Faithfulness to Christ when it cost everything.
December 22
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Virgin
Martyr
Victoria was a young Roman noblewoman who wished to remain a virgin. Eugenius, whom she refused, accused her to the judge.
When she would neither marry nor sacrifice, she was stabbed in the breast. Butler gives 250, under Decius; Baring-Gould, the text on this page, gives 253. The sources differ.
But now that the earth is populated, and the Son of God has proclaimed, Increase in faith, multiply in charity, and replenish the heavens, carnal unions are vain.”
Give to people in need. The account records care for the poor.
Learn from the kind of life it was. Faithfulness to Christ when it cost everything.
Victoria readily consented, and went to Anatolia, and said to her: “ Listen to me, my sister: lama Christian, and I know that God does not abhor marriage. The prophets and the patriarchs had wives, and God blessed their posterity. Now listen to me: take your husband; he is an upright man, and will not betray that you are a Christ and it is very possible that your connection with him may be the means of his conversion.” This advice, so exactly what S. Paul gave,1 was met with disdain by S. Anatolia. “ Oh, Victoria 1” said she, “ conquer the devil, and be indeed Victoria. God said, when the world was void, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. But now that the earth is populated, and the Son of God has proclaimed, Increase in faith, multiply in charity, and replenish the heavens, carnal unions are vain.”
By these and other words Anatolia persuaded Victoria to a life of strict continence. Their bridegrooms carried them off to their estates in the country, and would not let them eat unless they consented to become their wives. Only a little bread was given them in the evening. At last the inveterate resolution of Victoria triumphed; Eugenius abandoned her to the magistrates, and she was decapitated.
If there be any truth in these Acts, it shows that a view of marriage must have obtained a hold in Rome in the middle of the third century which was identical with that afterwards developed by Manes. But it is more probable that the part referring to the opposition of the virgins to their marriage is an invention of a later age.
Feast: December 22
One short email a day for nine days. The day's prayer, a line from St. Victoria's story, and a nudge to keep going.
Image: Victoria Melita of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.jpg · Hugo Thiele · Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain.
Image: Hugo Thiele, Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new edition in 16 vols. (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897–98); text from the Internet Archive scan (OCR, lightly cleaned; errors possible). Public domain in the United States. Reproduced unedited, except for short bracketed notes in grey that we added to explain names and terms (“S.” is the old abbreviation for Saint). Some history and judgments reflect 19th-century scholarship.
