Deacon of Saragossa, and martyr under Diocletian, 304; mentioned in
the Roman Martyrology, 22 Jan., with St. Anastasius the Persian,
honoured by the Greeks, 11 Nov. This most renowned martyr of Spain is
represented in the dalmatic of a deacon, and has as emblems a cross, a
raven, a grate, or a fire-pile. He is honoured as patron in Valencia,
Saragossa, Portugal etc., is invoked by vintners, brickmakers, and
sailors, and is in the Litany of the Saints. His Acts were read in the
churches of Africa at the end of the fourth century, as St. Augustine
testifies in Sermon 275. The present Acts (Acta SS., III Jan., 6) date
from the eighth or ninth century, and were compiled from tradition.
Anal. Boll., I, 259, gives another life. All agree in substance with the
metric life by Prudentius (P.L., LX, 378). He was born at Saragossa;
his father was Eutricius (Euthicius), and his mother, Enola, a native of
Osca. Under the direction of Valerius, Bishop of Sargossa, Vincent made
great progress in his studies. He was ordained deacon and commissioned
to do the preaching in the diocese, the bishop having an impediment of
speech. By order of the Governor Dacian he and his bishop were dragged
in chains to Valencia and kept in prison for a long time. Then Valerius
was banished, but Vincent was subjected to many cruel torments, the
rack, the gridiron, and scourgings. He was again imprisoned, in a cell
strewn with potsherds. He was next placed in a soft and luxurious bed,
to shake his constancy, but here he expired.
His body was thrown to be devoured by vultures, but it was
defended by a raven. Dacian had the body cast into the sea, but it came
to shore and was buried by a pious widow. After peace was restored to
the Church, a chapel was built over the remains outside the walls of
Valencia. In 1175 the relics were brought to Lisbon; others claim that
they came to Castres in 864. Cremona, Bari, and other cities claim to
have relics. Childeric I brought the sole and dalmatic to Paris in 542,
and built a church in honour of St. Vincent, later called
St-Germain-des-Prés. Regimont, near Bezières, had a church of the saint
as early as 455. Rome had three churches dedicated to St. Vincent; one
near St. Peter's, another in Trastevere, and the one built by Honorius I
(625-38) and renewed by Leo III in 796. A pilaster found in the
basilica of Salona in Dalmatia shows an inscription of the fifth or
sixth century in honour of the saint (Rom. Quartalschrift, 1907, Arch.
135).
BUTLER, Lives of the Saints; STADLER, Heiligenlexicon;
ALLARD, Hist. des persecut., IV, 237; LECLERCQ, Les Martyrs, II (Paris,
1903), 437.
FRANCIS MERSHMAN (Catholic Encyclopedia)
No comments:
Post a Comment