Victor of Mouzon

Victor of Mouzon (died around 420) was, according to tradition, a shepherd martyred for urging his sister to resist the desires of a governor. He is a lay saint of a very modest life, who may embody a popular aspiration to holiness, like several saints of the Ardennes marches. His life has been transmitted only through a few manuscripts.

He is said to have been born at Mouzon, in a modest Christian family. His sister, of remarkable beauty, drew the gaze and the desires of the governor of the town, but would not yield. The governor attributed her resistance to the counsel of her brother and tried to win his favour by entreaties and gifts, but Victor was just as unyielding. Then the governor ordered his men to torture the too virtuous girl and put out her eyes, and to make her brother Victor suffer martyrdom as well. His sister is traditionally called Susanna the Chaste. Victor is commemorated on 8 February, in the Western calendar (new style).

In the 17th century John Bolland had few elements about him: mentions in calendars, a short citation in a manuscript of Utrecht and a small work by a prior of Mouzon, Nicolas Habert. They were completed in the 20th century by the discovery, in the archives of the Maurists, of an ancient Passion of Victor of Mouzon. The place of his cult is the abbey church of Notre-⁠Dame at Mouzon. Venerated locally, as a holy martyr of the undivided Church.