VITTORINO, VESCOVO DI PETTAU (POETOVIUM)

VITORINO, bishop of PETTAU (Poetovium). - He occupied the see of Poetovium (in Styria, Upper Pannonia) at the end of the 3rd century and died in 304 as a martyr during the persecution of Diocletian.

According to St. Jerome (*De viris ill.,* 74), he wrote commentaries on Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Habakkuk, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs, Revelation, and a work *Adversus omnes haereses*.

Of this vast literary output, only the commentary on Revelation survives, preserved in its original form solely in codex Ottob. lat. 3288 A of the Vatican Library. Other manuscripts contain the recension (and alteration) of the original text made by St. Jerome, who softened the millenarianism of V.’s edition with the spiritualist exegesis of Tyconius. V. knew Greek and made use of the works of Papias, Origen, Irenaeus, and Hippolytus. St. Jerome’s recension was further reworked in later centuries. Another work by V. is the treatise *De fabrica mundi*, which treats of the week of creation and also has a millenarian character.

The work *Adversus omnes haereses*, attributed to V. by St. Jerome, is, according to Ed. Schwartz, the Latin translation made by V. of an anti-heretical Greek book, allegedly written in Rome under Pope Zephyrinus. The Latin text survives in chapters 46–53 of Tertullian’s *De praescriptione haereticorum*. However, this hypothesis is highly fragile.

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