Victor of Braga

Holy Martyr Victor of Braga was a catechumen put to death for Christ at Braga in present-⁠day Portugal, around 300, in the persecution of Diocletian; being beheaded before he was baptized, he was baptized in his own blood. His very existence has often been doubted, since the account in the Breviary of Braga rests on forgeries. A short passion from the monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos, written at the end of the eleventh century, may nevertheless preserve an old tradition: it says that Victor once met the procession carrying the image of a pagan god and, confessing himself a Christian, was condemned to death and beheaded. He is a saint of the undivided Church, commemorated on 12 April (new style; 25 April in the old style).