Saint Victoria

The oldest mention of Victoria is in the Hieronymian Martyrology, where she is remembered together with Saint Anatolia. Both of them appear in the mosaics of the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, in the procession of the virgins: it is a sixth-century witness, and it is worth more than many written pages. The Venerable Bede wrote in her praise, recalling her on December 23; the Roman Martyrology later set her memorial on that day. According to the Passio, Anatolia and Victoria were two young Roman women of noble family, Christians consecrated to God, who refused to marry two patrician suitors. So the two men shut them away on their own estates in the Sabine country, hoping they would give in. They didn’t. Anatolia was killed at Thora, on Lake Salto; Victoria at Trebula Mutuesca, today’s Monteleone Sabino, where the basilica that bears her name still stands — one of the best-preserved early Christian buildings in Lazio. The story says she was run through the heart with a sword, after refusing one last time. If your name is Victoria, today is your name day.