St. Victor

Feastday: July 21
Died: 290

Saint Victor of Marseilles was a Christian Martyr. He is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.

According to legend, Victor was a soldier in the Roman army at Marseilles when he was hailed before the prefects, Asterius and Eutychius, who sent him to Emperor Maximian for his exhortations to Christians to be firm in their faith in the face of an impending visit by the Emperor.

He was dragged through the streets, racked, imprisoned (he converted three guards, Alexander, Felician, and Longinus while in prison). He was again tortured after the guards were beheaded when it was discovered he had converted them to Christianity.

When he refused to offer incense to Roman God Jupiter, he was crushed in a millstone and beheaded. His tomb became one of the most popular pilgrimage centers in Gaul.

In the 4th century, Saint John Cassian built a monastery over the site where the bodies had been buried in a cave, which later became a Benedictine Abbey and minor Basilica. This is St Victor’s Abbey (Abbaye Saint-Victor).

Saint Victor’s feast day, along with St’s Longinus, Alexander and Felician, is celebrated on July 21. Saint Victor is the patron saint of Tallinn, the capital of Estonia

 

 

 

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St. Benjamin

Feastday: March 31

Died: 424

Saint Benjamin was a deacon martyred in 424 in Persia. St. Benjamin was executed during a period of persecution of Christians that lasted forty years and through the reign of two Persian kings: Isdegerd I, who died in 421, and his son and successor, Varanes V. King Varanes carried on the persecution with such great fury, that Christians were submitted to the most cruel tortures.

The Christians in Persia had enjoyed twelve years of peace during the reign of Isdegerd, son of Sapor III, when in 420 it was disturbed by the indiscreet zeal of Abdas, a Christian Bishop who burned the Temple of Fire, the great sanctuary of the Persians. King Isdegerd threatened to destroy all the churches of the Christians unless the Bishop would rebuild it.

As Abdas refused to comply, the threat was executed; the churches were demolished, Abdas himself was put to death, and a general persecution began which lasted forty years.

Benjamin was imprisoned a year for his Christian Faith and later released with the condition that he abandon preaching or speaking of his religion. His release was obtained by the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II through an ambassador.

St. Benjamin, however, declared it was his duty to preach Christ and that he could not be silent. Although he had been liberated on the agreement made with the ambassador and the Persian authorities, he would not acquiesce in it, and neglected no opportunity of preaching. He was again apprehended and brought before the king. The tyrant ordered that reeds should be thrust in between his nails and his flesh and into all the tenderest parts of his body and then withdrawn. After this torture had been repeated several times, a knotted stake was inserted into his bowels to rend and tear him. The martyr expired in the most terrible agony about the year 424.

Saint Benjamin’s feast day is celebrated on October 13 in the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Byzantine Rite Eastern Catholic Churches. Saint Benjamin’s feast day is celebrated on March 31 by the Roman Catholic Church. He is mentioned also in the Roman Martyrology, but has not been included in the General Roman Calendar.

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