The Latin Martyrdom of *Vincentius/Vincent (deacon of Zaragoza and martyr of Valencia, S00290)) recounts the trial in Valencia of Vincentius, deacon of Zaragoza, together with his bishop Valerius, and the torture and death in prison of Vincentius, followed by an unsuccessful attempts to destroy his body by casting it into the depths of the sea, from which it is miraculously brought to shore, discovered by the faithful and given honourable burial. Written, probably in Hispania in the 6th century.
E08554
Literary - Hagiographical - Accounts of martyrdom
The Martyrdom of Vincent the Levite (Passio s. Vincentii levitae, BHL 8631)
Summary:
The date of the martyrdom is given as the 11th day before the Kalends of February (= 22 January). The place of martyrdom was Valencia 'under the praeses Datianus'.
(2.) The hagiographer states that the Devil hates the fact that the martyrdom has been written because it recounts his defeat.
(3.) The pagan and cruel governor (praeses) Datianus persecutes Christians, especially Christian clergy, in the city of Zaragoza. Bishop Valerius and his deacon Vincentius are portrayed as ready to suffer martyrdom.
(4.) Datianus transfers Valerius and Vincentius to Valencia and puts them in jail, where they are oppressed by hunger and chains. After that they are brought into Datianus' presence for trial.
(5.) Datianus is angry because Valerius and Vincentius look healthier than before being thrown into prison. He first addresses Valerius questioning him why he 'acted against the principes'.
(6.) Vincentius is incensed against Datianus and makes a speech to Valerius to oppose Datianus, whom he compares to a wild dog, and calls him a murderer.
(7.) Datianus notices that Vincentius is a more daunting opponent than Bishop Valerius. He orders the bishop to be taken away and Vincentius to be tortured on an instrument known as an 'equuleus/eculeus' which stretched Vincentius' body.
(8.) Datianus addresses the tortured Vincentius, but smiling (subridens) he responds that he is not shaken by the torture and looks forward to the future life; instead he threatens Datianus with looming punishment. All the series of tortures are presented as a fight between Datianus and Vincentius in which both are trying to win. [The frequent use of the verb vincere alludes to the name of the martyr].
(9.) Datianus orders Vincentius to be further tortured by flogging; the martyr remains unmoved while Datianus suffers internal torment.
(10.) The torturers grow weak while Vincent remains persistent. Datianus gets angry at the soldiers and asks them how come they were always able to force confessions from patricides, mages and adulterers and are unable to force Vincent to break his silence.
(11.) Vincentius mocks Datianus. He confesses his faith in Jesus Christ as the only Son of God, One with the Father.
(12.) Datianus looks at the tormented body of Vincent and tries to persuade him to save his life, making reference to his youth.
(13.) Vincentius taunts Datianus calling him a viper and rejects his persuasions.
(14.) Datianus orders Vincentius to be further tortured by all the tortures usually applied to the worst criminals. Vincentius rejoices.
(15.) Vincentius is tortured by all manners, his body is flogged, stretched, his members are twisted, and he is burned with fire.
(16.) It is announced to Datianus that Vincentius survived all the tortures with patience and his only confession was that he believes in Jesus Christ. Datianus concludes that they are defeated (vincimur) but orders further torments on Vincentius to break his spirit.
(17.) Datianus orders Vincentius to be placed in a dark and isolated place where he is to lie on shards of broken pottery. The soldiers are supposed to guard him there until he dies.
(18.) As soon as the guards fell asleep, Vincentius' cell is filled with light and he starts singing a psalm and hymn to God, which is heard in the whole vicinity.
(19.) Vincentius makes a speech to the guards ordering them to announce to Datianus his miraculous state in the prison.
(20.) At the news, Datianus feels fear and again pronounces his defeat (iam victi sumus). He orders Vincentius to be moved to a bed so that he is not made even more glorious, by dying among torments. His torturers carry him to the bed:
Fertur ad lectulum gaudentium manibus et laetantium humeris, qui oscularentur uestigia eius et omne corpus lacerum lamberent et ipsum sanguinem profluentem in suae salutis remedia distringerent et qui in ipsius fuerant supplicia crassati. Vtitur eorum obsequiis baiulorum Dei seruus beatissimus, accipere inimicorum suorum meruit seruitutem.
'He is carried to the bed by the hands of men rejoicing and by the arms of joyful men, who kissed the marks [of his wounds], licked all of his mangled body, and collected the blood flowing from him as a remedy for their salvation, even those who came together to torture him. The most blessed servant of God uses the compliance of these carriers, meriting to receive the service of his enemies'.
(21.) Datianus learns of Vincentius' death and orders his body unburied to be cast out to wild animals.
(22.) No-one is allowed to approach the body. Miraculously, a raven frightens off a wolf from the remains. The hagiographer compares this to the biblical story of Elias to whom a raven brought food in the desert.
(23.) Having learned about this, Datianus orders Vincentius' body to be thrown into the sea.
(24.) Vincentius' body is sewn into a sack and tied up and carried to the sea by a certain Eumorfius.
(25.) Eumorfius and his sailors return and announce to a rejoicing Datianus that Vincentius has been removed. However, the body of the saint miraculously washes up at the seaside.
Nam quendam uirum, credo, quem fide probauerat, in extasi sanctus eius spiritus commonet se deportatum ad litus, indicans locum in quo iacebat litoris. Qui dum trepidus uel lentior uenit, commonita in somnis uidua quaedam, aetate et sanctitate plenissima, uera signa accepit quiescentis, ubi corpus reciprocatum lenior fluctus iam molli arena tumulauerat et, elementi ipsius prolabente congerie, ad honorem famulatus lambendo, seruierat sepulturae. (26.) Vnde nihil mirum si humana postmodum obsequia compleuerunt quod iam et elementa ipsa persoluerant. Sepultus est in litore inter ipsa soli aquarumque commertia qui in documentis fidei pro sui miraculo et terris fuerat probatus et pelago. Demonstrat ergo multis anus illa locum litoris et, quasi relegens certa oculis signa, uestigiis in curuo errore litorum expedita dirigitur. Vincentius sanctus, qui inueniri ad honorificentiam sepulturae dignus fuerat, inuentus est ad quietem. (27.) Hinc ad basilicam sanctum corpus adlatum est, uenerabile omnibus et beatum, iam de honorificentia sepulturae securum. Inde in ecclesiam matrem in sancto Vincentius consecratur altario. Mancipatum Deo deuotione locum et mysteriis uenerabilem, dum honoratur, honorauit. Ita quod in plurimis locis refectio eius corporis fuit, hoc ad celebranda ipsius ampliora pertinet uota. Venerationem sui ex multis meruit, ut, dum plurima numerosius consecrat, cumulatius ipse sit consecratus.
'His [Vincentius'] holy spirit informed a certain man in a vision, whom, I believe, he had tested in faith, that he had been brought to the shore, showing him the place where he was lying. While this man was going there fearfully and slowly, a certain widow, full in both years and sanctity, instructed in dreams received true signs of the one at rest [Vincentius}, where the gentle waves had entombed the returned body in soft sand, and by a mass of this shifting element, honouring it, had provided burial. (26.) It is no wonder that, later, human service fulfilled what the elements themselves had already offered. He was buried on the shore where there is exchange between dry land and the waters, he who in lessons of faith had been proved both on land and in the sea for the sake of [this] miracle of himself. The old woman shows many people the place at the shore, and, as if she was rereading the clear signs [she had received] with her eyes, her steps are easily guided on the winding course of the shore. Saint Vincentius, who fully deserved to be found for honourable burial, was discovered for his repose. (27.) From this place the holy body, venerable and blessed to all, already sure of honourable burial, was carried to a basilica. From there [it was carried] to the mother church, where Vincentius is consecrated in a holy altar. This place, dedicated in devotion to God and venerable because of these mysteries, has honoured [him], while it is honoured [by him]. The fact that his body rested in many places increased the wish to celebrate him all the more. He has earned his veneration for many things, so that, just as he consecrates abundantly, the more amply he himself is consecrated.'
Text: Yarza Urquiola 2020, 641-650.
Summary and translation: M. Szada.
Saint’s feast
Cult PlacesCult building - independent (church)
Burial site of a saint - other
Altar
Non Liturgical ActivityPrayer/supplication/invocation
Composing and translating saint-related texts
MiraclesMiracle at martyrdom and death
Miracles experienced by the saint
Miracles causing conversion
Power over elements (fire, earthquakes, floods, weather)
RelicsBodily relic - entire body
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesWomen
Ecclesiastics - bishops
Ecclesiastics - lesser clergy
Torturers/Executioners
Soldiers
Pagans
Officials
Source
One or more versions of the Martyrdom of Vincentius probably already existed in the 4th century and were known to Prudentius in Hispania (E00858) and Augustine in Africa (E01948, E02247, E02255, E02256, E02271, E04548). However, no early version has survived (Saxer 2002, 67-97). Instead, there are a number of late antique and medieval versions, which are classified in the Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina under the numbers 8627-8636 (8627-8629 refers to three prologues; 8630-8633 to the versions of the main text of the Martyrdom distinguished according to their endings (desinit); 8634-8636 to the additamenta). In addition, shorter versions were also in circulation, which are listed under the numbers 8638-8640 (on the limits of the BHL system for the Martyrdom of Vincentius, see Meyer 2012, 75).There has been considerable scholarly debate about these texts, particularly their dating and the relationships between them. Early modern editors included in their hagiographical compilations the version BHL 8630 (its oldest witness is the manuscript Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, lat. 13760 copied in the mid-9th c. in Saint-Germain-des-Prés), which was long treated as the 'standard version'; in the 19th century, however, versions BHL 8638 and 8639 attracted the attention of editors, who were tempted to see in them echoes of the original Acta because of their conciseness and the lack of the literary embellishment characteristic of the longer versions (see Meyer 2012, 76 for a discussion and further references). BHL 8638 was analysed in more detail by Victor Saxer (2002, 99-150, with an edition) and dated to the second half of the 5th century or the beginning of the 6th century. He was also convinced that this shorter version was a source for an elaboration classified under the number 8631. However, this interpretation was not accepted by Meyer 2012, 94-97, who has argued that the relationship between these two versions is the reverse, with BHL 8638 a Carolingian epitome of BHL 8631.
BHL 8631 is the version of the Martyrdom of Vincent that was particularly popular in the Middle Ages and attested in numerous manuscripts, which is why Saxer suggested calling it the versio communis. Due to striking echoes of this version in sermons from Hispania (E08557, EXXXXX), which can be dated to the 6th and 7th centuries, as well as in the prayers included in the Orationale Visigothicum (E05253), this text can be dated to the sixth century. Its early Iberian reception also suggests that the text was originally composed in Hispania. The confession of saint Vincent in c. 11 contains an elaborated Nicene Trinitarian formula; some scholars have suggested that this might have been included polemically against the Homoian ('Arian') creed of the Visigoths. If so, the text would date to the period before the conversion of the kingdom in 589 (Meyer 2012, 146).
According to the manuscript list presented by Saxer (2002, 178-182), the earliest manuscript is in a Passionary of Frankish provenance from the 8th century (Munich, Bayerische Stadtbibliothek, Clm 3514, pp. 149-157). The Iberian tradition is attested in hagiographical collections that circulated in Hispania in the 10th and 11th centuries and which are often referred to in scholarship as the 'Hispanic Passionary'. For the most recent edition of this Passionary, see Yarza Urquiola 2020. The 'Hispanic Passionary' is to some extent a philological construct (as it is uncertain and rather unlikely that there was ever a unified original collection on which the 10th and 11th century version known to us was based; see Alberto 2021). The text of the Martyrdom in the critical editions of the Passionary also does not include a number of non-Hispanic manuscripts, including codices from the 8th and 9th centuries. It is, therefore, different from the text that is based on the earlier Frankish transmission, which is the one edited by Saxer (2002, 186-226).
The martyrdom of Vincent belongs to the group of Martyrdoms which are united by the persecuting figure of the praeses Datianus: Felix of Girona, Cucuphas of Barcelona, Eulalia of Barcelona, Engratia, the Eighteen Martyrs of Zaragoza, Justus and Pastor of Alcala de Henares, and Leocadia of Toledo). On the Datianus cycle, see Gaiffier 1954.
Discussion
Characteristic of this version of the martyrdom are the three phases of the burial at the end:1) Burial by the elements on the shore.
2) Discovery of the body and its burial in a church (basilica).
3) Transfer of the body to the mother church (ecclesia mater, most probably the episcopal church in Valencia).
The first two phases find parallels in the description by Prudentius, see E00884. See the analysis in Saxer 2002, 120-123.
It is uncertain where the first basilica was located. In Peristephanon IV, Prudentius says that Vincentius was buried at Saguntum (E00813), but this may have been a rhetorical move to avoid direct mention of Valencia in a poem dedicated to the martyrs of Zaragoza (which has its own claim to the cult of Vincentius who had been a deacon in Zaragoza; Zaragoza also claimed to possess relics: blood of the martyr, mentioned by Prudentius, and his tunic, mentioned by Gregory of Tours, E02064), so it is not usually taken as an actual reference to the place of burial. It is more likely that it was a place extra muros in a region that served as a burial site. Llobregat 1977 suggested the sea coast south of Valencia (near Cullera). Others, however, pointed to La Roqueta, where the church of San Vicente de la Roqueta was traditionally linked with the relics of Vincent (the origins of the current building can be dated to the 13th century, though rebuilt in the 17th and 18th centuries). Some scholars (Sotomayor 1975, 207) wanted to associate a marble sarcophagus from San Vicente de la Roqueta (now in the Museo de Bellas Artes de Valencia) with the burial of Vincentius, but there is no evidence to confirm this (Ribera i Lacomba, Soriano Sanchez 1987, 147). Excavations in the 1980s attempted to find confirmation of a late antique burial site, but only Roman lead coffin burials from the 3rd or 4th century and some glass artefacts were found, with no firm evidence that the site served as a Christian cemetery in the 5th and 6th centuries.
The third phase of note in the Martyrdom is associated with Bishop Justinianus of Valencia (died after 546), whose funerary inscription documents both his building activity in the city and his veneration of Vincentius, see E08555. It has been suggested that it was Justinianus who transferred the relics to the episcopal complex in the city and possibly added the particular construction that can be identified with the remains of the Visigothic chapel discovered under the medieval Cárcel de San Vicente, south from the apse of the cathedral, and traditionally associated with the prison where Vincent died (Ribera 2005, 49-52; Meyer 2012, 132-133).
Bibliography
Editions:Fábrega Grau, Ángel (ed.), Pasionario Hispánico (Siglos VII–XI), 2 vols. Madrid and Barcelona: Atenas A.G., 1950.
Riesco Chueca, Pilar (ed.), Pasionario hispánico (Serie Filosofía y letras (Sevilla) 131). Sevilla: Universidad de Sevilla, Secretariado de Publicaciones, 1995. With Spanish translation.
Yarza Urquiola, Valeriano (ed.), Passionarium Hispanicum: saeculi X (Corpus Christianorum, series Latina 171). Turnhout: Brepols, 2020.
Further reading:
Alberto, Paulo F. ‘Editing Hispanic Passionaries’ [review of Yarza Urquiola, Valeriano (ed.), Passionarium Hispanicum: saeculi X (Corpus Christianorum, series Latina 171). Turnhout: Brepols, 2020], Euphrosyne 49 (2021): 383–96.
Gaiffier, Baudouin de, ‘Sub Daciano praeside. Étude de quelques passions espagnoles’, Analecta Bollandiana 72 (1954), 378–96. https://doi.org/10.1484/J.ABOL.4.01908.
Llobregat Conesa, Enrique A., ‘San Vicente mártir y Justiniano de Valencia’, in Homenaje Justo Pérez de Urbel (Studia Silensia 4), Silos: Abadía de Silos, 1977, vol. 2, p. 7–18.
Meyer, Sofia, Der heilige Vinzenz von Zaragoza: Studien zur Präsenz eines Märtyrers zwischen Spätantike und Hochmittelalter (Beiträge zur Hagiographie 10), Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 2012.
Ribera, Albert. ‘Sant Vicent i arqueologia de València’, in San Vicente Mártir - servidor y testigo en el XVII centenario de su martirio; actas del XII Simposio de Teología Histórica (5 - 7 mayo 2004), Valencia: Facultad de Teología San Vicente Ferrer, 2005, 45-69.
Ribera i Lacomba, Albert, and Rafaela Soriano Sánchez. ‘Enterramientos de la antigüedad tardía en Valentia’, Lucentum 6 (1987), 139–64.
Saxer, Victor, Saint Vincent, diacre et martyr. Culte et légendes avant l’an mil (Subsidia Hagiographica 83), Bruxelles: Société des Bollandistes, 2002.
Marta Szada
19/08/2024
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00290 | Vincentius/Vincent, deacon of Zaragoza and martyr of Valencia | Vincentius, Uincentius | Certain |
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