St. Vincent the Deacon

Saint Vincent the Deacon

Protomartyr of Spain

Vincent was born in Spain in the third century. He became a deacon under Bishop St. Valerius of Saragossa, and was serving in that role when he and his bishop were apprehended soon after the start of the infamous Diocletian persecution. The Roman governor held them in prison for some time before banishing St. Valerius, and then set about trying to break Vincent. The holy deacon was stretched on the rack and his flesh torn gruesomely with hooks, but Vincent was an image of peace and calm, strengthened by heavenly endurance. He was then placed on a barbed gridiron and horribly burned, but the deacon was unmoved by the pain and only increased in joy and fortitude. The frustrated governor ordered Vincent thrown back into prison, where he was comforted by angels to the point of standing upright to praise God. The jailer, shocked at the sight, was converted on the spot, and the governor, now at his wit’s end, allowed Vincent’s fellow Christians to tend to the deacon. As soon as they placed him on a comfortable bed, however, he happily expired. His body, thrown first into a marsh, was defended from beasts by a raven, and then miraculously recovered after being cast into the sea. Vincent is a patron of wine makers and sellers, deacons, and sailors.

Traditional Roman Martyrology for January 22nd

AT Valencia, in Spain, while the wicked Dacian was governor, St. Vincent, deacon and martyr, who, after suffering imprisonment, hunger, the torture, the disjointing of his limbs; after being burned with plates of heated metal and on the gridiron, and tormented in other ways, took his flight to heaven, there to receive the reward of martyrdom. His noble triumph over his sufferings has been elegantly set forth in verse by Prudentius, and highly eulo gized by St. Augustine and pope St. Leo.

At Rome, at Aquae Salviae, St. Anastasius, a Persian monk, who, after suffering much at Caesarea, in Palestine, from imprisonment, stripes and fetters, had to bear many afflictions from Chosroes, king of Persia, who caused him to be beheaded. He had sent before him to martyrdom seventy of his companions, who were precipitated into rivers. His head was brought to Rome, together with his venerable likeness, by the sight of which the demons are expelled, and diseases cured, as is attested by the Acts of the second council of Nicaea.

At Embrun, in France, the holy martyrs Vincent, Orontius, and Victor, who were crowned with martyrdom in the persecution of Diocletian.

At Novara, St. Gaudentius, bishop and confessor.

At Sora, the abbot St. Dominic, renowned for miracles.

℣. And elsewhere many other holy martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.

℟. Thanks be to God.