Victor of Vita, in his History of the Vandal Persecution (Book 3.30), recounts how *African Confessors (S01481) of Tipasa (Mauretania Caesariensis, western North Africa) had their hands cut off and tongues cut out on the order of the Vandal king Huneric in 484, but were still able to speak, as manifested by one of them in Constantinople. Written in Latin, probably in Carthage (central North Africa), 484/489.
E08296
Victor of Vita
Victor of Vita, History of the Vandal Persecution, 3.30:
Quae cum regi innotuisset, comitem quendam cum iracundia dirigens praecepit ut in medio foro, congregata illuc omni provincia, linguas eis et manus dextras radicitus abscidisset. Quod cum factum fuisset, spiritu sancto praestante ita locuti sunt et loquuntur, quomodo antea loquebantur. Sed si quis incredulus esse voluerit, pergat nunc Constantinopolim et ibi reperiet unum de illis, subdiaconum Reparatum, sermones politos sine ulla offensione loquentem; ob quam causam uenerabilis nimium in palatio Zenonis imperatoris habetur, et praecipue regina mira eum reuerentia ueneratur.
'When this was told to the king, in his fury he sent a count with orders to summon the whole province and, in the middle of the forum, to cut out the tongues and cut off the right hands of these men. When this had been done, through the Holy Spirit they were able to speak (and still speak), just as they had spoken before. If anyone doubts this, he should go to Constantinople, and there he will find one of these men, the subdeacon Reparatus, speaking clear words without any defect. Because of this, he is esteemed worthy of great reverence in the palace of the emperor Zeno, and the queen in particular venerates him with great devotion.'
Text: Lancel 2002.
Translation: Bryan Ward-Perkins.
Source
Victor was probably a presbyter at Carthage when he wrote the History of the Vandal Persecution, in 484 or shortly thereafter; he was certainly a churchman and he was very well informed of events and documents in the provincial capital.His work gives an account of the Vandal invasion of Africa (429-39) under king Geiseric, but focuses primarily on the sufferings of the Nicene church in Africa during the reign of Huneric (477-84). Victor was an eyewitness of some of the events which he describes (e.g. E01981).
The work is dedicated to an unnamed churchman, probably Bishop Eugenius of Carthage, who features prominently (and very favourably) in the work, even effecting, with due humility, the cure of a man's blindness (E08294, 2.47-51).
Victor names many martyrs and confessors who died or suffered under Vandal persecution. For a few of these, there is evidence from other sources that some cult developed around them, and these we have treated as individual 'saints': Eugenius of Carthage (S00034); Laetus, bishop and martyr of Nepte (S02837); Seven monastic brothers martyred at Carthage (S02936); and some confessors who had their tongues cut out but were still able to speak (S01481). The other martyrs and confessors we have grouped together on three evidence cards, covering: the reign of Geiseric (E08293; S03007); the reign of Huneric before 484 (E08294; S03008): and the persecution of 484 (E08295; S03009).
Discussion
Victor of Vita provides the first evidence of these confessors of Africa who had their tongues cut out in the Vandal persecution of 484, but were still able to speak. Probably because some of them ended up in Constantinople (as testified to here), the story of their suffering, and of their apparently miraculous ability to still speak, achieved widespread fame, independent of Victor of Vita's testimony - as witnessed by the evidence collected under S01481.Bibliography
Editions:Lancel, S. (ed.), Histoire de la persécution vandale en Afrique suivie de la passion des sept martyrs et du Registre des provinces et des cités d'Afrique (Paris: Belle Lettres, 2002).
Petschenig, M. (ed.), Victoris episcopi Vitensis Historia persecutionis Africanae provinciae (Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 7; Wien 1881).
Halm, K. (ed.), Victor Vitensis. Historia persecutionis Africanae Provinciae (Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Auctores antiquissimi 3,1; Hanover 1879), 1-58.
Translation:
Moorhead, J. (trans.), Victor of Vita: History of Vandal Persecution (Translated Texts for Historians 10; Liverpool: Liverpool Univeristy Press, 1992).
Bryan Ward-Perkins
29/6/2022
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S01481 | African confessors whose tongues were cut out by the Vandals | Reparatus | Certain |
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