July 21 - Victor de Marseille was a Roman soldier, officer in the Theban legion entirely composed of Christians, massacred during the reign of emperors Diocletian and Maximian Hercules in Agaune. Victor, an officer in the emperor's guard, is said to have arrived in Marseille on the occasion of a visit to the city of Emperor Maximian Hercules.
In February 303, in a well Christianized Roman Empire, where the Christian faith had penetrated the various strata of the population, a sudden, brutal and systematic persecution broke out, which would claim thousands of victims throughout the empire. Victor, a survivor of the massacre of the Theban Legion, was one of them, in Marseilles, where he was martyred for refusing to recant his Christian faith.
On July 8, 303 (or 304 according to some sources), a soldier named Victor, an officer in the Theban Legion, was brought to the Marseilles court where the prefect of the pretorium Euticius was sitting. This soldier refused to receive his pay and claimed that he was a Christian. Having refused to sacrifice to the gods as the judge ordered, Victor was dragged through the city, arms bound behind his back.
Taken back before the judge, Victor again refuses to sacrifice: "I will not sacrifice; this is due to the Creator, not to a creature". On hearing this, the tribune Asterius slapped him and the soldiers beat him with a club. After that Asterius orders that he be hanged and martyred with leather straps. Then he went downstairs and locked him in a dungeon.
On 21 July, Victor was taken from the arrests and brought before Prefect Euticius again. He repeatedly refused to sacrifice to the gods. The judge presents him with the altar where he must sacrifice. But Victor can't even bear to look at the altar dedicated to the gods, which he considers false. He kicks it from the priest's hand and knocks it to the ground. The angry judge orders the foot that kicked it to be cut off, then, as Victor still refuses to sacrifice, orders it to be put under the baker's millstone, dragged by an animal, where the grain is usually ground.
The Christians of Marseilles stole Victor's body, then hastily hid it in a place on the hillside, where they dug out the rock. At this site, an abbey was later built and given its name: the Abbey of Saint-Victor de Marseille, which has been one of the high places of Catholicism in the south of France since the end of Antiquity.
