The emperor Maximian, reeking with the blood of the Thebæan legion,
and many other martyrs whom he had massacred in different parts of
Gaul, arrived at Marseilles, the most numerous and flourishing church
in those provinces. The tyrant breathed here nothing but slaughter
and fury, and his coming filled the Christians with fear and alarms.
In this general consternation, Victor, a Christian officer in the
troops, went about in the night time from house to house visiting
the faithful, and inspiring them with contempt of a temporal death
and the love of eternal life. He was surprised in this action, so
worthy a soldier of Jesus Christ, and brought before the prefects
Asterius and Eutychius, who exhorted him not to lose the fruit of
all his services and the favor of his prince for the worship of a
dead man; so they called Jesus Christ. He answered, that he renounced
those recompenses if he could not enjoy them without being unfaithful
to Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, who vouchsafed to become
man for our salvation, but who raised himself from the dead, and
reigns with the Father, being God equally with him. The whole court
heard him with tumultuous shouts of indignation and rage. However,
the prisoner being a person of distinction, the prefects sent him
to Maximian himself. The incensed countenance of an emperor did not
daunt the champion of Christ; and the tyrant seeing his threats to
have no effect upon him, commanded him to be bound hands and feet and
dragged through all the streets of the city, exposed to the blows
and insults of the populace. Every one of the heathens seemed to
think it a crime not to testify their false zeal, by offering some
indignity or other to the martyr. Their design was to intimidate the
Christians, but the example of the martyr’s resolution served to
encourage them.
Victor was brought back bruised and bloody to the tribunal of the
prefects, who thinking his resolution must have been weakened by his
sufferings, began to blaspheme our holy religion, and pressed him
again to adore their gods. But the martyr filled with the Holy Ghost,
and encouraged by his presence in his soul, expressed his respect
for the emperor and his contempt of their gods, adding, “I despise
your deities, and confess Jesus Christ: inflict upon me what torments
you please.” The two prefects only disagreed about the choice of
the tortures. After a warm contest Eutychius withdrew, and left the
prisoner to Asterius, who commanded him to be hoisted on the rack,
and most cruelly tortured a long time. The martyr, lifting up his
eyes to heaven, asked patience and constancy of God, whose gift he
knew it to be. Jesus Christ appeared to him on the rack, holding a
cross in his hands, gave him his peace, and told him that he suffered
in his servants, and crowned them after their victory. These words
dispelled both his pains and his grief; and the tormentors being at
last weary, the prefect ordered him to be taken down, and thrown into
a dark dungeon. At midnight God visited him by his angels; the prison
was filled with a light brighter than that of the sun, and the martyr
sung with the angels the praises of God. Three soldiers who guarded
the prison, seeing this light, were surprised at the miracle, and
casting themselves at the martyr’s feet asked his pardon, and desired
baptism. Their names were Alexander, Longinus, and Felician. The
martyr instructed them as well as time would permit, sent for priests
the same night, and going with them to the sea-side he led them out
of the water, that is, was their godfather, and returned with them
again to his prison.
The next morning Maximian was informed of the conversion of the
guards, and, in a transport of rage, sent officers to bring them all
four before him in the middle of the market-place. The mob loaded
Victor with injuries, and would fain have compelled him to bring
back his converts to the worship of their gods; but he said, “I
cannot undo what is well done.” And turning to them he encouraged
them saying, “You are still soldiers; behave with courage, God
will give you victory. You belong to Jesus Christ, be faithful. An
immortal crown is prepared for you.” The three soldiers persevered
in the confession of Jesus Christ, and by the emperor’s orders were
forthwith beheaded. Victor prayed in the mean time with tears that he
might, by being united with them in their happy death, be presented
in their glorious company before God; but after having been exposed
to the insults of the whole city as an immovable rock lashed with
the waves, and been beaten with clubs and scourged with leather
thongs, he was carried back to prison, where he continued three days,
recommending to God his martyrdom with many tears. After that term
the emperor called him again before his tribunal, and having caused
a statue of Jupiter, with an altar and incense, to be placed by him,
he commanded the martyr to offer incense to the idol. Victor went up
to the profane altar, and by a stroke of his foot threw it down. The
emperor ordered the foot to be forthwith chopped off; which the saint
suffered with great joy, offering to God these first fruits of his
body. A few moments after, the emperor condemned him to be put under
the grindstone of a handmill, and crushed to death. The executioners
turned the wheel, and when part of his body was bruised and crushed,
the mill broke down. The saint still breathed a little; but his head
was immediately ordered to be cut off. His and the other three bodies
were thrown into the sea, but being cast ashore were buried by the
Christians in a grotto hewn out of a rock. The author of the acts
adds, “They are honored to this day with many miracles, and many
benefits are conferred by God and our Lord Jesus Christ on those who
ask them through their merits.”
In the fifth century Cassian[241] built a great monastery near the
tomb of this saint, which afterward received the rule of St. Bennet,
but was afterward secularized by Benedict XIV. The relics of St.
Victor remain in that church, the most ancient in all France, full of
illustrious monuments of primitive saints. Some part of the relics of
St. Victor was conveyed to Paris and laid in a chapel built in his
honor, which soon after, in the reign of Louis VI., was enlarged,
and the royal monastery of regular canons founded there, which bears
the name of this saint, its glorious patron.[242] This institute
and abbey were commenced by William of Champeaux, archdeacon of
Paris, a man of eminent piety and learning, who having taught for
many years rhetoric and theology, with extraordinary reputation,
in the cloister of the cathedral, retired to this little chapel
of St. Victor, then in the skirts of the town. There with certain
fervent clergymen he lived in close solitude, assiduous prayer,
and great austerity, allowing no other food to be served in his
community but herbs, pulse, and roots, with bread and salt. By the
pressing importunities of the bishop of Paris and other persons of
distinction, he was obliged to resume his theological lectures, which
he seems to have continued at St. Victor’s as F. Gourdan shows.
Whence Rollin calls this monastery the cradle of the university of
Paris. In favor of this holy institute king Louis VI. founded and
built there a magnificent abbey, which still subsists in a most
flourishing condition. Gilduin, a most holy man, was appointed first
abbot, whilst William of Champeaux taught there, who in 1113 was
consecrated bishop of Chalons on the Saone. Dying in 1121, according
to his desire he was buried at Clairvaux, by St. Bernard, who had
received at his hands the abbatial benediction.[243] See St. Victor’s
genuine acts, which are not unworthy the pen of Cassian, to whom
some ascribe them; but without grounds. They are published and much
commended by Bosquet in the fourth tome of his History of the Church
of France, p. 202. See also Tillemont, t. 4, Ceillier, t. 3, p. 366.
Fleury, l. 8, n. 20. Rivet, Hist. Littér. t. 2, p. 231, and Cuper the
Bollandist, t. 5, Jul. p. 135. F. Gourdan has compiled at length the
life of St. Victor, with an account of many miracles wrought through
his intercession, and a collection of many devout hymns and prayers
in his honor, and other various memorials relating to this saint, in
the seventh tome of his MS. history of the eminent men of the royal
abbey of St. Victor at Paris. See also Oudin, t. 2. De Script. Eccl.,
p. 1138.