Saint Victorien et ses compagnons - martyrs en Tunisie (✝ v. 484)
Hunéric, roi des Vandales d'Afrique, demanda à Victorien, le gouverneur de Carthage, d'emprisonner les chrétiens qui n'embrasseraient pas l'arianisme, à commencer par lui-même. Il refusa. La réponse de Hunéric fut de le mettre à mort ainsi que 4 riches commerçants: deux frères de la ville d’Aquarège et deux autres marchands nommés Frumence. Ils souffrirent les plus cruelles tortures pour avoir confessé avec constance la foi catholique et reçurent la couronne de gloire.
Commémoraison des saints martyrs Victorien, proconsul de Carthage, et deux frères de la ville d’Aquarège; de plus, deux autres marchands nommés Frumence. Ces saints, à l’époque de la persécution des Vandales, sous le roi arien Hunnéric, en 484, souffrirent les plus cruelles tortures pour avoir confessé avec constance la foi catholique et reçurent la couronne de gloire.
Martyrologe romain
Connaissez-vous saint Victorien ?
Victorien fut proconsul de Carthage. Sa réputation de piété chrétienne était considérable. Hunéric, roi des Vandales (envahisseurs de l'Afrique du Nord) voulut le réduire, moyennant de superbes récompenses, à embrasser, semble-t-il, l'hérésie arienne en abjurant la religion catholique que ce Carthaginois avait professée jusqu'alors. Selon les historiens bénédictins, la réponse de Victorien fut négative quoique nuancée : « J'ai confiance dans le Christ, dit-il. Qu'on emploie les flammes, qu'on excite les bêtes contre moi, qu'on use contre mon corps des supplices les plus variés, jamais je ne consentirai à renier l'église chrétienne en laquelle je fus baptisé. » Et voici le passage important : « N'y aurait-il que la vie présente, et plus précisément encore si je n'espérais pas une vie éternelle, si je ne croyais pas dans l'existence de celle-ci [mais bien entendu, ici Victorien prend ses précautions, cette vie éternelle existe], même en ce cas, je ne consentirais pas à une gloire purement terrestre pour obtenir les bienfaits que me fait miroiter Hunéric en récompense de ma trahison ; je ne consentirais pas à me montrer ingrat envers le Christ qui m'a confié le précieux dépôt de la foi. » Victorien fut massacré en 484 sur ordre d'Hunéric par cruelles tortures...
Un commentateur du XIXe siècle remarque à juste titre que Victorien émettait ainsi l'hypothèse, à laquelle il ne se ralliait pas nécessairement, de l'inexistence du paradis et de l'enfer, en tant que récompense ou punition éternelle après la mort.
Méditons à notre tour sur cette brève incursion philosophique d'un « Tunisien » aujourd'hui méconnu. Elle revient à poser, quand on la développe, qu'il y a possiblement deux sortes de chrétiens : ceux qui adhèrent sans trop de complexes, à tous les dogmes essentiels de l'Église catholique, y compris aux thèses concernant la vie éternelle post mortem ; et ceux qui, éventuellement, sont parfois tentés par le scepticisme vis-à-vis de l'existence d'une survie bienheureuse ou malheureuse après la mort ; du coup, ils se rabattent sur ce qui leur paraît essentiel dans l'enseignement du Christ : les Évangiles, le sermon des Béatitudes, l'éminente dignité des pauvres, le mépris pour les biens de ce monde (même si l'autre monde en fait n'a pas lieu d'être), enfin la charité et l'amour du prochain. Ces chrétiens, en somme « périphériques », préfèrent les plus simples prières, où effectivement il n'est pas question de vie éternelle, le Pater noster, l'Ave Maria, par exemple, tout en s'intéressant à un moindre degré aux étonnantes constructions dogmatiques et symboliques du Credo, splendide architecture, mais parfois difficile à admettre en sa totalité. Disons à ce propos que le temps n'est plus des exclusions. Il y aurait donc, si l'on développe jusqu'à ses conséquences ultimes la pensée « victorienne », un centre et une périphérie dans l'Église. Avec tolérance réciproque, et nécessaire, de part et d'autre ; le centre pour les chrétiens dogmatiquement convaincus ; la périphérie pour ceux qui ne disposent pas de toutes les certitudes, mais demeurent fidèles à la prédication évangélique, celle qui parle au cœur et à la sensibilité de Tel ou Tel qu'on peut quand même appeler un bon catholique. N'est-ce pas en effet une description assez exacte de la situation dans l'Église actuelle ? Un noyau dur, une étoile ardente ; et des enveloppes planétaires ou coronaires, dont les adhérents sont séduits simplement par la fidélité aux pédagogies évangéliques les plus accessibles. Quoi qu'il en soit de telles options, qui ne sont pas crucifiantes, n'oublions pas d'allumer un cierge, le 23 mars prochain, en l'honneur de la fête annuelle du malheureux Victorien. Il méritait sans doute le Paradis, à défaut d'y croire en toute assurance.
LE ROY LADURIE, EMMANUEL - Le Monde des Religions n°21, Publié le 1 janvier 2007
Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie est historien, professeur émérite au Collège de France, membre de l'Académie des sciences morales et politiques. Dernier ouvrage paru : Histoire humaine et comparée du climat (Fayard, 2006).
SOURCE : http://www.lemondedesreligions.fr/archives/2007/01/01/connaissez-vous-saint-victorien,8494903.php
Saint Victorien de Carthage et ses saints compagnons, martyrs. 484.
Le combat de ces glorieux confesseurs du nom de Jésus-Christ est trop illustre et trop touchant pour n'en pas édifier les lecteurs. Voici à peu près ce que Victor d'Utique en dit dans l'histoire qu'il a composée sur la persécution des Vandales (nous verrons dans la vie de saint Fulgence, le 1er janvier, une note sur les Vandales).
Où trouverai-je des paroles pour représenter dignement ce qui se passa en la personne de Victorien, proconsul de Carthage, natif de la ville d'Adrumète ? Il était le plus riche de l'Afrique, et il avait toujours fait paraître beaucoup de fidélité dans les emplois dont le roi Hunéric l'avait chargé. Ce prince impie lui manda, avec des termes fort civils, que s'il obéissait sans résistance à ses volontés, il l'aimerait particulièrement et lui donnerait le premier rang entre ses officiers.
Mais ce grand serviteur de Dieu lui fit répondre, par le même envoyé que :
" Rien n'était capable de le séparer de la foi et de l'amour de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ. Dans la confiance qu'il avait au secours d'un maître si puissant, il était prêt à souffrir plutôt toutes sortes de tourments que de consentir jamais à l'impiété des Ariens. Il pouvait le faire brûler et exposer aux bêtes, ou accabler par d'autres supplices ; mais il ne gagnerait jamais sur lui qu'il quittât l'Eglise catholique, dans laquelle il avait été baptisé. Une action si détestable l'exposerait comme un ingrat et un perfide, à des peines qui ne finiraient jamais mais quand cela ne serait pas, et qu'il n'y aurait point d'autre vie que la vie présente, ni de récompense éternelle préparée pour ceux qui auront vaincu, il ne pourrait se résoudre à quitter la véritable et unique religion, et à manquer de fidélité a celui qui lui avait confié le précieux dépôt de sa grâce."
Et encore :
" Confiant en Dieu et dans le Christ mon Seigneur, vous direz de ma part au roi qu'il peut dresser ses bûchers, lâcher contre moi ses bêtes féroces, et me livrer, s'il le veut, à mille tourments : ce serait mépriser le baptême que m'a donné l'Eglise catholique, que d'accéder à son désir. Quand bien même tout finirait avec la vie présente et que nous n'aurions pas à espérer cette vie éternelle, qui est pourtant réelle, jamais je ne consentirais à jouir d'une gloire caduque et transitoire au prix d'une infidélité envers celui qui m'a donné sa foi."
Ces réponses irritèrent de telle sorte la fureur du tyran, qu'il lui fit souffrir des tourments dont la longueur et la cruauté surpassent tout ce que l'on en pourrait dire. Le Saint les endura tous dans la vue de Dieu avec une joie incomparable, et ayant heureusement achevé sa course, il alla recevoir dans le ciel la couronne du martyre qu'il avait si justement méritée.
Qui pourrait aussi expliquer, comme il faut, les combats des autres martyrs qui furent exécutés en la ville de Tabaye, et surtout de deux frères de la ville d'Aquae regiae ? S'étant promis, par serment, dans l'humble confiance qu'ils avaient en Dieu, de mourir tous deux d'un même supplice, ils obtinrent des bourreaux de n'être point séparés, ni de lieu, ni de peine.
On commença par les pendre avec de gros poids attachés à leurs pieds et, lorsqu'ils eurent été près d'un jour en cette gêne, un d'eux, succombant à la douleur, pria qu'on le détachât et qu'on lui donnât quelque trève. L'autre, voyant cela du gibet où il était aussi pendu et craignant qu'il ne renonçât à la foi, lui cria :
" Gardez-vous bien, mon frère, de faire cette demande ce n'est pas là ce que nous avons promis à Jésus-Christ, et je vous accuserais moi-même d'infidélité devant son tribunal redoutable, si vous y persistiez ; car nous avons juré sur son corps et sur son sang de souffrir la mort ensemble pour la confession de son nom."
Par ces paroles et d'autres semblables, il encouragea tellement son compagnon à soutenir le combat, que celui-ci, au lieu de chanceler comme auparavant, cria d'une voix forte :
" Ajoutez supplices à supplices, et qu'il n'y ait point de cruautés que vous n'exerciez contre nous quelques tourments que mon frère souffre, je suis prêt à les souffrir."
On les brûla ensuite avec des lames de fer toutes rouges, on les déchira avec des ongles de fer, on les tourmenta longtemps et en mille manières les bourreaux, craignant enfin que leur patience servît plutôt à convertir les ariens qu'à ébranler les catholiques, furent contraints de les quitter, d'autant plus qu'on ne voyait en eux ni meurtrissures, ni aucune autre marque des tourments qu'ils enduraient. Ils arrivèrent néanmoins heureusement à la palme du martyre. Et en même temps, deux marchands, qui étaient de la ville de Carthage, et qui portaient tous deux le nom de Frumence, furent mis à mort ; et, par un heureux négoce, achetèrent, avec le prix de leur sang, la perle évangélique et le royaume des cieux.
Les Ariens exilèrent encore un grand nombre d'ecclésiastiques de Carthage. Il se trouva parmi eux beaucoup d'enfants destinés au service des autels ; on en alla chercher douze pour les ramener à Carthage. A la vue des persécuteurs, ils embrassèrent les genoux de leurs compagnons, et il fallut employer la violence pour les en arracher. Chaque jour on les fouettait cruellement, et on les frappait avec des bâtons mais il fut impossible d'obtenir d'eux quelque chose de contraire à leur foi ils confessèrent généreusement Jésus-Christ jusqu'à la fin.
Victor d'Utique rapporte encore les victoires de beaucoup d'autres Saints, martyrisés sous le tyran Hunéric ; mais, comme il n'y a que ceux-ci de nommés en ce jour dans le martyrologe romain, nous nous contenterons du récit que nous venons de faire. La persécution de ce prince sévit particulièrement en l'année 481.
Martyre de saint Victorien et de ses saints compagnons.
Speculum historiale. V. de Beauvais. XVe.
SAINT VICTORIEN DE CARTHAGE et SES COMPAGNONS
Martyrs
(484)
Victorien, natif d'Adrumète, en Afrique, était proconsul de Carthage. Le roi, nommé Hunéric, homme barbare, employa tous ses efforts pour le détourner de la religion et lui fit les plus magnifiques promesses; mais il reçut cette réponse simple et ferme:
"Rien ne sera capable de me séparer de la foi et de l'amour de Jésus-Christ. Vous pouvez m'exposer aux flammes, me jeter aux bêtes, me soumettre à toutes sortes de supplices, jamais je ne trahirai la vraie foi; ce serait de ma part une ingratitude, une perfidie; n'eussé-je pas à craindre les châtiments éternels, ni à espérer une récompense sans fin, je ne saurais manquer de fidélité à mon Dieu."
Le tyran, irrité, lui inflige tous les tourments que peut lui suggérer sa rage: Victorien les endure avec joie et constance et va recevoir au Ciel la couronne conquise au prix de son sang.
Plusieurs autres chrétiens furent aussi les victimes de ce tyran cruel: parmi eux, deux frères qui s'étaient promis par serment de mourir l'un avec l'autre et d'un même supplice. Dieu permit en effet qu'ils obtinssent de leurs bourreaux la grâce touchante qu'ils avaient désirée. On commença par les suspendre avec de gros poids attachés à leurs pieds. Au bout d'un jour passé dans cette douloureuse situation, l'un d'eux, succombant à la douleur, demanda quelque répit. Son frère, craignant qu'il n'eût la faiblesse de renoncer à sa foi, lui cria du haut de sa potence: "Gardez-vous bien de faiblir, mon frère; est-ce là ce que nous avons promis ensemble à Jésus-Christ? Si vous trahissez votre foi et votre serment, je serai moi-même votre accusateur au tribunal de Dieu." Le pauvre martyr chancelant reprit alors courage et s'écria d'une voix forte: "Ajoutez les supplices aux supplices, je suis prêt à souffrir tout ce que souffrira mon frère."
Les bourreaux emploient alors contre ces deux héroïques martyrs les lames de fer rougies au feu, les ongles de fer et d'autres tortures non moins affreuses. Chose étonnante, on ne voyait sur eux aucune meurtrissure ni aucune trace des tourments qu'on leur faisait endurer.
A la fin, voyant que le courage des martyrs et les merveilles que Dieu opérait en leur faveur semblaient fortifier dans la foi ou convertir ceux qui en étaient les témoins, les bourreaux se hâtèrent d'achever leurs victimes, et les deux frères allèrent recevoir, avec Victorien, la palme due aux généreux soldats du Christ.
Abbé L. Jaud, Vie des Saints pour tous les jours de l'année, Tours, Mame, 1950
SOURCE : http://magnificat.ca/cal/fr/saints/saint_victorien_et_ses_compagnons.html
Victorian, Frumentius & Comps. MM (RM)
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" (Attwater2, Benedictines, Husenbeth)
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0323.shtml
Victor Vitensis
An African bishop of the Province of Byzacena (called VITENSIS from his See of Vita), b. probably about 430. His importance rests on his "Historia persecutionis Africanae Provinciae, temporibus Geiserici et Hunirici regum Wandalorum". This is mainly a contemporary narrative of the cruelties practised against the orthodox Christians of Northern Africa by the Arian Vandals. Formerly divided into five books, this work is now usually edited in three, of which the first, dealing with the reign of Geiseric (427-77), is derived from the accounts of others, while the second and third, covering the reign of Huneric, are a strictly contemporary account of events, of which the author was in the main an eyewitness. No exception can be taken to the accuracy of Victor's narratives, except that at all times he exaggerates, but when allowance is made for the stress of feeling under which the work was written, it can be seen that he records little that did not happen. Victor throws much light on social and religious conditions in Carthage and on the African liturgy of the period. His history contains many valuable documents not otherwise accessible, e.g. the Confession of Faith drawn up for the orthodox bishops by Eugenius of Carthage and presented to Huneric at the conference of Catholic and Arian bishops in 484. Two documents: a "Passio beatissimorum martyrum qui apud Carthaginem passi sunt sub impio rege Hunerico (die VI. Non. Julias 484)" and a "Notitia Provinciarum et Civitatum Africae", formerly appended to all the manuscripts and now incorporated in the printed editions, are probably not Victor's. The former may be the work of one of his contemporaries; the latter is a list of the Catholic bishops summoned to the conference of 484, arranged according to provinces, with an exact indication of the ecclesiastical geography of that portion of Africa.
Healy, Patrick. "Victor Vitensis." The Catholic
Encyclopedia. Vol. 15. New
York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 23 Mar. 2015 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15415a.htm>.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15415a.htm
HUNERIC, the Arian king of the Vandals in Africa, succeeded his father Genseric in 477. He behaved himself at first with moderation towards the Catholics, so that they began to hold their assemblies in those places where they had been prohibited by Genseric: but in 480, he began a grievous persecution of the clergy and holy virgins, which in 484, became general, and occasioned vast numbers of the Catholics being put to death. Victorian, a citizen of Adrumetum, one of the principal lords of the kingdom, had been made by him governor of Carthage with the Roman title of proconsul. He was the wealthiest subject the king had, who placed great confidence in him, and he had ever behaved with an inviolable fidelity. The king, after he had published his cruel edicts, sent a message to the proconsul in the most obliging terms, promising, if he would conform to his religion, and execute his orders, to heap on him the greatest wealth and the highest honours which it was in the power of a prince to bestow. The proconsul, who, amidst the glittering pomp of the world perfectly understood its emptiness, made on the spot this generous answer: “Tell the king that I trust in Christ. If his majesty please 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.” The tyrant became furious at this answer: nor can the tortures be imagined which he caused the saint to endure. Victorian suffered them with joy, and amidst them finished his glorious martyrdom. The Roman Martyrology joins with him on this day four others, who were crowned in the same persecution. Two brothers of the city of Aquæ-regiæ, in the province of Byzacena, were apprehended for the faith, and conducted to Tabaia in the same province. They had promised each other, if possible, to die together; and they begged it of God as a favour, that they might both suffer the same torments. 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, fearing this desire of ease might by degrees move him to deny his faith, cried out from the rack on which he was hanging: “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.” By these words the other was so wonderfully encouraged that he cried out: “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 burnt with red-hot plates of iron, and tormented so long and by so many new engines of torture, that the executioners at last, left them, saying: “Every body follows their example, no one now embraces our religion.” This they said, chiefly, because, notwithstanding they had been so long and so grievously tormented, there were no scars or bruises to be seen upon them. Two merchants of Carthage, who both bore the name of Frumentius, suffered martyrdom about the same time, and are joined with St. Victorian in the martyrologies. Among many glorious confessors at that time, one Liberatus, an eminent physician, was sent into banishment with his wife. He only grieved to see his infant children torn from him. His wife checked his tears by these generous words: “Think no more of them, Jesus Christ himself will have care of them, and protect their souls. Whilst in prison, she was told by the heretics that her husband had conformed: accordingly, when she met him at the bar before the judge, she upbraided him in open court for having basely abandoned God: but discovered by his answer that a cheat had been put upon her to deceive her into her ruin. Twelve young children, when dragged away by the persecutors, held their companions by the knees till they were torn away by violence. They were most cruelly beaten and scourged every day for a long time; yet, by God’s grace, every one of them persevered to the end of the persecution firm in the faith.—See St. Victor, De Persec. Vandal. l. 5. n. 4.
Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume III: March. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
SOURCE : http://www.bartleby.com/210/3/232.html
E martire è considerato anche il San Vittoriano che il Martyrologium Romanum commemora in data odierna, 23 marzo. A differenza di molti antichi martiri, questo santo proconsole di Cartagine ed i suoi compagni, due fratelli di Aquae Regiae, nonché Frumenzio ed un altro Frumenzio, mercanti, non caddero in una delle numerosi persecuzioni imperiali romane, bensì più tardi, nella seconda metà del V secolo, sotto il re ariano Unnerico e per mano dei vandali, cioè di quel popolo barbaro che più di tutti gli altri ha lasciato il suo nome nella storia quale sinonimo di brutalità e di crudeltà, di negazione di tutto ciò che è umano e civile, di quell’odio contro tutto ciò che è giusto, ordinato e bello, ancora efficacemente espresso dalla parola “vandalismo”.
In quel periodo essi occupavano gran parte delle province romane sulle sponde mediterranee dell’Africa ed in tale frangente storico visse Vittoriano, degno rappresentante della civiltà nei confronti della barbarie, non soltanto in quanto cristiano, ma data anche la nobile stirpe da cui proveniva e l’alta carica di funzionario amministrativo che ricopriva.
Essendo infatti governatore di Cartagine, Vittoriano si trovò a dover necessariamente scegliere tra l’ossequio al sovrano, feroce persecutore dei cristiani e nemico della Chiesa, e la fedeltà ai propri principi religiosi, morali, nonché civili. Optò con coraggio per la seconda scelta, ben sapendo a cosa andasse incontro con la sua decisione. Fu dunque martirizzato con i suoi compagni, verso l’anno 484, mediante torture veramente definibili “vandaliche”, ma il suo nome sopravvisse a tali atrocità vittorioso e coronato di gloria, mentre ingloriosamente scompariva nell’oblio il ricordo del re Unerico, morto divorato dai pidocchi, e dell’intero dominio dei Vandali, divenuto sinonimo di brutalità e di inciviltà.
Autore: Fabio Arduino
Victorien, natif d'Adrumète, en Afrique, était proconsul de Carthage. Le roi, nommé Hunéric, homme barbare, employa tous ses efforts pour le détourner de la religion et lui fit les plus magnifiques promesses; mais il reçut cette réponse simple et ferme:
"Rien ne sera capable de me séparer de la foi et de l'amour de Jésus-Christ. Vous pouvez m'exposer aux flammes, me jeter aux bêtes, me soumettre à toutes sortes de supplices, jamais je ne trahirai la vraie foi; ce serait de ma part une ingratitude, une perfidie; n'eussé-je pas à craindre les châtiments éternels, ni à espérer une récompense sans fin, je ne saurais manquer de fidélité à mon Dieu."
Le tyran, irrité, lui inflige tous les tourments que peut lui suggérer sa rage: Victorien les endure avec joie et constance et va recevoir au Ciel la couronne conquise au prix de son sang.
Plusieurs autres chrétiens furent aussi les victimes de ce tyran cruel: parmi eux, deux frères qui s'étaient promis par serment de mourir l'un avec l'autre et d'un même supplice. Dieu permit en effet qu'ils obtinssent de leurs bourreaux la grâce touchante qu'ils avaient désirée. On commença par les suspendre avec de gros poids attachés à leurs pieds. Au bout d'un jour passé dans cette douloureuse situation, l'un d'eux, succombant à la douleur, demanda quelque répit. Son frère, craignant qu'il n'eût la faiblesse de renoncer à sa foi, lui cria du haut de sa potence: "Gardez-vous bien de faiblir, mon frère; est-ce là ce que nous avons promis ensemble à Jésus-Christ? Si vous trahissez votre foi et votre serment, je serai moi-même votre accusateur au tribunal de Dieu." Le pauvre martyr chancelant reprit alors courage et s'écria d'une voix forte: "Ajoutez les supplices aux supplices, je suis prêt à souffrir tout ce que souffrira mon frère."
Les bourreaux emploient alors contre ces deux héroïques martyrs les lames de fer rougies au feu, les ongles de fer et d'autres tortures non moins affreuses. Chose étonnante, on ne voyait sur eux aucune meurtrissure ni aucune trace des tourments qu'on leur faisait endurer.
A la fin, voyant que le courage des martyrs et les merveilles que Dieu opérait en leur faveur semblaient fortifier dans la foi ou convertir ceux qui en étaient les témoins, les bourreaux se hâtèrent d'achever leurs victimes, et les deux frères allèrent recevoir, avec Victorien, la palme due aux généreux soldats du Christ.
Abbé L. Jaud, Vie des Saints pour tous les jours de l'année, Tours, Mame, 1950
SOURCE : http://magnificat.ca/cal/fr/saints/saint_victorien_et_ses_compagnons.html
Victorian, Frumentius & Comps. MM (RM)
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" (Attwater2, Benedictines, Husenbeth)
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0323.shtml
Victor Vitensis
An African bishop of the Province of Byzacena (called VITENSIS from his See of Vita), b. probably about 430. His importance rests on his "Historia persecutionis Africanae Provinciae, temporibus Geiserici et Hunirici regum Wandalorum". This is mainly a contemporary narrative of the cruelties practised against the orthodox Christians of Northern Africa by the Arian Vandals. Formerly divided into five books, this work is now usually edited in three, of which the first, dealing with the reign of Geiseric (427-77), is derived from the accounts of others, while the second and third, covering the reign of Huneric, are a strictly contemporary account of events, of which the author was in the main an eyewitness. No exception can be taken to the accuracy of Victor's narratives, except that at all times he exaggerates, but when allowance is made for the stress of feeling under which the work was written, it can be seen that he records little that did not happen. Victor throws much light on social and religious conditions in Carthage and on the African liturgy of the period. His history contains many valuable documents not otherwise accessible, e.g. the Confession of Faith drawn up for the orthodox bishops by Eugenius of Carthage and presented to Huneric at the conference of Catholic and Arian bishops in 484. Two documents: a "Passio beatissimorum martyrum qui apud Carthaginem passi sunt sub impio rege Hunerico (die VI. Non. Julias 484)" and a "Notitia Provinciarum et Civitatum Africae", formerly appended to all the manuscripts and now incorporated in the printed editions, are probably not Victor's. The former may be the work of one of his contemporaries; the latter is a list of the Catholic bishops summoned to the conference of 484, arranged according to provinces, with an exact indication of the ecclesiastical geography of that portion of Africa.
Sources
The early editions of Victor are found in MIGNE, LVIII, 179-276. Newer
and more critical editions by HALM (Berlin, 1879) in Mon. Germ. Hist.: Auct.
Antiq., III, 1; and PETSCHENIG (Vienna, 1881); Corpus Scrip. Eccles. Lat., VII; FERRERE, De
Victoris Vitensis libro qui inscribitur historia persecutionis Africanae
Provinciae (Paris, 1898).
Transcription. This article was transcribed for
New Advent by Michael T. Barrett. Dedicated to all who suffer for the Faith.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. October 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of
New York.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15415a.htm
March 23
SS. Victorian, Proconsul of Carthage, &c., Martyrs
HUNERIC, the Arian king of the Vandals in Africa, succeeded his father Genseric in 477. He behaved himself at first with moderation towards the Catholics, so that they began to hold their assemblies in those places where they had been prohibited by Genseric: but in 480, he began a grievous persecution of the clergy and holy virgins, which in 484, became general, and occasioned vast numbers of the Catholics being put to death. Victorian, a citizen of Adrumetum, one of the principal lords of the kingdom, had been made by him governor of Carthage with the Roman title of proconsul. He was the wealthiest subject the king had, who placed great confidence in him, and he had ever behaved with an inviolable fidelity. The king, after he had published his cruel edicts, sent a message to the proconsul in the most obliging terms, promising, if he would conform to his religion, and execute his orders, to heap on him the greatest wealth and the highest honours which it was in the power of a prince to bestow. The proconsul, who, amidst the glittering pomp of the world perfectly understood its emptiness, made on the spot this generous answer: “Tell the king that I trust in Christ. If his majesty please 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.” The tyrant became furious at this answer: nor can the tortures be imagined which he caused the saint to endure. Victorian suffered them with joy, and amidst them finished his glorious martyrdom. The Roman Martyrology joins with him on this day four others, who were crowned in the same persecution. Two brothers of the city of Aquæ-regiæ, in the province of Byzacena, were apprehended for the faith, and conducted to Tabaia in the same province. They had promised each other, if possible, to die together; and they begged it of God as a favour, that they might both suffer the same torments. 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, fearing this desire of ease might by degrees move him to deny his faith, cried out from the rack on which he was hanging: “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.” By these words the other was so wonderfully encouraged that he cried out: “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 burnt with red-hot plates of iron, and tormented so long and by so many new engines of torture, that the executioners at last, left them, saying: “Every body follows their example, no one now embraces our religion.” This they said, chiefly, because, notwithstanding they had been so long and so grievously tormented, there were no scars or bruises to be seen upon them. Two merchants of Carthage, who both bore the name of Frumentius, suffered martyrdom about the same time, and are joined with St. Victorian in the martyrologies. Among many glorious confessors at that time, one Liberatus, an eminent physician, was sent into banishment with his wife. He only grieved to see his infant children torn from him. His wife checked his tears by these generous words: “Think no more of them, Jesus Christ himself will have care of them, and protect their souls. Whilst in prison, she was told by the heretics that her husband had conformed: accordingly, when she met him at the bar before the judge, she upbraided him in open court for having basely abandoned God: but discovered by his answer that a cheat had been put upon her to deceive her into her ruin. Twelve young children, when dragged away by the persecutors, held their companions by the knees till they were torn away by violence. They were most cruelly beaten and scourged every day for a long time; yet, by God’s grace, every one of them persevered to the end of the persecution firm in the faith.—See St. Victor, De Persec. Vandal. l. 5. n. 4.
Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume III: March. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
SOURCE : http://www.bartleby.com/210/3/232.html
Santi Vittoriano, Frumenzio e
compagni Martiri
† Cartagine, 484
I santi
martiri Vittoriano, proconsole di Cartagine, due fratelli di Aquae Regiae,
nonché Frumenzio ed un altro Frumenzio, mercanti, sotto il re ariano Unnerico,
durante la persecuzione vandalica, conseguirono tutti la nobile corona del
martirio dopo aver subito spaventose torture, a causa della loro intrepida
confessione di fede cristiana.
Martirologio
Romano: Commemorazione dei santi martiri Vittoriano, proconsole di Cartagine,
nell’odierna Tunisia, di due fratelli provenienti dalla odierna
Henchir-Baboucha e di due mercanti entrambi di nome Frumenzio, i quali, durante
la persecuzione dei Vandali, sotto il re ariano Unnerico, per aver perseverato
nella fede cristiana furono torturati con immani supplizi e ricevettero così la
gloriosa corona.
Il nome
Vittoriano, analogo a quello di Vittore ed al più moderno Vittorio, deriva dal
romano “Victor”, che significava “vincitore”. Non senza un chiaro significato
simbolico, moltissimi tra i tanti santi di nome Vittore morirono martiri, cioè
quali vincitori nella prova suprema alla quale fu sottoposta la loro intrepida
fede.
E martire è considerato anche il San Vittoriano che il Martyrologium Romanum commemora in data odierna, 23 marzo. A differenza di molti antichi martiri, questo santo proconsole di Cartagine ed i suoi compagni, due fratelli di Aquae Regiae, nonché Frumenzio ed un altro Frumenzio, mercanti, non caddero in una delle numerosi persecuzioni imperiali romane, bensì più tardi, nella seconda metà del V secolo, sotto il re ariano Unnerico e per mano dei vandali, cioè di quel popolo barbaro che più di tutti gli altri ha lasciato il suo nome nella storia quale sinonimo di brutalità e di crudeltà, di negazione di tutto ciò che è umano e civile, di quell’odio contro tutto ciò che è giusto, ordinato e bello, ancora efficacemente espresso dalla parola “vandalismo”.
In quel periodo essi occupavano gran parte delle province romane sulle sponde mediterranee dell’Africa ed in tale frangente storico visse Vittoriano, degno rappresentante della civiltà nei confronti della barbarie, non soltanto in quanto cristiano, ma data anche la nobile stirpe da cui proveniva e l’alta carica di funzionario amministrativo che ricopriva.
Essendo infatti governatore di Cartagine, Vittoriano si trovò a dover necessariamente scegliere tra l’ossequio al sovrano, feroce persecutore dei cristiani e nemico della Chiesa, e la fedeltà ai propri principi religiosi, morali, nonché civili. Optò con coraggio per la seconda scelta, ben sapendo a cosa andasse incontro con la sua decisione. Fu dunque martirizzato con i suoi compagni, verso l’anno 484, mediante torture veramente definibili “vandaliche”, ma il suo nome sopravvisse a tali atrocità vittorioso e coronato di gloria, mentre ingloriosamente scompariva nell’oblio il ricordo del re Unerico, morto divorato dai pidocchi, e dell’intero dominio dei Vandali, divenuto sinonimo di brutalità e di inciviltà.
Autore: Fabio Arduino
