Victorinus, Victor, Nicephorus, Claudius, Diodorus, Serapion and Papias

Holy Martyrs Victorinus, Victor, Nicephorus, Claudius, Diodorus, Serapion and Papias were Greeks of Corinth, the martyrs of that city, put to death in the persecution of the emperor Decius (249 to 251).

The old Byzantine synaxaria speak of them; there are also two passions, one in Syriac and one in Latin. Arrested and brought before the proconsul Tertius, they suffered martyrdom by various torments: Victorinus had his right eye torn out, his hands and feet cut off, and was thrown into a mortar; Victor had his tongue torn out and was killed, as was Nicephorus; Claudius, after his limbs were cut off, was hanged; Diodorus was burned at the stake, Serapion beheaded, and Papias, after his hands and feet were cut off, was thrown into the sea with a millstone round his neck.

According to the Latin passion, they were natives of Corinth but suffered martyrdom at Alexandria in the time of Numerian (283 to 284); the same indications are in the Hieronymian Martyrology. Their veneration is very old, attested in the Hieronymian Martyrology of the fifth century, with different dates (24 and 28 February, 6 March, 27 April). After the reform of the Roman Martyrology that followed the Second Vatican Council, their commemoration was moved to 31 January, and their martyrdom was placed at Corinth, under Decius, as in the Byzantine synaxaria. They are saints of the undivided Church.