Vidicus the Forlorn

Vidicus lived many hundreds of years ago and had a life
plagued with misfortune and disaster. According to the tales,
he was a Rogue Trader---unusual stock for a saint. He is said
to have explored great areas of the sector single-handedly,
pushing back its boundaries. During this time, it is said he was
a greedy and petty man, who sought only to exploit the worlds
he discovered and expand his wealth and power. Like many
men in such stories, an unfortunate event taught him the error
of his ways and brought him into the light of the Emperor.
In Vidicus’s case it was the abduction of his daughter by alien
pirates. He became driven to find her and scoured the sector
in his search. He also turned completely to the worship of the
Emperor and beseeched him for His guidance. What Vidicus
received, however, was one disaster after another. First, his crew
tried to mutiny and he was forced to lure them into a hold
and vent them to the void. Then, his ship became lost in the
warp and he was almost overcome by madness before he could
return to realspace. Later, he was captured by Orks and only
escaped by eating his own hands in an effort to impress his
captors.
The tales of Vidicus’s quest for his daughter are long
and numerous; however, they have two important morals. The
first is that no matter how forlorn the hope that he would ever
see his daughter again, he never stopped searching. The second
is that no matter what adversities the galaxy threw at him, he
never lost faith in guidance of the Emperor. Years after Vidicus
had vanished in his quest to find his daughter (whose name
has oddly never been recorded), a group of clerics wrote an
exhaustive treatise on his journeys and deeds. It was from this
that the Ministorum recognized his deeds and devotion to the
Emperor and raised him to sainthood. Even today there are few
worlds in the Calixis Sector that do not have a tale of Vidicus
and the time he visited their world seeking his lost child.
Though he has no cult, Vidicus has many worshippers.
Most people have been touched by tragedy at one time or
another or have embarked on a risky or foolish course of
action. At these times, they look to Saint Vidicus to preserve
them and give them hope. Likewise his shrines can be found
throughout the sector, often tucked away in the corners of
larger cathedrals, littered with small offerings and prayers.
Travelers also often pray to him to guide them safely to
their destinations and makeshift shrines exist to him on
many vessels. The saint’s name also appears in many common
phrases such as, “a Vidicus hope”, meaning something with a
very small chance of success, or “following Vidicus”, meaning
to obsess about something unattainable. Acolytes have also
been known to invoke the name of Vidicus in their missions,
sometimes scratching prayers to the saint on the inside of
their armor. It is often joked (though out of earshot of any
Inquisitors) that Vidicus would have made a good Acolyte.