| Saint Victor of Marseilles | |
|---|---|
| Died | ~290 AD |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Feast | July 21 |
| Attributes | Depicted as a Roman soldier with a millstone; depicted overthrowing a statue of Jupiter; in stocks, comforted by angels; scourged and crushed by a millstone; or with his body beheaded and flung into the river, from which the angels take it[1]; depicted with windmill |
| Patronage | cabinetmakers, millers, torture victims, sick children; invoked against lightning[2] |
 Saints Portal |
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Saint Victor of Marseilles was a Christian martyr. He is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. He is said to have been a Roman army officer in Marseilles, who publicly denounced the worship of idols. For that, he was brought before the Roman prefects, Asterius and Eutychius, who later sent him to the Emperor, Maximian. He was then racked, beaten, dragged through the streets, and thrown into prison, where he converted three other Roman soldiers (Longinus, Alexander, Felician, all of whom are considered saints) to Christianity. The three were beheaded, and Victor himself was crushed under a millstone and beheaded, after refusing to offer incense to the pagan god Jupiter.
Veneration
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). His feast day is July 21.
