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ER 2432

The monks and former slaves, Martinianus and his brothers, persecuted and tortured by the Vandals, are exiled to the territories controlled by the pagan Berbers. They preach among them and manage to convert them to Christianity. They ask a bishop of an unnamed place to send presbyters and junior clergy to the Berbers so that they can be baptised; ca AD 460. Account by Victor of Vita, History of the Vandal Persecution in Africa, written probably in Carthage around 484/488.

Martinianus was a slave of a Vandal landowner who wanted to marry him off to his other slave Maxima. After the marriage, the two decide to live a life of chastity and asceticism. Their owner not only wants them to consummate the marriage, but also wants them to be baptised in the Homoian church. They refuse and are tortured. Later, Maxima is freed and enters a women's monastery, while Martinianus (and his brothers, whom he has also persuaded to lead an ascetic and monastic life) are exiled by the Vandals to the Berber regions under the rule of the king Capsur.

I.36–37

Videntes igitur Christi discipuli multa apud gentiles et inlicita sacrificiorum sacrilegia, coeperunt praedicatione et conuersatione sua ad cognitionem domini dei nostri barbaros inuitare; et tali modo ingentem multitudinem gentilium barbarorum Christo domino lucrauerunt, ubi ante a nullo fama Christiani nominis fuerat diuulgata. Tunc deinde cogitatur quid fieret ut ager iam cultus et egraminatus uomere praedicationis euangelicum susciperet semen et imbre sacri baptismatis rigaretur. Mittunt legatos per itinera distenta deserti; peruenitur tandem ad ciuitatem Romanam, rogatur episcopus ut presbyterum et ministros credenti populo destinarent. Explet cum gaudio quod petebatur pontifex dei; construitur ecclesia, baptizatur multitudo maxima barbarorum, et de lupis grex fecundus multiplicatur agnorum.

(ed. Lancel 2002, 113–4)

Martinianus was a slave of a Vandal landowner who wanted to marry him off to his other slave Maxima. After the marriage, the two decide to live a life of chastity and asceticism. Their owner not only wants them to consummate the marriage, but also wants them to be baptised in the Homoian church. They refuse and are tortured. Later, Maxima is freed and enters a women's monastery, while Martinianus (and his brothers, whom he has also persuaded to lead an ascetic and monastic life) are exiled by the Vandals to the Berber regions under the rule of the king Capsur.

I.36–37

The disciples of Christ, seeing the many forbidden and sacrilegious sacrifices carried out by the pagans, began by their preaching and way of life to invite them to the knowledge of the Lord our God, and by this means they gained an enormous multitude of pagan barbarians for the Lord Christ, in a place where the fame of the Christian name had hitherto been spread by no-one. Then they gave thought as to what should be done, so that the field which had now been cultivated and cleared ofgrass by the ploughshare of preaching might receive the seed of the gospel and be watered by the rain of holy baptism. They sent messengers across the long roads of the desert. At last they came to a Roman town and the bishop was asked to send a presbyter and junior clergy to the believing people. The pontiff fulfilled their request with joy: a church of God was built, a great throng of barbarians was baptized all together, and from those who had been wolves an abundant flock of lambs was multiplied.

(trans. Moorhead 1992: 17, lightly adapted)

Discussion:

On the story in the wider context of the history of the Moors (Berbers) in Vandal Africa see Moderan 2013, chapter 11, loc. 9.

Place of event:

Region

Latin North Africa

About the source:

Author: Victor of Vita
Title: History of the Vandal Persecution in Africa, Historia persecutionis in Africa
Origin: Latin North Africa
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian

Victor of Vita is known only from his work, the History of the Vandal Persecution in Africa, a narrative about the fate of the "Catholic" (i.e. Nicene) church in Africa conquered by the "Arian" (Homoian) Vandals. Although it contains many interesting details about the history of the Vandal kingdom, it is not a historiographical work but rather a literary and religious piece concerned with martyrs, confessors, and the fight of the true faith with heresy imposed on the African people by the barbarian invaders.

Victor`s name and the fact that he was a bishop of Vita is attested only in the titles given in the manuscripts. Victor himself did not mention that he was a bishop. He knows, however, very well a topography of Carthage and suggests clearly that it is the city in which he had spent a lot of time. In a passsage about the exile of the clergy to Sicca Veneria and Lares in 482/3 (II.28), he says that he was visiting prisoners and celebrating mysteries for them. Thus, we can surmise that at the time of writing his work he was a presbyter from Carthage.

Victor says that he wrote in the sixtieth year after the conquest of Africa by the Vandals, that is in 488. The last events he relates can be dated, however, to 484 and it is uncertain whether the last chapter, which speaks of the death of Huneric, was actually written by Victor (it might have been added later by another person).

Edition:

S. Lancel (ed.), Victor of Vita, Histoire de la persécution vandale en Afrique. Les passion des sept martyres. Registre des provinces et des cités d’Afrique, Paris 2002.

Translation:

J. Moorhead (trans.), Victor of Vita, History of the Vandal Persecution, Liverpool 1992

Bibliography:

C. Courtois, Victor de Vita et son oeuvre. Étude critique, Algre 1954.

Y. Modéran, Les Maures et l’Afrique romaine (IVe-VIIe siècle), Rome 2013, https://books.openedition.org/efr/1395

R. Whelan, Being Christian in Vandal Africa: The Politics of Orthodoxy in the Post-Imperial West, Oakland 2018.

Categories:

Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος

Ritual activity - Baptism and instructing catechumens

Relation with - Bishop/Monastic superior

Relation with - Barbarian

Relation with - Monk/Nun

Pastoral activity - Missionary work

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER2432, http://presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2432