VINCENT, Saint, Martyr. — A Spanish deacon, a victim of the Diocletian persecution, probably in the year 304; he is among the few martyrs recorded in the calendar of Polemius Silvius (CIL, I, 2nd ed., p. 259).
The poetic account of Prudentius in the poem dedicated to him (Peristephanon, V) is not essentially different from that of the *Passio* (BHL, II, 1247 ff.; suppl., pp. 306, 307; BHG, p. 263); but the original *Passio* differs from that which has come down to us. V., deacon of Valerius, is brought to Valencia to be judged; subjected to many cruel torments, the martyr’s body is exposed to birds of prey, then cast into the sea and returned by the waves; the sand becomes his first tomb (scara fo
venus the peace grants to the blessed bones their due rest^{3}); a basilica is erected and soon his veneration spreads. Prudentius also commemorates V. in the fourth book of his *Peristephanon* in honor of the eighteen martyrs of Saragossa (vv. 77–78, 89–108). Notable is a sermon in his honor by St. Justus of Urgell, in which the holy deacon is called “nobis veruncula, noster ex genere… noster in tumulo,” etc. (B. De Gaiffier, *Sermons*, cited in bibliography).
His deposition is recorded on 22 January in the Calendar of Carthage, in the *Martyrologium Hieronymianum*, and in the *Synaxarium Eccl. Constant.*; in the second source he is also commemorated on 11 and 22 January, 19 April, 21 August, and 31 October; in the third, on 11 November together with St. Victor and St. Menas, and on 6 August for the dedication of his church built outside the walls of Constantinople. He is the most famous of the martyrs of Spain; his veneration spread so rapidly that St. Augustine asks: “quousque vel romanum imperium vel christianum nomen extenditur natalem non gaudet celebrare Vincentii” (Sermon 276: PL 38, 1257). Indeed, six sermons of St. Augustine on the feast or commemoration of St. Vincent the Martyr are known (PL 38, 1252–68), delivered by him on 22 January in the years 410 (serm. 274), 411 (serm. 275), 412 (serm. 276), and 413 in Carthage in the basilica Restituta (serm. 277); also the sermon *De Esau et Jacob* (PL 38, 33–52), delivered between 410 and 412. From one of these we learn that in Africa the *Passio* of the Saint was read in church at the time of St. Augustine (“quae nobis hodie recitata est” [PL 38, 1255]). Another *Sermon in natale sancti Vincentii* is in *Miscellanea Agostiniana*, I, Rome 1930, pp. 243–45. Paulinus of Nola recalls him: “Vincentius extat Iberis” (Carm., XIX, 153 and XXX, 7: PL 61, 520, 673); likewise Venantius Fortunatus: PL 88, 270. Eugenius of Toledo composed an epigram in his honor (PL 87, 361); Hildebert wrote a poem for him (PL 171, 1301); St. Peter Damian composed a hymn (PL 145, 947), as did Adam of Saint-Victor (PL 196, 1475 ff.).
The *Liber Sacramentorum mozarabicus* (ed. M. Férotin, Paris 1912, cols. 112–21) contains a Mass in honor of St. V. in which the tunic woven throughout is mentioned; to this Mass is connected the sermon “cunctorum” falsely attributed to St. Augustine, St. Leo, or St. Maximus of Turin. In 531 Childebert brought the tunic to Paris, to the monastery of St. V., later St-Germain-des-Prés (Gregory of Tours, *Historia Francorum*, III, 29). In Rome his image was painted in the 6th–7th century in the cemetery of Ponziano (SCS BICENTIUS), depicted in a large cloak (*penula*) and in an attitude of prayer (Wilpert, *Pitture*, pl. 258). Another image of St. V. is found in the *Expositio in Evangelia* of St. Bede, a 10th-century codex now in the National Library of Turin (ms. D. III, 16). The Provincial Museum of Painting in Valencia has a 12th-century statue of the martyr, coming from the ancient monastery of La Roqueta.
St. V. was immediately honored in Saragossa, Salona (F. Bulić, *L'iscrizione di s. V. m. Caesaraugustano trovata a nord della basilica urbana a Salona*, in *Bull. d'arch. e storia dalmata*, 29 [1906], pp. 246–56), Sagunto, Béziers, Toulouse, Vaison (CIL, XI, 499), Agen, Chalon, Ugento, Switzerland, etc.
His relics (*brandea*) were venerated in Carmona (CIL, XII, no. 374), in Africa (P. Monceaux, *Enquête sur l'épigraphie chrétienne d'Afrique*, Paris 1909, nos. 193, 262, 304), and especially in Tamalla, today Tocqueville in Algeria (*Bull. arch. du Comité*, 1909, p. 56). Monasteries were founded in his honor at Le Mans (PL 72, 638–40), at Volturno (v. VINCENZO AL VOLTURNO, SAN, ABBAZIA DI, San), at Metz (PL 160, 713), and at Conques in the time of Charles the Bald.