Victor I

Victor I was bishop of Rome at the end of the second century, between about 189 and 198 or 199. He came from the Roman province of Africa and is counted the first bishop of Rome from those lands. News of him is preserved chiefly in connection with the dispute over the date of Pascha. He is counted a saint of the undivided Church and is commemorated on 28 July.

The Paschal dispute

The Churches of Asia Minor, led by Polycrates of Ephesus, kept Pascha on the fourteenth day of the month of Nisan, whatever day of the week it fell, by a custom they said they had received from the apostles, while Rome and most Churches kept it on Sunday. Until his time both sides had tolerated the difference. Victor asked for synods in several regions, which declared for Sunday, and cut off communion with the Churches of Asia. Saint Irenaeus of Lyons wrote to him, reproaching him and reminding him that the bishops before him had kept peace with those of Asia. In the end communion was not broken, and the question was settled for the whole Church later.

Defence of the faith and of Christians

According to an anonymous writer quoted by Eusebius, Victor excommunicated Theodotus of Byzantium, who taught that Christ was a mere man. He is also said to have opposed Montanism. Through Marcia, the favourite of Emperor Commodus, he obtained the release of Christians condemned to labour in the mines of Sardinia. In his time Latin began to replace Greek in the Church of Rome.

Commemoration

Tradition calls him a martyr, but the tolerance of Commodus toward Christians makes this unlikely, and the early sources do not confirm it. His memory is kept on 28 July.