Iacobus de Voragine: LEGENDA AUREA

Vincentius quasi "vitium incendens" vel "vincens incendia" vel "victoriam tenens". Ipse enim incendit, id est, consumpsit vitia per carnis mortificationem; vicit incendia suppliciorum per constantem poenarum perpessionem; victoriam tenuit mundi per ipsius despectionem. Vicit enim tria, quae erant in mundo, scilicet falsos errores, immundos amores, mundanos timores, quos vicit per sapientiam, munditiam et constantiam. De quibus dicit Augustinus: "Ut cum omnibus erroribus, amoribus et timoribus vincatur hic mundus, sanctorum martyria docent et docuerunt.'

Vincent is, as it were, “igniting vice” or “vanquishing conflagrations” or “holding victory.” For he ignited, that is, consumed vices through the mortification of the flesh; he conquered the fires of torments through the constant endurance of punishments; he held victory over the world through disdain of it. For he conquered three things which were in the world, to wit: false errors, unclean loves, worldly fears— which he conquered through wisdom, purity, and constancy. Of which Augustine says: “So that, together with all errors, loves, and fears, this world may be conquered, the martyrdoms of the saints teach and have taught.”

Vincentius, nobilis genere, sed fide ac religione nobilior, beati Valerii episcopi diaconus fuit. Cui episcopus, quia expeditioris erat linguae, vices suas commiserat et ipse orationi et contemplationi vacabat. Iussu igitur Daciani praesidis Valentiam trahuntur et diro carceri mancipantur.

Vincentius, noble by lineage, but nobler in faith and religion, was the deacon of the blessed Bishop Valerius. To him the bishop, because he was of a readier tongue, had entrusted his own duties, and he himself devoted himself to prayer and contemplation. By order, therefore, of the governor Dacianus they are dragged to Valencia and consigned to a dire prison.

Cumque eos fame paene defecisse cerneret, eos suo adspectui iussit adstare, quos cumque sanos cerneret et gaudentes, iratus in hanc vocem prorupit: "Quid dicis tu, Valeri, qui sub nomine religionis contra decreta principum facis?" Cum autem beatus Valerius lenius responderet, dixit ei Vincentius: "Noli, pater venerabilis, quasi mente timida submurmurare, sed libera voce exclama. Si ergo iubes, pater sancte, responsis iudicem aggrediar." Cui ille: "Iamdudum tibi, fili carissime, loquendi curam commiseram et nunc pro fide, qua adstamus, responsa committo." Tunc Vincentius conversus ad Dacianum: "Hactenus", inquit, "a te sermo de neganda fide peroravit, sed nefariam apud Christianos prudentiam esse, cognosce, Deitatis cultum abnegando blasphemare."

And when he saw that they had almost fainted from hunger, he ordered them to stand in his presence; and when he saw them sound and rejoicing, angered he burst forth into this utterance: "What do you say, you, Valerius, who under the name of religion act against the decrees of the princes?" But when the blessed Valerius was responding more gently, Vincentius said to him: "Do not, venerable father, as if with a timid mind, mutter under your breath, but cry out with a free voice. If therefore you command, holy father, I will assail the judge with replies." To whom he: "Long since, dearest son, I entrusted to you the charge of speaking, and now for the faith in which we stand I entrust the answers." Then Vincentius, turned to Dacianus: "Up to this point," he said, "speech from you has harangued about denying the faith; but know that, among Christians, it is a nefarious ‘prudence’ to blaspheme by denying the worship of the Deity."

Tunc iratus Dacianus episcopum in exsilium mitti praecepit, Vincentium vero, tamquam contumacem et praesumptuosum iuvenem, ut eius exemplo alii terreantur, in equuleum distentum membris omnibus iussit dissipari. Cumque corpore totus dissiparetur, ait Dacianus: "Dic mihi, Vincenti, ubi nunc tuum miserrimum corpus conspicis!" At ille subridens ait: "Hoc est, quod semper optavi." Tunc iratus praeses coepit ei omnia genera tormentorum minari, nisi ei assensum praeberet. Cui Vincentius: "O felicem me, quo mihi irasci te gravius putas, eo melius incipis misereri.

Then Dacian, enraged, ordered the bishop to be sent into exile, but Vincent, as a contumacious and presumptuous youth, in order that others might be terrified by his example, he ordered to be stretched on the rack, with all his limbs distended, and to be torn apart. And while he was being wholly torn in body, Dacian said: "Tell me, Vincent, where now do you behold your most wretched body!" But he, smiling, said: "This is what I have always desired." Then the angry governor began to threaten him with every kind of torment, unless he should offer assent to him. To whom Vincent: "O happy me, the more severely you suppose yourself to be angry with me, the better you begin to take pity.

Insurge ergo, miser, et toto malignitatis spiritu debacchare: Videbis me Dei virtute plus posse, dum torquor, quam possis ipse, qui torques." Ad hoc praeses coepit clamare et carnifices virgis et fustibus verberare. Et ait Vincentius: "Quid dicis, Daciane! Tu ipse me vindicas de tortoribus meis." Tunc praeses amens factus dixit carnificibus: "Miserrimi, nihil facitis.

So rise up then, wretch, and rage with the whole spirit of malignity: You will see me, by the virtue of God, able to do more while I am being racked than you yourself can, who rack me." At this the governor began to shout and to have the executioners beat with rods and cudgels. And Vincent said: "What say you, Dacian! You yourself are avenging me upon my tormentors." Then the governor, having gone mad, said to the executioners: "Most wretched men, you are doing nothing.

Cur deficiunt manus vestrae? Adulteros et parricidas vincere potuistis, ut nihil inter illata supplicia celare possent, et nunc solus Vincentius vestra potuit superare tormenta."

"Why are your hands failing? You have been able to conquer adulterers and parricides, so that amid the punishments inflicted they could conceal nothing, and now Vincent alone has been able to overcome your torments."

Tunc carnifices pectines ferreos usque ad intima costarum fixerunt, ita ut de toto eius corpore sanguis efflueret et solutis costarum compaginibus viscera interna paterent. Et ait Dacianus: "Commiserere tui, Vincenti, ut possis tam pulchram recuperare iuventutem et ea, quae supra sunt, lucrari tormenta." Et ait Vincentius: "0 venenosa diaboli lingua, tormenta tua non timeo, sed hoc solum valde metuo, quod te mihi fingis velle misereri. Nam quo te magis iratum video, eo amplius et magis exsulto.

Then the executioners fastened iron combs down to the inmost parts of the ribs, so that blood flowed out from his whole body, and, the joinings of the ribs loosened, the inner viscera lay open. And Dacian said: "Take pity on yourself, Vincent, so that you can recover so beautiful a youth and, by the torments, gain the things that are above." And Vincent said: "0 venomous tongue of the devil, I do not fear your torments, but this alone I greatly fear: that you feign to wish to have pity on me. For the more I see you enraged, by so much the more I exult."

Nolo, ut aliquid minuas de suppliciis, ut te victum in omnibus fatearis." Tunc ex equuleo depositus atque ad ignis craticulam raptus, moras carnificum arguendo ad poenam alacriter properabat. Craticulam ergo sponte conscendens ibidem assatur, exuritur et crematur membrisque omnibus uncini ferrei et ardentes laminae infiguntur, dumque flamma respergitur, vulnera vulneribus imprimuntur. Sal insuper in ignem spargitur, ut in corpus eius undique vulneratum resiliens stridentibus flammis crudelius comburatur.

“I do not wish you to lessen anything of the punishments, so that you may confess yourself vanquished in all things.” Then, taken down from the equuleus and dragged to the fire’s gridiron, by arraigning the delays of the executioners he was eagerly hastening to the penalty. Therefore, mounting the gridiron of his own accord, there he is roasted, scorched, and cremated; and into all his limbs iron hooks and burning plates are driven, and while the flame is besprinkled, wounds are imprinted upon wounds. Salt besides is scattered into the fire, so that, rebounding upon his body wounded on every side, with hissing flames he is burned the more cruelly.

Iamque non ad artus, sed ad viscera tela iaciuntur iamque intima viscera de eius corpore extra labuntur. Inter haec ille immobilis et, sursum erectis luminibus, Dominum precabatur.

And now the missiles are thrown not at the limbs but at the viscera, and now the inmost viscera slip out from his body. Amid these things he was immobile and, with his eyes raised upward, he prayed to the Lord.

Cumque ministri haec Daciano retulissent, "Heu", ait Dacianus, "vincimini, sed iam nunc ut in poena diutius vivat, ipsum taeterrimo carceri includite et ibi testas acutissimas congerite, pedes eius ligno affigite, sine omni humano solacio, extensum sic super testas relinquite et, cum defecerit, nuntiate."

And when the ministers had reported these things to Dacianus, "Alas," said Dacianus, "you are being vanquished; but now, so that he may live longer in punishment, shut him up in a most loathsome prison, and there heap up very sharp potsherds, affix his feet to a piece of wood, without any human solace, leave him thus stretched out upon the potsherds, and, when he has expired, announce it."

Favent quantocius ministri crudeles domino crudeliori, sed ecce rex, pro quo miles patitur, poenam commutavit in gloriam: Nam tenebrae carceris ab immensa luce expelluntur, testarum asperitas in omnium florum suavitatem mutatur, compedes dissolvuntur et angelorum solacio venerando perfruitur. Cumque super flores cum angelis psallens incederet, modulatio dulcis et mira suavitas florum procul diffunditur. Perterriti custodes cum per rimas carceris, quod intus, vidissent, ad fidem conversi sunt.

The cruel ministers favor as quickly as possible their more-cruel lord; but behold, the king, for whom the soldier suffers, has commuted the penalty into glory: For the darkness of the prison is driven out by immense light, the asperity of the potsherds is changed into the sweetness of all flowers, the fetters are dissolved, and he fully enjoys the venerable solace of the angels. And when he was proceeding upon the flowers, psalm-singing with the angels, a sweet modulation and a wondrous sweetness of the flowers is diffused afar. The terrified guards, when through the cracks of the prison they had seen what was within, were converted to the faith.

Haec audiens Dacianus amens factus ait: "Et quid ei amplius faciemus! Ecce enim victi sumus. Transferatur ad lectulum et stramentis mollioribus reponatur, ne plus eum gloriosum faciamus, si forte in tormentis defecerit, sed postquam recreatur, novis iterum suppliciis puniatur."

Hearing these things, Dacianus, made mad, said: "And what more shall we do to him! Behold indeed we are conquered. Let him be transferred to a little couch and be set down with softer straw, lest we make him more glorious, if perchance he should fail in the torments; but after he is restored, let him again be punished with new torments."

Cum igitur ad stratum molliorem deportatus esset et ibidem paululum quievisset, statim spiritum tradidit circa annos Domini CCLXXXVII sub Diocletiano et Maximiano.

When therefore he had been transported to a softer bed and had there rested a little, immediately he gave up the spirit around the year of the Lord 287 under Diocletian and Maximian.

Quo audito Dacianus vehementer expavit et se sic victum dolens ait: "Etsi non potui eum superare viventem, puniam vel defunctum et sic satiabor de poena et sic poterit mihi provenire victoria."

On hearing this, Dacian was vehemently appalled and, grieving that he was thus vanquished, said: "Although I could not overcome him living, I will punish even the defunct, and thus I shall be satiated with punishment, and thus victory may come to me."

Iussu ergo Daciani corpus eius in campum ab avibus et bestiis devorandum exponitur, sed statim angelorum custodia praemunitur et intactum a bestiis conservatur. Denique corvus ingluviei deditus alias aves se maiores impetu alarum abegit et lupum accurrentem morsibus et clamoribus effugavit, qui renexo capite in aspectu corporis sacri fixus cernitur, utpote qui ibidem angelorum custodiam mirabatur.

By the order therefore of Dacianus, his body is exposed in the field to be devoured by birds and beasts; but immediately it is pre-fortified by the custody of angels and is preserved untouched by the beasts. Finally a raven, given over to gluttony, drove away other birds greater than itself by the impetus of its wings, and by bites and by clamors put to flight a wolf running up, who, with head bent back, is seen fixed in the sight of the sacred body, as one who there marveled at the guardianship of the angels.

Quod audiens Dacianus ait: "Puto, quod neque defunctum potero superare." Iubet ergo corpori eius ingentem molam alligari et in pelago proici, ut, quod in terra a bestiis consumi non potuit, saltem in pelago a marinis belvis devoretur. Nautae ergo corpus eius in pelagus deferentes submergunt, sed velocius ipsis nautis, litora corpus petit. Quod a quadam matrona et quibusdam aliis ipso revelante invenitur et ab iis hononfice sepelitur.

Hearing this, Dacianus said: "I suppose that I shall not be able to overcome him even dead." Therefore he orders a huge millstone to be bound to his body and to be cast into the deep, so that what could not be consumed on land by beasts may at least in the deep be devoured by marine beasts. The mariners, therefore, carrying his body into the deep, submerge it, but, more swiftly than the mariners themselves, the body makes for the shores. It is found by a certain matron and by some others, he himself revealing it, and by them it is buried honorably.

De hoc martyre sic dicit Augustinus: "Beatus Vincentius vicit in verbis, vicit in poenis, vicit in confessione, vicit in tribulatione, vicit exustus, vicit submersus, vicit ortus, vicit mortuus." Idem: "Torquetur Vincentius, ut exerceatur, bagellatur, ut erudiatur, tunditur, ut subsolidetur, exuritur, ut repurgetur. "Ambrosius in Praefatione quoque de ipso sic ait: "Torquetur Vincentius, tunditur, nagellatur et exuritur, sed invictus pro sancto nomine animus non concutitur, plus ardens igne zeli quam ferri, plus nectitur timore Dei quam saeculi, plus voluit placere Deo quam foro, plus dilexit mori mundo quam Domino.

Concerning this martyr Augustine thus says: "Blessed Vincent conquered in words, conquered in pains, conquered in confession, conquered in tribulation, conquered burned, conquered submerged, conquered risen, conquered dead." The same: "Vincent is tormented, that he may be exercised; he is flagellated, that he may be instructed; he is beaten, that he may be made more solid; he is burned out, that he may be purged again." Ambrose also in the Preface concerning him thus says: "Vincent is tormented, is beaten, is flagellated and is burned, but the unconquered spirit for the holy name is not shaken, burning more with the fire of zeal than of iron, being bound more by the fear of God than of the age, he wished more to please God than the forum, he loved more to die to the world than to the Lord."

Item Augustinus: "Ante oculos nostros mirandum spectaculum constitutum est: iudex iniquus, tortor cruentus, martyr invictus, crudelitatis pietatisque certamen." Prudentius quoque, qui claruit tempore Theodosii senioris, qui coepit anno Domini CCCLXXXVII, ipsum Daciano respondisse ait: "Tormenta, carceres, ungulae, stridensque flammis lamina atque ipsa poenarum ultima mors Christianis ludus est." Tunc Dacianus: "Vinctum, retortum bracchiis sursum ac deorsum extendite, donec compago ossium divulsa membratim crepet, ut per lacunas vulnerum iecur detectum palpitet." Ridebat hic miles Dei manus cruentas increpans, quod fixa non profundius intraret artus ungula. Cum esset in carcere, angelus dixit ad eum: "Exsurge, martyr inclite, exsurge securus et almis coetibus noster sodalis addere: O miles invictissime fortissimorum fortior, iam te ipsa saeva et aspera tormenta victorem tremunt." Exclamat Prudentius: "Tu solus insignite, solus bravii duplicis palmam tulisti, tu duas simul paravisti laureas.

Likewise Augustine: "Before our eyes a wondrous spectacle has been set: an unjust judge, a bloody torturer, an unconquered martyr, a contest of cruelty and piety." Prudentius also, who flourished in the time of Theodosius the Elder, who began in the year of the Lord 387, says that he replied to Dacianus himself: "Torments, prisons, claws, and the plate hissing with flames, and death itself, the ultimate of punishments, are sport for Christians." Then Dacianus: "Bound, twisted, stretch him with arms upward and downward, until the framework of the bones, torn apart, cracks limb by limb, so that through the gaps of the wounds the liver, laid bare, may throb." Here the soldier of God was laughing, rebuking the bloody hands, because the claw, though driven in, did not enter the limbs more deeply. When he was in prison, an angel said to him: "Rise up, illustrious martyr, rise up secure and be added to the kindly choirs as our comrade: O most unconquered soldier, stronger than the strongest, now the savage and harsh torments themselves tremble at you as victor." Prudentius exclaims: "You alone, distinguished one, alone have borne away the palm of the double prize; you have readied two laurels at once.