The Lives and Times of the Popes - Saint Victor I – A.D. 193

While Victor I sat in the chair of Saint Peter, especial attention was paid to the question about the celebration of Easter, of which we have already spoken. The dispute was on this question: whether the celebration should take place on the fourteenth day of the March moon, as the Asiatic Churches maintained, or on the Sunday next after that fourteenth day, as was customary at Rome and among the Western Churches. This latter opinion, conformable to the tradition of Saint Peter, prevailed in the council which was assembled in Rome by Pope Saint Victor. However, those who preferred the contrary practice were not condemned until the question was decided by the Council of Nice. But the first decision proves what power Victor then had in the Church. Some excitable persons wanted Saint Victor to excommunicate the Asiatic bishops; but, at the persuasion of Saint Irenaeus, Victor did not pronounce the decree of separation. Novaes gives the names of the authors who believe that fact; but he also gives the names of the authors who, contrariwise, believe that the excommunication actually took place. Among these latter he mentions Baronius, Pagi, Schelstrate, the Bollandists, Basnage, and others. Pierre de Marcas, while he adopts the opinion of the latter authors, adds that Saint Victor, at the urgent request of Saint Irenaeus, subsequently admitted the bishops to communion. Father Zaccaria, with Dumesnil and Daude, believes that Victor deprived the Asiatics of his individual communion, by depriving them of his Pacific Letters (which were given to pilgrims, testifying to their faith and to their communion with the church in whatever place they might reside), and that, at length, he showed himself indulgent and patient, in order that he might conciliate many bishops who disapproved of vexing churches so illustrious, when their docility and obedience might be better left to the work of time.

Saint Victor I decided that common water might, in case of actual necessity, be used in baptism.

In several councils he excommunicated those heretics who maintained that Christ was man and not God, and others who maintained that the body of Jesus was celestial. He condemned Praxeas, who maintained that the Father and not the Son had suffered on the cross, and who denied the three persons of the Most Holy Trinity.

At this period flourished Saint Clement of Alexandria. His name was Titus Flavius Clemens; some call him Athenian, which has led to the belief that he was born at Athens. He was deeply learned in literature and philosophy, especially in that of Plato. He was well versed also in the Holy Scriptures and the doctrine of the gospel. At the commencement of his Stromates, he thus informs us of the pains that he took in studying them: “I have not composed this work for ostentation; it is a treasure of memory for my old age, an artless remedy against oblivion and malice, a slight sketch of lively and animated discourses, and those blessed and truly memorable men whom I have had the advantage to hear.”

Victor, in two ordinations, created twelve bishops, four priests, and seven deacons. He governed the Church about nine years. Saint Nicholas, who was pope in 858, says that Victor was truly, as well as in name, a Victor, or conqueror, because he was martyrized for the traditions of the Church.

Saint Victor I was buried in the Vatican.

He left some books on points of religion. They are lost, but they had obtained the praises of Saint Jerome, who also says that Saint Victor was the first among ecclesiastical authors to use the Latin language, all before him having written in Greek.

- from "The Lives and Times of the Popes", by Alexis-François Artaud de Montor