Victor of Cerezo

Saint Victor of Cerezo, also called Vitores, was a Castilian priest and hermit who died around 850 during a Muslim raid. He was born at Cerezo de Río Tirón (today province of Burgos) around 800, studied there and chose his religious vocation. He was rector of the village, at the church of Santa María de Villalba. Desiring greater perfection, he withdrew to a cave on the mountain of Oña and spent some years there, until he returned to the village, besieged by a Muslim raid.

According to the legend, an angel informed him that his land had been attacked by the Muslims, and he decided to return. He entered the besieged village and comforted his fellow villagers. He freed seven hermit women of Siete Fenestras and converted some of the Muslims; the daughter of the army's commander, whom he converted, was killed on her father's order. He was seized and healed the commander, who was ill with leprosy, and who offered him riches and honors. Since he refused them and would not renounce his faith, he was condemned to death and crucified at Quintanilla de las Dueñas, a hamlet of Cerezo. On the cross he went on preaching and, as he did not die, on the third day he was beheaded. Vitores took his head in his hands and made his way toward his native village, where he went on preaching, foretold its liberation and raised a child. To free Cerezo, he devised a stratagem: he gave a cow a measure of wheat to eat and sent it toward the enemy camp. The besiegers shot arrows at it, and wheat spilled from the cow's wounds. The Muslims judged that the village had such rich supplies that even the animals ate wheat, so the siege could drag on for a long time; disheartened, they raised it. Vitores went with his people as far as Fresno de Río Tirón, where he died and was buried, on 26 August.

Over the tomb a chapel was built and then the Sanctuary of San Vitores. He is honored as a saint of the undivided Church, with a local cult; the legends about his martyrdom are many.