that I trust in Christ. If his majesty pleases, he may condemn me to the flames, or to wild beasts, or to any torments: but I shall never consent to renounce the Catholic church in which I have been baptized. Even if there were no other life after this, I would never be ungrateful and perfidious to God, who hath granted me the happiness of knowing him, and who hath bestowed on me his most precious graces."
Of course, Hunneric did not take this answer well. Victorian was subjected to torture, which he suffered with joy, ending in his martyrdom.
The Roman Martyrology records that four other wealthy merchants were martyred on that same day. The two of them were merchants of Carthage, both named of Frumentius. The other two were brothers of the city of Aquae-regiae, Byzacona, who were apprehended for the faith, and conducted to Tabaia. They had promised each other and begged God to allow them to suffer and die together. The persecutors hung them in the air with great weights at their feet. One of them, under the excess of pain, begged to be taken down for a little ease.
His brother feared that he might be losing the will to remain faithful. From his rack he cried out: "God forbid, dear brother, that you should ask such a thing. Is this what we promised to Jesus Christ? Should not I accuse you at His terrible tribunal? Have you forgotten what we have sworn upon his body and blood, to suffer death together for his holy name?"
These words encouraged the other: "No, no; I ask not to be released: on the contrary, add new weights, if you please, increase my tortures, exert all your cruelties till they are exhausted upon me."
They were then subjected to new tortures including being burnt with red-hot plates of iron, but miraculously their bodies bore no sign of scars or bruises. Finally, their tormentors left them saying: "Everybody follows their example, no one now embraces our religion"
Victorian, Frumentius & Comps.
Feast day: March 23
Death: 484
Martyr in Carthage with four other wealthy fellow merchants, including Frumentius. Initially named proconsul by Hunneric, the Arian king of the Vandals, he was seized and put under pressure to convert to Arianism. When he refused, he was executed with the other merchants after being tortured at Adrumetum.
Died at Hudrumetum in 484. When Huneric succeeded his father Genseric as the Arian king of the Vandals in 477, the African Catholics were extended a degree of toleration. But in 480, he again began persecuting priests and virgins and by 484 extended his rage to simple believers.
Victorian, a wealthy Catholic of Adrumetum, was appointed proconsul by Hunneric. He always behaved with fidelity toward the king until the day Hunneric sent a message to him demanding that he conform to the Arian perversity of the Faith. Victorian immediately gave his answer: "Tell the king that I trust in Christ. If his majesty pleases, he may condemn me to the flames, or to wild beasts, or to any torments: but I shall never consent to renounce the Catholic church in which I have been baptized. Even if there were no other life after this, I would never be ungrateful and perfidious to God, who hath granted me the happiness of knowing him, and who hath bestowed on me his most precious graces."
Of course, Hunneric did not take this answer well. Victorian was subjected to torture, which he suffered with joy, ending in his martyrdom.
The Roman Martyrology records that four other wealthy merchants were martyred on that same day. The two of them were merchants of Carthage, both named of Frumentius. The other two were brothers of the city of Aquae-regiae, Byzacona, who were apprehended for the faith, and conducted to Tabaia. They had promised each other and begged God to allow them to suffer and die together. The persecutors hung them in the air with great weights at their feet. One of them, under the excess of pain, begged to be taken down for a little ease.
His brother feared that he might be losing the will to remain faithful. From his rack he cried out: "God forbid, dear brother, that you should ask such a thing. Is this what we promised to Jesus Christ? Should not I accuse you at His terrible tribunal? Have you forgotten what we have sworn upon his body and blood, to suffer death together for his holy name?"
These words encouraged the other: "No, no; I ask not to be released: on the contrary, add new weights, if you please, increase my tortures, exert all your cruelties till they are exhausted upon me."
They were then subjected to new tortures including being burnt with red-hot plates of iron, but miraculously their bodies bore no sign of scars or bruises. Finally, their tormentors left them saying: "Everybody follows their example, no one now embraces our religion"
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