VITTORIANO, saint. — Born c. 478, a great promoter of monastic life, died as abbot of Asán on 12 January 558.
The Life of V., reappraised by Fita (who dates it to the early 8th century) and again depreciated by Lambert (who assigns it to a much later period), makes him born in Italy. Learned and wealthy, V. is said to have left his homeland to go to southern Gaul and in 522 to Spain, spreading monasticism everywhere. It is certain that V. spent 60 years of his life in this kind of work, as is evident from the encomium by Venantius Fortunatus (Carmina, IV, 11; PL 88, 163-64; Vives, op. cit. in bibl., pp. 87-88) and from his epitaph, which compares him to the Fathers of Egyptian monasticism, SS. Paul and Anthony (Vives, op. cit., p. 88). In Spain, his principal foundation was the monastery of Asán, located in the region of Ribagorza-Sobrarbe, in the present-day diocese of Barbastro. His relics were transferred in 1089 to the monastery of Montearagón. Feast day: 12 January.
A. Pietro Frutaz