Saint Victor of Marseille

Among the pearls that formed this rich crown of holy Martyrs, the most hol y Victor shone wi très-saint Victor Roman soldier and Christian martyr in Marseille during the 3rd century. th a brighter luster, like a star that eclipses the splendor of other stars in the sky. The nobility of his origin, his more enlightened faith, his fervor and his reputation among us, and finally his glorious combat and the triumph worthy of his name that he won against a monster more cruel than the most ferocious beasts, against the bloodth irsty Ma Maximien Roman emperor associated with the persecutions. ximian, all contributed to making him famous. Maximian, indeed, more ferocious than the other tyrants, had just shed the blood of the Saints throughout the universe, and especially in Gaul. The all-too-well-k nown massacre of légion thébéenne Christian legion massacred under Maximian. the Theban Legio Agaune Site of the martyrdom of the Theban Legion. n, near Agaunum, had terrified the greatest number of Christians. Preceded by this terror, he arrived in Marseille. The impious one, according to the language of Scripture, came to crown his impiety and to complete, with his guilty life, the measure of his crimes. Indeed, a bloodthirsty executioner, as if he feared leaving a crime without burdening his memory with it, and counting as nothing all that he had done until then, he was seen almost immediately declaring, with a frenzied rage, war on piety; he condemned Christians, if they did not sacrifice to idols, to perish by the inventions of the most refined cruelty. Under this dreadful storm of persecutions, hearts were shaken and troubled; the invincible Victor alone dared to come forward to face the danger. Every night, with the solicitude of an army general, he traversed the camp of the saints; we mean to say that he went from house to house, strengthening the servants of God, and kindling in all hearts the love of eternal life and the contempt for a passing death.

Through these works of zeal, the happy victim destined for an imminent death prepared himself for the sacrifice. He is arrested; he is led before the tribunal of the prefects. They first seek to persuade him with gentleness not to despise the worship of the gods, and not to reject, along with the customary soldier's pay, the friendship of Caesar, for the worship of a man unknown and long since dead. But immediately, Victor, arming himself with the words of the Holy Spirit, proves to them with invincible strength that what they call gods are only impure demons. As for the pay for his services and the friendship of the emperor, he replies that, as a soldier of Christ, he rejects with horror any advantage that would be an insult to his King. Finally, he says, the Lord Jesus Christ is the all-powerful Son of the Most High God; out of love for man, whose nature he came to repair, he truly became a mortal man; if the impious put him to death, it is because he willed it; but by the power of his divine virtue, he rose again on the third day, ascended into heaven, and received over every creature an empire that nothing could shake. Thus Victor confessed his faith. His face was confident, and his voice had all the authority of a free word. Scarcely had he finished, when the crowd of onlookers raised an immense clamor toward heaven; all heaped insults upon the pious confessor of Christ. But, because he was an illustrious personage, the prefects decided that his case would be brought to the emperor's tribunal. Informed of everything, the emperor himself is transported by a fit of rage that nothing could suppress; he is impatient at the slightest delay, and orders the holy athlete to be brought before his tribunal.

The blessed Victor is therefore presented before the tribunal of an emperor boiling with anger. From all sides he is overwhelmed with monstrous accusations; they exhaust all the resources of cunning, all the terrors of threat, to force him to sacrifice to the demons.

The pref ect Aste Astérius Roman prefect in Marseille who judged Victor. rius complained thus to Maximian: "It has already been two months since this Victor, who is a soldier, refused to receive his pay and cried out that he is a Christian. Having been put in prison by my orders, he escaped secretly. I therefore want to know how he escaped from the military prison, although guarded by soldiers; for he went out every night, as I have learned. He could not have done so if he had not used sorcery." Upon hearing these accusations, Maximian said to Saint Victor: "Why do you not receive the customary pay?" — "Because I do not wish to fight in the world," replied Victor. — "How did you go out at night from the prison," asked Maximian, "despite the soldiers who were guarding you?" — "I did not go out in secret," replied Saint Victor, "but publicly and with the doors open; I did not go out to wander idly, but to visit the sick, which I have always been accustomed to do. God, who favors good works, seeing that an impious guard prevented me from going out, sent his angel who opened the doors, closed with care, and despite the vigilance of the guards, gave me the means to go out and enter freely."

The Martyr felt his courage strengthened upon hearing the threats made against him. He was as if accustomed to suffering, and could triumph over all torments. He did not fear being taken from the earth, and already saw himself counted among the citizens of the heavenly homeland. Animated by a sudden inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he confounded the barbarian emperor and all the judges who assisted him with rare prudence and great strength of soul. By simple and clear reasoning, he reduced the worship of idols to nothing, and proved publicly, with evident reasons, that Our Lord Jesus Christ is the true God.

Then the most impious Caesar, more cruel than a ferocious beast, more wicked than the serpent, yielded to the rage that transported him; the fires of Satan were kindled in his heart. He ordered the holy Martyr to be dragged through the whole city, after having tightly tightened his bonds. He intended thus to avenge by the ignominy of the punishment the insults done to his gods, and at the same time to terrify the hearts of the faithful. Scarcely was the sentence pronounced than the blind and barbarian crowd applauded with a great cry; and all rushed in pressing waves to enjoy the spectacle. While the athlete of Christ, his feet and arms bound, was dragged through the city, sacrilegious hands, tongues practiced in calumny, all, each according to his power, wanted to increase the torment; one would think oneself greatly guilty if one did not come to add to the insults with which he was overwhelmed.

When the blessed Victor, in this derisive and cruel spectacle, had satiated the curiosity of a barbarian people, he was brought back again, bloody and torn, before the tribunal of the prefects, and they redoubled their efforts to make him consent to deny Christ and to worship the false gods. They believed that the torments, the insults, and the cries of the people had fatigued his constancy and broken his soul, that he would no longer hazard what they called vain discourses, after having learned by a cruel experience to think of himself. That is why they reproached him bitterly for having insulted Caesar and the entire republic. Then they added that it was the last degree of madness, and the greatest of misfortunes, to despise the friendship and familiarity of all the gods and the invincible emperors; to sacrifice all the pleasures of the world, and glory and honor; and finally a good even sweeter than all these goods, the life of the body; and this for something that one has never seen; to provoke against oneself, without reason, the anger of men and of all the gods; finally, to run to death, especially when one must still purchase it with the cruelest tortures and plunge one's dearest friends into sorrow. Moreover, he should already know by experience how important it is for him to embrace a wiser resolution; he must not despise the gods whose majesty shines with such a bright luster in the temples, and whose benefits all men feel. Venerable antiquity has always adored them; the greatest princes honor them; and such is their power that, if they are propitious to us, all beings will be in joy, whereas if they were contrary to us, the world itself could not subsist. Furthermore, reason makes it his duty to renounce promptly a man who, during his life, was always very poor, and whose death demonstrated his impotence. If he does so, besides the advantage of escaping the perils that threaten him, they, his judges, promise to make him enjoy the intimate friendship of Caesar and the greatest honors. But if he rejects these favors, he will be made to enter immediately into that glory of his Christ, which no one has ever seen; but he will enter it by the road that Christ himself followed, through contempt, through the most frightful torments, by becoming the opprobrium and the abjection of all the people.

To these perfidious discourses, the Martyr, who had already emerged fully victorious from his first combat, suddenly became the organ of the Holy Spirit, with an intrepid courage whose constancy nothing could weary; strong in the power of God that sustained him, he replied in these terms to the speeches of his judges: "If it is only a question here of the alleged insults that I have supposedly made to Caesar and the republic, I declare that I have never harmed the republic, any more than Caesar. Never have I attacked the honor of the empire; never have I refused to defend it. Every day I offer with religious zeal sacrifices for the salvation of Caesar and the whole empire. Every day before God, I immolate spiritual hosts for the prosperity of the republic. But I believe that everyone would rightly regard it as the strangest madness to love a thing with such excess as to prefer it to another that is better. What will it be if this thing is of such a nature that you cannot possess it as much as you would desire; that even while possessing it, you cannot enjoy it without fear; and that finally, despite all your care, you cannot keep it? While the other, a hundred times better, which one sacrifices, allows itself to be possessed fully, as soon as one desires it, gives to the one who possesses it a joy free from all anxiety, because it knows no end and is subject to no failure; because violence will not destroy it and disgust will never make one repudiate it. That is why, according to the advice of a more enlightened reason and the judgment of all wise men, the friendship of princes, the pleasures of the world, glory, honors, the health of the body, the affection of parents and all other goods of the same nature, finally this temporal life itself which is not obtained by desires, which one does not possess without anxiety and which one could not keep for long; these goods, I say, in the judgment of all men, must be despised, if one compares them to the ineffable and permanent joys of eternal life, to the tender embraces of the Creator of all things. To love Him, this sovereign God, is to possess Him; and to possess Him is to enjoy with Him all goods. Do not be afflicted, therefore, for having renounced for a moment these advantages of the world; in exchange for this slight sacrifice, you will one day enjoy incomparably better goods. Torments, moreover, do not deserve that name; when they extinguish eternal punishments, they must be called salutary refreshments, and one must no longer call death, but divine drink, that which makes us pass from this world to the blessed life.

"There is nothing more senseless, I attest to your conscience, nothing more stupid than the one who, without reason, despises such a great good, to honor as a god, with all the zeal of piety, the manifest enemy of his life, knowing well that after his death he will receive as a reward only eternal death and endless torments that the tongue could not express. Is there indeed a crueler enemy of human life than the one who teaches to do, and persuades by his example, the most shameful actions and those most justly punished by the last torment by the laws of this world? And is it not teaching an action to order it to be recounted publicly, and to have its praises sung? Now, that is what your gods, your greatest gods, do. Their crimes, not only have they wanted them to be recounted in public; but they even have them represented on the theaters, sung and celebrated in the temples by the most magnificent praises.

"To whom among you is it permitted to ignore the disastrous rapines, and, as much as it has been in his power, the frightful parricides of the great Jupiter? Who does not know his innumerable attacks on modesty, his secret or public adulteries, fraudulent or violent? Are the cruelty of the queen of the gods, of the sister of Jupiter, and her incests with her brother, buried in oblivion? Is it not in broad daylight that the implacable ferocity of Mars, the turpitudes of an obscene Priapus, of an infamous Venus, are displayed? Shall I recall goddesses such as Fever and Paleness, and all that herd of similar divinities, that you yourselves call the wicked gods and enemies of the health of man? I am ashamed to speak of the gods Stercutius, of the goddesses Cloacina, and of a thousand other monsters, who reduce their unhappy worshipers to the shame of venerating sewers and drains, the worthy temples of such divinities.

"It is therefore evident that among all the enemies of men there are none more violent and more cruel than your great gods, whose majesty you have had to consecrate and strengthen by wood, stone, or bronze, which rats or birds soil every day in your temples. Their worshipers know their evil deeds, but have never experienced their benefits; and this unhappy antiquity of which you are proud has perished while honoring them. May it please heaven, therefore, that your princes sought to ensure a happier reign by making them disappear, since the favors of these gods deserve for those they protect to be justly condemned to death, while the more they are irritated, the more innocence, honor, and justice flourish in the world! Indeed, they can only show themselves propitious to those who resemble them, and not to those who are contrary to them; for between contrary things all union is impossible. Now, those who resemble them, sovereign justice from then on exterminates from this world with the most shameful disgrace; and even the mere equity of human conscience makes them hope for nothing after life but the torments of an eternal death, since there is no one, however senseless he may be, who would want to grant beatitude to crime. It remains, therefore, to conclude that, if they can never be happy, what awaits them after this life is eternal unhappiness in death. Thus, since your gods, natural adversaries of those who do not resemble them, are the mortal enemies of those who make themselves like them, it is established in the most evident manner that no one should honor them; their worship, once again, which is always an opprobrium for the living, having as a reward in this life and after death the most extreme of miseries. Moreover, there could be no reason to fear beings from whom one can only have to dread their good graces.

"But with what love and what veneration must we adore the One who, when we were his enemies, loved us first; who revealed to us the frauds of your infamous divinities, and to tear us from their yoke, clothing our human nature, without diminishing his divinity, showed himself God, but God made man remaining in our midst? We were poor, and to enrich us, He, the source of all wealth, embraced our poverty, making himself the poorest of us all. His life in the midst of men was for us the example of all virtue and all holiness; and, by his death which he had not deserved, he destroyed forever the death that we had deserved by our crimes; for your gods, or rather your cruel demons, by unjustly attacking the Innocent hidden under the veil of our infirmity, have justly lost their power over those they had chained by their deceits. Oh! how rich is this poverty that you insult! When He willed it, by a single command of his will, He filled several boats with fish, and satiated, with five loaves, five thousand men. Oh! how strong is the weakness that healed in his disciples all weaknesses and all infirmities! Oh! what a life-giving death is that which resurrected so many dead! And for fear that some doubt might arise in you about the truth of these miracles, look at how they were predicted from the beginning and confirmed by innumerable wonders of which every creature bears striking testimony.

"Oh! if you considered attentively how great is the One whom the whole world obeys, how perfect is the One in whom everything is desirable, in whom nothing can be the subject of blame, in whom everything is worthy of praise, whose charity welcomes all men and whose judgment no one avoids! What is holier than his life? truer than his doctrine? more useful than his promises? more terrible than his threats? What is surer than his protection? more precious than his friendship? more intoxicating than his glory? Among your gods, which one resembles him, or even deserves to be compared to him? All the gods of the nations are demons; but ours is the God who made the heavens. Thus the gods of the nations have been condemned to eternal fire, dragging with them their worshipers, according to what is written in a holy Prophet: Let the gods who have not made the heaven and the earth disappear from the earth. And elsewhere: Let those who adore statues be confounded; and again: You will cast them into the fire; they will perish in misery. But for the true God, the holy Prophet said: Our God is above all gods; what He willed, He did in heaven and on earth, and in the sea and in the abysses. That is why the same Prophet concluded: Blessed are those who fear the Lord and who walk in his ways; for faithful subjects share the glory of their king.

"That is why, full of confidence, we willingly accept death to bear witness to his name; and the example of our sufferings shows how certain our hope is. You, therefore, most illustrious personages, men of science, in whom a high spirit and a powerful reason dominate, suspend for an instant the inspirations of animosity and hatred, weigh in a just examination the reasons of both parties, and do not abandon yourselves any longer to your most mortal enemies, to demons who are damned and who damn you, by dishonoring you; the divine likeness that is in you makes your glory; do not sacrifice it to the obscene turpitudes of these gods, if you do not want to share their damnation. Obey the most holy, the most high, the most just, the most clement Creator; He is all-powerful, and He is your friend; if you listen to Him, his humility will exalt you; his poverty will enrich you and his death will give you life. Today He calls you by salutary warnings, He invites you by the rewards He proposes, so that you may soon be received into his eternal glory and enjoy his friendship forever."

After this speech by the Martyr, the impious judges, overwhelmed by the weight of his arguments, cried out: "What! Victor, will you never cease to philosophize? The choice is left to you: either appease the gods or perish by the most hideous death." Victor replied: "Since you can still make such a proposal to us, it is our duty to confirm by our examples what our words have taught. I despise your gods, I confess Christ. Subject me to all the tortures, gather against me all the torments." Irritated by these answers, the sacrilegious prefects disputed the barbaric pleasure of tearing the Martyr's body, striving to surpass one another in cruelty. Soon the quarrel grew bitter, they divided; Euticius was finally removed, and fate left to the other judge the pleasure he coveted of making a Martyr suffer. Asterius (that was his name) therefore immediately ordered the soldier of Christ to be stretched on the rack. The order was executed; but in the midst of these long and cruel tortures, Victor, lifting his eyes to heaven, asked for pious resignation from God the most merciful Father, to whom alone it belongs to give it. The most clement Jesus could not resist any longer; he appeared to his Martyr, holding in his hand the glorious standard of the combat, the trophy of victory, the cross. He came to console him. "Peace be with you, our generous Victor," he said to him; "I am Jesus; it is I who suffer in my Saints the insults and the torments. Fight as a courageous soldier, be strong and constant; I am with you to be your firm support in the combat and your faithful rewarder after the victory, in the bosom of my kingdom." At this voice of the Savior, all pain immediately vanished, and the torments lost their energy. Victor, his heart dilated by the joy that shone in all his features, celebrated the praises of his God; he poured out from his soul immense thanks to the divine consoler who had visited him.

However, the strength of the cruel lictors was exhausted, and they saw that they had gained nothing over a Martyr who abounded with joy in his sufferings. The iniquitous judge therefore had him taken off the rack and locked up, under the guard of soldiers, in the darkest prison. But the most merciful Jesus, remembering his promise, sent Angels in the middle of the night to visit his soldier. Immediately the doors of the prison opened of their own accord, the shadows were dispelled, and a celestial light brighter than day illuminated the whole prison. The Martyr, at this sight, trembling with gladness, sang the praises of the Lord with the angels who consoled him with ineffable sweetness. The soldiers, for their part, perceiving the brilliance of such a vivid light, prostrated themselves with respect at the feet of the Saint; they implored forgiveness and asked for baptism. Pressed by the circumstance, he instructed them in haste, had priests brought, and, that very night, he led them to the sea, had them baptized, and received them with his own hands as they came out of the sacred bath. The next day, early in the morning, the news of the conversion of the blessed soldiers Alexander, Felician, and Longinus spread; that is what they were called. At this Alexandre Roman soldier converted by Victor and martyr. ne ws, Maxi Félicien Martyr of Agen, brother of Primus. mian was i Longin Roman soldier converted by Victor and martyr. nflamed with fury, he published cruel sentences: Victor is the author of these conversions, his torture will be more terrible; as for the soldiers, they must sacrifice to the idols or be punished with death.

They were about to begin with the new soldiers of Christ; that is why Victor, before sending them to the combat, wanted to strengthen their courage, and spoke to them in these terms: "Generous companions in arms, O you, my glorious precursors in the struggle, it is now that courage is needed, now that all your constancy is required. You have just sworn fidelity to the emperor of heaven, know how to keep it for him as men of heart. The combat begins, here is the enemy. He wants, by a sudden attack, to surprise your inexperience in these struggles where you are entering for the first time. He hopes to find you defenseless and to glory in having taken from your hands the palm of victory. But no, beloved brothers, it is not from the hands of negligence and cowardice that you have received your armor; you have learned better how to know Christ. The combats are not foreign to you, you have not lost your title of soldiers; you have only changed your flag. Show our King, who has chosen you, to what soldiers he has entrusted his first line of battle; let the enemies who attack you learn to know you, let them feel that you have not degenerated. Your leader has shown great esteem for your valor when he entrusted to you, new recruits, the most important post, and relied on your courage for the first result of the struggle. Let not wars frighten you, you who have always learned war. Do not let yourselves be seduced by what perishes, when you already see before you the eternal goods. You have only to seize them with courage; it is the enemy ranks that must be crossed to have them. If the condition seems hard to you, think that these ranks, our King crossed them before you.

"It is not a foreign mouth, it is he himself who teaches us; listen: You will have to suffer in the world; but take confidence, I have conquered the world. To him then, to him, always with confidence, let your hearts and your voices address their prayers in the midst of the torments. If you invoke him with faith, his fidelity will not fail you; for he has made the promise to all his own by saying to them: Behold, I am with you until the consummation of the ages. Furthermore, I will give myself as an example of the truth of these divine words. While, yesterday, suspended on the rack, I was torn by intolerable pains, I implored with my tears our merciful Lord, and behold, immediately he appeared to me carrying in his hands the glorious sign of our redemption, and said to me: Peace be with you, Victor; fear nothing; I am Jesus, who suffers in my Saints their insults and their torments. At this voice, I felt such great strength spread through my whole being, that the tortures were nothing more to me. That is why, beloved brothers, remember him who has become your strength. With eyes fixed on the Lord Jesus, creator of all things, consider the road he followed, the end he reached; and do not let yourselves be frightened by the vain threats of mortals, when you have before you the society of the immortal angels which is promised to you. Suffer these tortures of an instant, in order to be able to conquer as victors immortal treasures. Formerly, you would have preferred to perish than to be defeated, although that death would have been for you the eternal death; today, I conjure you, do not refuse a victory that will ensure you a kingdom for all eternity."

However, satellites had been sent to seize and drag the blessed Victor to the Forum, with the generous soldiers whom his words had just armed for the combat. The noise of it spread, and immediately almost the entire city rushed to enjoy this spectacle. For some, it was a blind and senseless fury; others, animated by a better spirit, desired to see the struggle of the holy Martyr against the devil. The confused crowd of people who were running from all sides mingled in tumult; the air was filled with noisy clamors. From all sides, curses and insults were hurled against the holy Martyr; but he opposed to all these darts a courage all the more indomitable. The impious wanted to force him to recall to the worship of the gods the soldiers he had turned away from it. "It is not permitted to me," he replied, "to destroy what I myself have built." They therefore questioned the blessed soldiers Alexander, Felician, and Longinus; they persevered faithfully in the confession of Christ. Soon, by the order of the emperor, the sword severed their heads. Thus, by the sacrifice of their mortal bodies, they have conquered life for eternity.

When Saint Victor saw the blessed soldiers delivered to death, he begged the Lord, with a voice bathed in tears, to deign to associate him with their martyrdom and their glory, since he had been, after God, the author of their faith and the generous testimony they had just rendered to Him. The people, upon hearing him, immediately let out cries of fury, and blows rained down from all sides upon the glorious Martyr. For the second time, he was suspended on the rack and tortured cruelly with blows from sticks and ox-hide whips. But in the end, the executioners, defeated by his constancy, led him back to prison. He remained there for three days, persevering in prayer and commending his martyrdom to the Lord with great contrition of heart and abundant tears.

At the news of the blessed Victor's constancy, the cruel Caesar, like an executioner more furious than the others, and who had been reserved to strike the final blow, ordered his victim to be brought. In the interrogation, the Martyr, persevering in his faith, confessed the true God as he had always done. That is why fury and rage were unleashed once again against the soldier of Christ; threats, terrors, curses, and insults were renewed against him. However, Maximian had an altar of Jupiter brought to him. In a moment it was set up before him, and a sacrilegious priest was there, all ready for the sacrifice. Then the emperor said to the blessed Victor: "Burn incense, appease Jupiter, and be our friend." At these words, the generous soldier of Christ, inflamed with the celestial ardors of the Holy Spirit and unable to contain his zeal any longer, approached the altar as if to sacrifice; with a kick, he knocked it from the hand of the priest who was leaning on it and stretched it out on the ground. Immediately, the odious emperor had his foot cut off. The Martyr offered this limb to the Lord Jesus Christ, his God and his king, as a fragrance of a sweet odor, serving as the first fruits of the sacrifice of his whole body.

Finally, the moment arrived when he was to render his body and soul to the Lord. Following an order from the emperor, he was led toward a miller's millstone. He walked there with a joyful and alert step, as if he had not yet suffered anything. The cruel lictors, executing the sentence of the odious and barbaric tyrant, threw the body of the glorious Martyr under this millstone which was to crush him in an instant in its rapid rotation. The chosen wheat of the Lord was indeed crushed without pity; the blessed bones of the invincible Martyr were cruelly broken. But the machine was suddenly divinely overturned, and the Martyr appeared to still be breathing. The executioners, to make the victory full and perfect, severed with the sword that head consecrated by so many courageous testimonies rendered to the Lord, and glorified by so many and such great battles. At the same instant, a voice was heard descending from heaven, above the Martyr, saying: "You have conquered, blessed Victor, you have conquered!"

After the execution, the wretched Maximian, in whom the demons had made for themselves a sort of hateful sanctuary, hoped to finally defeat those who until then had defeated him, and to triumph over them after their death; but it was a new luster that he was about to add to the glory of the Martyrs. To prevent them from being rendered any of the honors of burial, he ordered their bodies to be thrown as food for the fish, in the arm of the sea that girds the city on the south side. The paternal tenderness of the Lord had very different designs. In order to ensure for his Saints a cult and honors, and for the faithful, in the centuries to come, a powerful protection, he caused the bodies of the Saints to slide rapidly over the waves, through the ministry of angels, and they were left intact on the opposite shore. There, the Christians buried them in a crypt carved into the living stone with a certain elegance, and not without much labor. God honored them with a great number of miracles; and their merits obtain for those who invoke them piously many benefits, in the name of Jesus Christ our God and our Lord, to whom be eternal praise and power, honor and empire, with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.

Numerous miracles were performed near the tomb of Saint Victor as soon as his venerable remains were buried there, the author of the Acts of his martyrdom tells us. As it would be too long to report them all, we will content ourselves with choosing the most legendary ones.

A man, both very rich and very virtuous, provided in his house temporal food to a poor man named Avitus, in the hope of eternal reward. In order to participate one day in the abundance of his merits, he sustained his indigence with his riches. This Avitus was not only reduced to extreme misery, he had also lost his sight almost entirely, without hope of recovering it. His benefactor was not content with providing him with the food he needed, he also showed him his tender compassion by procuring for him all the remedies that could relieve his sick eyes. As material remedies were all powerless, he had recourse to prayer and the intercession of the Saints. According to his advice, Avitus made numerous pilgrimages to the various places where holy relics were kept, but his infirmity received no relief from them. He was desolate and despairing. His benefactor, having learned of the numerous healings obtained by various sick people near the tomb of Saint Victor, exhorted his poor blind man to venerate the relics of the glorious martyr, and he offered to lead him into the crypt. Avitus had resolved to try nothing more to obtain an impossible healing; but, overcome by the pressing charity of the one who showered him with tokens of affection, he allowed himself to be led before the tomb of Saint Victor. There, his benefactor and he knelt and prayed for a long time with much fervor. When Avitus rose, he was healed. He returned joyful and blessing God, needing no one to guide his steps.

A woman, from whom death had long ago taken her husband, had no other support than an only daughter, whose filial piety consoled her sadness. But this daughter fell ill, and, after a few days of suffering, breathed her last. The mother's grief was without measure. She rejected all consolation, would not listen to any advice, and became as if deprived of reason. Tears, sobs, and sighs were at first the only expression of her immense grief. Soon she uttered words and cried out; she invoked God; she called her daughter; she implored the Saints. The name of Saint Victor then came to her memory and she remembered all the admirable wonders that God had deigned to perform through his relics. She had recourse to his intercession and prayed to him with all her heart. Addressing him, in the vehemence of her prayers, she cried out: "I know, blessed Victor, I know, wretched woman that I am, what is your power before the Most High. I know what benefits you have granted to other unfortunate women and what is your kindness to those who implore you. May my poor soul, O blessed martyr, experience the extent of your merits before God. In losing my daughter, I have lost my last consolation. If you wished, O Victor, you would easily obtain from the mercy of God the grace that I desire." However, everything was arranged for the funeral. The neighbors had rushed over; they had spent the night in prayer near the body of the young girl. The moment came to render her the pious duties of burial; friendly hands carried her to the cemetery. Her mother accompanied the funeral procession, crying out in grief and despair. When they had arrived near the pit that was to receive the corpse, the mother, tearful and fainting, threw herself upon the cold body of her daughter, embracing her with delirium, repeating her name in a voice broken by sobs: "O my darling daughter," she cried, "O light of my eyes, O joy of my old age, was I to outlive you? If I could not precede you to the grave, may I at least not delay in following you there!" Suddenly, while she was thus expressing her bitter grief, the corpse of the young girl stirred. One would say that she had just heard the voice of the Savior saying to her: "Arise, I command you." In the presence of a numerous crowd, whose delighted eyes followed her movements with stupor, she who was dead returned to life. She stood up in her coffin. Knowing the cause of the mourning that surrounded her, she called her mother and exhorted her to rejoice. What were the transports of the happy mother in receiving her resurrected daughter into her arms! In the presence of such a miracle, who could not recognize the power of God and the intercession of Saint Victor? The mother, whose grief had given way to the liveliest joy, headed toward the church of Saint Victor, with her daughter and the one who had held her at the sacred font. The witnesses of this marvelous resurrection accompanied them, and all together rendered fervent thanks to God and to the holy martyr.

A woman of ill repute, named Julie, who had long been wallowing in the mire of lust, entered with as much presumption as irreverence into this crypt where the bodies of the Saints are kept. A divine punishment soon showed that she had not crossed the threshold of this sacred place out of a feeling of veneration, nor by an involuntary accident; she lost her sight at the same instant, struck with complete blindness. This punishment, which afflicted her body, was to be a good for her soul. This wretched, or rather this happy woman, felt enlightened inwardly while darkness enveloped her outwardly. She suddenly understood in what spiritual blindness she had lived until then. Instead of deploring the misfortune that had just struck her, she thought only of repenting for the guilty life she had led with such folly. She detested her past crimes; she promised God to live chastely in the future. Moreover, she vowed, if she recovered her sight, to spend the rest of her days in the shadow of a cloister, consecrated to the service of God. Such was the fervor of her prayer that her sight was entirely restored. She hastened immediately to fulfill the vow she had made. She received the religious veil, became as pious as she had been dissipated, and gave until the end of her life the example of the most admirable virtues.

On Palm Sunday, while the people were going in procession to the church of the blessed apostle Andrew to bless the flowers, as is the custom to do on that day, carrying with much respect and devotion the head of Saint Victor in a wooden reliquary, a guardian of the Church, excited by a strange spirit of blasphemy, suddenly began to spread with malice the poison of his words. He mocked the devotion of the people, saying that it was superstitious to render so many honors to a piece of useless wood, and that there was nothing in the reliquary that was worthy of so much veneration. Soon a celestial punishment punished this contemner of holy things. One of his eyes was struck with blindness, and his mouth, horribly deformed, stretched on the left side up to his ear. The wretch, covered with shame and suffering greatly, repented of his fault and publicly asked for forgiveness for his blasphemies. He promised that, if he recovered his health through the intercession of the holy martyr, he would be devoted to the glory of his cult for the rest of his life. His prayers, although lively and pressing, did not suddenly obtain their effect. He had to bear the punishment for his fault for some time. He spent a whole year in his humiliation and pain. Finally, the course of the year bringing back Palm Sunday, the people, according to custom, went again to the church of Saint Andrew carrying the relics of Saint Victor. The wretch, standing on the path of the procession, cried out: "O blessed Saint Victor, forgive me my impiety; illuminate my blinded eye; restore to my mouth its former shape. I have suffered enough! I promise you to devote myself entirely to your service if you grant my prayer." Immediately the divine goodness had pity on this unfortunate man, and, because of his repentance, restored him to the state he was in before his blasphemies. He thanked God for this benefit and, for the rest of his life, had much devotion for the cult of the blessed martyr.

A man, poor in both goods and spirit, saw in a dream a warrior, with a radiant face and dazzling clothes, who addressed these severe reproaches to him: "Why this negligence? Why are you lazier than the others? Why do you not hasten to go, you too, to the church of the blessed Mary ever Virgin to offer your prayers there?" This man awoke, frightened by what he had just seen and heard, and hastened to go to the church of Saint Victor; but his fear diminishing, laziness overcame him, he lay down again and fell back asleep. Saint Victor appeared to him a second time, spoke to him more severely, and ordered him to carry to the church, instead of a candle, an iron rod that he had in a corner of his house. This man, this time, did not think of disobeying the voice that had disturbed his sleep. He looked for his iron rod, and, having found it, ran with a hurried step toward the church, which was already filled by an innumerable crowd. It was the night that preceded the day of the feast of Saint Victor. According to the custom of Provence, the people had gathered in the church to spend this whole night there in a pious vigil, reciting prayers and singing the praises of the holy Martyr. Each of the assistants held in their hand a lighted candle. This multitude of torches transformed the darkness of the night into radiant day. Our man, alone, had no candle and did not know what to do. Finally, he had an idea. Noticing one of the brothers charged with maintaining good order in this crowd so numerous, he asked him for a candle and offered him, in exchange, his iron rod. But the brother did not want to hear anything, and replied that he would not give him what he was asking for. This was not the first request of this kind that he had received and he was tired of it. The wretch, who saw himself condemned to have no other candle than his iron rod, desolate at being rejected by men, turned toward the Saints. "O blessed Victor," he cried, "it is you who made me come here. You know my poverty; I have brought what you prescribed to me. I am the only one who cannot have a torch. Resigning myself to my shame, I am going to raise my iron rod like a candle. Deign to accept the good will that I have to honor you like the others." He said this and raised his iron rod in the same way that all the other assistants raised their candles. Behold, suddenly the extremity of his rod ignited and burned like a wax torch. It cast more brightness than the candles that surrounded it. The first witnesses of this prodigy burst into cries of admiration. The story of the miracle soon flew from mouth to mouth. All the people sang with new fervor the praises of Saint Victor.

Saint Victor is always depicted in military costume, and often, like Saint George, mounted on horseback, armed with a lance and trampling a monster. He is also seen overturning with his foot the altar where they wanted to make him offer incense. — He is also depicted with the three soldiers whom he converted and had baptized while he was being held in prison. — French imagiers have often placed a small windmill in his hand. He is also given a standard, like a knight. The Abbey of Saint-Victor, in Paris, had for its arms a wheel, perhaps as an indication of gears; for some accounts speak not so much of a mill as of a mechanism intended for grinding.

## CULT AND RELICS. — ABBEY OF SAINT-VICTOR.

Bef ore the Revolution of ABBAYE DE SAINT-VICTOR Monastery where he made his profession and of which he became abbot. 1793, the city of Marseille possessed almost the entire body of the illustrious martyr Saint Victor; a large part of his bones was kept in the cathedral. The Abbey of Saint-Victor kept his head enclosed in a very rich reliquary.

The Revolution deprived Marseille of almost all these relics. There remain only two bones from the leg of Saint Victor or his companions, martyrs in Marseille. They were replaced in the church of the ancient abbey by M. de Clapiers, parish priest of Saint-Victor, at the reopening of the churches. They are still possessed today. They are now enclosed in a small shrine placed above the altar dedicated to Saint Victor. Next to these relics is a crystal globe containing earth stained with the blood of Saint Victor.

A word now on the right foot which was cut from the holy Martyr by order of the Emperor Maximian. Pope Urban V, who had been abbot of Saint-Victor of Marseille and who possessed pape Urbain V Reforming pope of French origin, 200th pope of the Catholic Church. this precious relic, donated it to John, Duke of Berry and brother of Charles V, King of France. This prince, in turn, gave it to the Abbey of Saint-Victor of Paris, where it was preserved until th e Revolution. At that disastrou abbaye de Saint-Victor de Paris Abbey founded by William in 1108. s time, it was saved from profanation, and it is now in the church of Saint-Nicolas du Chardonnet. The foot is whole, covered with its skin and without any mark of corruption: it is only dried out.

The Abbey of Saint-Victor-les-Paris, a royal community of Canons Regular, was a nursery of saints, scholars, and great men. Bogues, Richard, and Adam of Saint-Victor alone suffice to immortalize its glory in the Church. Many others, after them, up to the poet Santeuil, canon of Saint-Victor, illustrated this monastery, a sanctuary of holiness and science, whose site is occupied today b Santeuil Canon and poet of the Abbey of Saint-Victor in Paris. y wine warehouses. The church was demolished, the tombs it contained profaned, and the relics dispersed.

The prison, sanctified by the captivity of Saint Victor, still exists in a sufficient state of preservation, at the end of a vaulted gallery that separates large halls of Roman construction, which are vulgarly called Saint-Sauveur cellars, because the convent of Saint-Sauveur, at the Place de Linche, was built above these constructions in large Roman masonry.

A portion of his relics gave rise, in 1631, to the monastery of Saint-Victor l'Abbaye, in the diocese of Rouen. The shrine that contains these precious remains is still carried in procession in this place every year.

The ancient account of the martyrdom of Saint Victor, collected by Dom Butuart, was translated into French by Drouet de Maupertay, reviewed and published by the Reverend Benedictine Fathers of the congregation of France. It is so beautiful in its smallest details that we felt we should substitute it for the abridgment of Fr. Giry. We also made use of the Life of Saint Victor, by the Abbé Bayle; and of local notes provided by the parish priest of Saint-Victor. — Cf. Godescard, Baillet, Acta Sanctorum, etc.