St. Vincent Deacon and Martyr                                                                      22 January 304

 Also known as Vincent of Saragossa; Vincent the Deacon; Vincent Tourante; Vincent of Aragon

Saint Vincent was a deacon of the Church of Saragossa in Spain. He was educated by Bishop St. Valerius of Saragossa, who ordained him a deacon and commissioned him to preach. They were both arrested by Dacian, governor of Spain, at Saragossa during Emperor Maximian’s persecution of the Christians around the year 304. Both were put in prison at Valencia. Valerius was exiled (though later returned), but Vincent was tortured when he refused to sacrifice to pagan gods or surrender the sacred books of his church. He was subjected to imprisonment, starvation, the rack, placed on a red-hot gridiron and endured gruesome tearing of his flesh. Following his torture, he was returned to prison and converted his warden, but died from the effects of the extreme tortures he endured. His body was thrown to be devoured by vultures, but it was defended by a raven. Dacian had the body cast into the sea, but it came to shore and was buried by a pious widow. His renown immediately spread throughout the Church. He is represented in art wearing the dalmatic vestments of a deacon with one of the sacred books he protected.  He is also shown with emblems a cross, a raven, a grate, or a fire-pile; the instruments of his torture. St. Augustine writes the following on the courage, the faith and the sanctity of Saint Vincent, the most renowned martyr of Spain who is mentioned in the Roman Martyrology of the early Church.

St Augustine wrote: 

There is no need to wonder then, my dearly beloved brothers, that Vincent conquered in him who conquered the world. Christ said: In this world you will suffer persecution, but in such wise that the persecution will not overwhelm, and the attack will not overcome you. Against Christ’s army the world arrays a twofold battle line. It offers temptation to lead us astray; it strikes terror into us to break our spirit. Hence if our personal pleasures do not hold us captive, and if we are not frightened by brutality, then the world is overcome. At both of these approaches Christ rushes to our aid, and the Christian is not conquered. If you were to consider in Vincent’s martyrdom only human endurance, then his act is unbelievable from the outset. But first recognize the power to be from God, and he ceases to be a source of wonder.
Such savagery was being vented upon the martyr’s body while such serenity issued from his lips, such harsh cruelties were being inflicted on his limbs while such assurance rang out in his words, that we should think that, by some miracle, as Vincent suffered, one person was speaking while another was being tortured. And this, my brothers, was true; it was really the truth; another person was speaking. Christ in the Gospel promised this to those who were to be his witnesses, to those whom he was preparing for contests of this kind. For he said: Do not give thought to how or what you are to speak. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks within you. Thus it was Vincent’s body that suffered, but the Spirit who spoke. And at his voice, impiety was not only vanquished but human frailty was given consolation.

(Source: The Liturgy of the Hours – Office of Readings) 

Prayer: Almighty God, whose deacon Vincent, upheld by you, was not terrified by threats nor overcome by torments: Strengthen us to endure all adversity with invincible and steadfast faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.