regard to those who had not been taken armed in just wars. See the
history of the Isle of St. Domingo, by {} Charlevoix.
2. Bened. XIV. De Beatif. et Canoniz. {} 1. Append. p. 496.
3. De Servor. Dei Canoniz. Roma. 1728. {}4. Tr. de Miraculis, c. 16, p.
196.
4. Tuus esto ubique: concha esto non canalis. S. Bern. l. d. Consid.

SS. VICTORIAN, PROCONSUL OF CARTHAGE,

AND OTHERS, MARTYRS UNDER THE VANDALS.

HUNERIC, the Arian king of the Vandals in Africa, succeeded his father
Genseric in 477. He behaved himself at first with moderation towards the
Catholics, so that they began to hold their assemblies in those places
where they had been prohibited by Genseric: but in 480, he began a
grievous persecution of the clergy and holy virgins, which, in 484,
became general, and occasioned vast numbers of the Catholics to be put
to death. Victorian, a citizen of Adrumetum, one of the principal lords
of the kingdom, had been made by him governor of Carthage with the Roman
title of proconsul. He was the wealthiest subject the king had, who
placed great confidence in him, and he had ever behaved with an
inviolable fidelity. The king, after he had published his cruel edicts,
sent a message to the proconsul in the most obliging terms, promising,
if he would conform to his religion, and execute his orders, to heap on
him the greatest wealth and the highest honors which it was in the power
of a prince to bestow. The proconsul, who amidst the glittering pomp of
the world perfectly understood its emptiness, made on the spot this
generous answer: "Tell the king that I trust in Christ. If his majesty
pleases, he may condemn me to the flames, or to wild beasts, or to any
torments: but I shall never consent to renounce the Catholic church in
which I have been baptized. Even if, there were no other life after
this, I would never be ungrateful and perfidious to God, who hath
granted me the {650} happiness of knowing him, and who hath bestowed on
me his most precious graces." The tyrant became furious at this answer:
nor can the tortures be imagined which he caused the saint to endure.
Victorian suffered them with joy, and amidst them finished his glorious
martyrdom. The Roman Martyrology joins with him on this day four others
who were crowned in the same persecution. Two brothers of the city of
Aquae-regiae, in the province of Byzacena, were apprehended for the faith,
and conducted to Tabaia in the same province. They had promise