E02060: The Martyrdom of *Victor the Moor (soldier and martyr of Milan, S00312) is written in Latin, presumably in Milan, most probably between the 5th and the 7th c. It narrates the trial, torture, death and burial of Victor in Milan under the emperor Maximian.
Creators: name: Mpignot
Publisher: name: University of Oxford
Year: 2016
Subjects: History

description: The Martyrdom of Victor the Moor (BHL 8580-8582)<br><br>Summary:<br><br>§ 1: There is a great persecution of Christians under Maximian in Milan. A Moorish soldier named Victor is denounced to the emperor because he is Christian. The emperor summons him and interrogates him. Victor states his Christian faith. The emperor puts him in jail next to the circus, close to the Porta Ticinensis, to see whether he will change his mind, threatening to torture him if he does not agree to sacrifice. After six days in jail, without bread or water, the emperor orders that Victor should be brought to the circus and asks him again whether he has changed his mind. Victor again states his faith in Christ.<br><br>§ 2: Maximian orders him to be tortured and invites him again to sacrifice. Victor replies quoting Psalm 95 against idolatry. Maximian offers him great wealth and the position of magister militum in exchange for his acceptance to sacrifice. Victor again refuses and quotes Exodus 22 against idolatry. The emperor’s advisor Anolinus intervenes to try to convince Victor, without success.<br><br>§ 3: Maximian sends Victor to jail close to the Porta Romana. After three days, he is again summoned to sacrifice but still refuses. Maximian and Anolinus order Victor to be tortured, but he stays fast, praying to God. Maximian threatens him again and warns that he should not expect other Christians to venerate him as a martyr, because Maximian will make sure that his body will not be found. As Victor does not yield, Maximian sends him to jail and orders his feet to be bound to a pillar. <br><br>§ 4: Some individuals are sent by Anolinus to convince Victor in jail to sacrifice, but he rejects idolatry, quoting Psalm 96. The next day Victor is again asked to sacrifice by Anolinus but still refuses, because he does not fear any of the tortures he could face in comparison to God’s judgement. Maximian orders molten lead to be poured over Victor’s body. Victor asks God to be freed from this torture, evoking the three boys in the furnace (Daniel 3:23). An angel comes and cools the lead, which becomes almost as fresh as spring water, leaving Victor’s body unharmed. Victor thanks God with blessings, while Maximian and all those who witnessed what happened are amazed. <br><br>§ 5: Victor is brought to the Porta Vercellina on the orders of Maximian. As the soldiers keeping watch over Victor wait for the emperor's orders, they fall asleep; Victor escapes and hides in stables close to the theatre. Because a woman sees him, describing him as an old man with his tunic cut off, he is soon found in the stables. When the emperor hears about Victor’s escape, he orders that he should be brought outside the city to the place called hortum Philippi (the 'garden of Philip'). Again the emperor, who stays in the circus, sends runners to summon Victor to sacrifice, but he refuses, eager to receive God’s reward. The emperor sends executioners, ordering that Victor should be beheaded in the forest called ad Ulmos ('at the Elms'). As he is brought to be executed, Victor asks the soldiers leading him to tell the emperor that he will die in that same year and his body will receive no burial but his legs will be broken. Before being beheaded, Victor prays to God and thanks him: <br><br>Gratias tibi ago, Domine Jesu Christe, quia non me segregasti a sanctis tuis concivibus meis Nabore et Felice.<br><br>‘Thanks be to you, Lord Jesus Christ, because you did not set me apart from your saints, my fellow citizens Nabor and Felix’. <br><br>§ 6: The emperors forbids Victor’s body to be buried and six days later he sends his quaestor with soldiers to see whether the body has been eaten by wild beasts. However they find it intact, two wild beasts keeping watch over it, one at Victor's head, the other at his feet. The emperor orders Victor’s body to be buried. After permission is given to bury the body, the bishop Maternus finds it: the wild beasts leave only after the body is taken by him and wrapped in linen, then buried close by. Anolinus convokes all the notaries of the palace and asks them to swear that they will not hide any written document. They all swear, and, when all the documents are assembled, they are burned.<br><br>[The text then continues with the following note, included in Mombritius' edition but omitted in the Acta Sanctorum. Godefroid Henskens who wrote the preface in the Acta Sanctorum edition, discusses this note (Acta Sanctorum, Mai. II, 288) and note r) but considers the claim that the text was written by an eye witness to be deceitful (impostura) and therefore rejected it in his edition]:<br><br>Tunc et ego Maximianus, notarius Maximiani imperatoris, christianus ab infantia mea, juravi per paganismum eorum: et tamen per noctem cum luminaribus in hippodromo circi scripsi hæc, prout memoria potui retinere, quia ibi manebam: et adjuravi, ut siquis inveniret scripturam hanc, christiano viro non negaret. Haec omnia ego Maximianus oculis meis vidi, Deo teste et sancta Trinitate.<br><br>'Then I, Maximianus, notary of the emperor Maximian, Christian since my childhood, have sworn through a pagan oath; however, at night by the light of lamps I have written this in the circus; I was able to remember it since I was present there: and I have prayed as well that if anyone finds this writing, he will not refuse it to a Christian man. All these things I, Maximianus, saw with my own eyes, God and the holy Trinity are my witness.'<br><br>§ 6 (end): Victor was beheaded on the 8th of the Ides of May [= 8 May] and buried by Maternus the day before the Ides of May [= 14 May].<br><br>Text: BHL 8580, Acta Sanctorum, Mai. II, 288-290 (= Mombritius (1910), II, 630-632). Summary and translation by M. Pignot.