Victor of Marseilles

The Holy Martyr Victor of Marseilles suffered at Marseilles in Gaul toward the end of the third century (around 290, in other sources 303 or 304), in the time of the emperor Maximian. According to some sources he came from Egypt. He is honoured in the Orthodox Church, the Catholic Church and the Oriental Churches.

According to the traditional account, Victor was an officer in the Roman army at Marseilles and publicly denounced the worship of idols. For this he was brought before the prefects Asterius and Eutychius, who sent him to the emperor Maximian. There he was tortured, beaten and dragged through the streets, then thrown into prison, where he brought to the faith three other Roman soldiers, Longinus, Alexander and Felician, who were then beheaded. When he was asked to offer incense to the statue of the god Jupiter, Victor kicked it over. The emperor ordered him crushed under a millstone, but the stone broke and Victor remained alive; he was then beheaded. Some historians today think the story of the soldier Victor is entirely invented, born of the old teaching of the Church as the army of Christ; other versions link Victor with the Theban Legion.

His veneration spread quickly. In the fourth or early fifth century John Cassian built a monastery over the cave where their bodies had been buried, later the Benedictine Abbey of Saint-⁠Victor and a minor basilica. In the sixth century Venantius Fortunatus and Gregory of Tours mention his veneration; Rabanus Maurus, in the ninth, thought him bishop of Marseilles. In the twelfth century the Abbey of Saint-⁠Victor near Paris, a centre of learning, also became famous; the saint's relics there were burned in the French Revolution. Victor is patron of the city of Tallinn, and his life and martyrdom are painted on the altar of the church of Saint Nicholas there. He is shown as a Roman soldier, with millstones in his hand or overturning the statue of Jupiter. In 2017 the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church added his name to the calendar. His feast is on 21 July, together with Longinus, Alexander and Felician.