Victor of Tunnuna, in his Chronicle, describes how *African confessors whose tongues were cut out by the Vandals (S01481) under King Huneric in 484 were miraculously still able to speak. He mentions other oppressive actions by Huneric, including the martyrdom of *Laetus (bishop and martyr of Nepte, ob. 484, S02837) and the ill-treatment of *Eugenius (bishop of Carthage exiled to Albi in Gaul, S00334). Written in Latin in Constantinople, 565/566.
E07834
Literary - Other narrative texts (including Histories)
Victor of Tunnuna, Chronica
ZENONE AVG. CONS.
Hugnericus Wandalorum rex persecutioni per totam Africam nimis insistens Tubunis, Macri et Nippis aliisque heremi partibus catholicos iam non solum sacerdotes et cuncti ordinis clericos, sed et monachos atque laicos quattuor circiter milia exiliis durioribus relegat et confessores ac martyres facit confessoribusque linguas abscidit. quos confessores, quod linguis abscisis perfecte finem adusque locuti sunt, urbs regia attestatur, ubi eorum corpora iacent. tunc Laetus Neptensis civitatis episcopus gloriose martyrio coronatur VIII kal. Octob. die et Eugenius episcopus Carthaginensis ecclesiae post dira heremi exilia plurimis afflictionibus poenisque clarus habetur.
'Consulship of Zeno Augustus [AD 479]
Huneric, king of the Vandals, bringing excessive persecution to the whole of Africa, relegated around four thousand catholics, not just bishops and clerics of every kind, but also monks and laypeople to Tubunae, Macri, Nippae and other parts of the desert, and made confessors and martyrs, and cut out the tongues of confessors. The royal city [Constantinople], where their bodies lie, attests that these confessors, after their tongues were cut out, spoke perfectly until the end [of their lives]. Then Laetus, bishop of the city of Nepte was crowned with glorious martyrdom on the 8th day before the Kalends of October [= 24 September], and Eugenius, the bishop of the church of Carthage, after terrible exile was famed for his many afflictions and punishments.'
Text: Mommsen 1894, 189.
Translation: David Lambert.
Saint’s feast
Cult PlacesBurial site of a saint - unspecified
Non Liturgical ActivityOral transmission of saint-related stories
MiraclesMiracle during lifetime
Miracles experienced by the saint
Healing diseases and disabilities
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesOther lay individuals/ people
Foreigners (including Barbarians)
Heretics
Ecclesiastics - bishops
Source
Victor was a bishop of the city of Tunnuna (or Tonnona) in Latin North Africa, the exact location of which is unknown. He was expelled from his see during the Three Chapters controversy. During his exile he stayed for several years in Egypt, but in 564 was transferred to Constantinople. There he wrote his Latin Chronicle. Only the part covering the years 444-566 is extant. Up to AD 518 it is based mostly on the Church History of Theodore Anagnostes. The written sources of the following part are not easy to identify, but Victor was deeply involved in ecclesiastical politics and had a firsthand knowledge of many events that he mentioned in the Chronicle.Discussion
Victor of Tunnuna was a resident of Constantinople when he composed his Chronicle. It is therefore quite likely that his claim that the city 'attests' (attestatur) the confessors' miraculous ability to talk is based on local traditions as well as literary sources. Particularly notable, however, is his reference to the burial of the confessors in Constantinople (ubi eorum corpora iacent), a claim about them which does not appear elsewhere. That Victor is not talking vaguely here, but had actual tombs in mind, is shown by a subsequent chronicle entry in which he refers to a named individual being buried there: E07835.The persecution described in this entry is reliably dated by other sources to 484 (see in particular E08296). Victor's date of 479 is erroneous.
Bibliography
Edition:Mommsen, T., Victoris Tonnonennsis episcopi chronica, in: Chronica minora saec. IV. V. VI. VII. (II) (Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Auctores Antiquissimi 11; Berlin, 1894), 184-206.
David Lambert
24/11/2019
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00334 | Eugenius, bishop of Carthage, exiled by the Vandals to Albi in Gaul, ob. 505 | Eugenius | Certain | S01481 | African confessors whose tongues were cut out by the Vandals | Certain | S02837 | Laetus, bishop and martyr of Nepte under the Vandals, ob. 484 | Laetus | Certain |
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Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
David Lambert, Cult of Saints, E07834 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E07834