The Presbyters Project

I.41

Quodam tempore paschalis sollemnitas agebatur et dum in quodam loco quae Regia uocitatur ob diem paschalis honoris nostri sibimet clausam ecclesiam reserarent, conpererunt Arriani. Statim quidam presbyter eorum, Anduit nomine, congregata secum armatorum manu ad expugnandam turbam accenditur innocentum. Introeunt euaginatis spatis, arma corripiunt; alii quoque tecta conscendunt et per fenestras ecclesiae sagittas spargunt. Et tunc forte audiente et canente populo dei lector unus pulpito sistens alleluiaticum melos canebat; quo tempore sagitta in gutture iaculatus, cadente de manibus codice, mortuus post cecidit ipse.

(ed. Lancel 2002, 115-116)

I.41

At one time when the solemnity of Easter was being celebrated, the Arians learned that our people had opened a church which had been shut at a certain place called Regia, so they could celebrate Easter Day. Straightaway one of their priests, whose name was Anduit, got together a band of armed men and incited them to attack the throng of the innocent. They went in with swords drawn, they snatched arms; others climbed onto roofs and fired arrows through the windows of the church. Just then, as the people of God were listening and singing, a lector was standing on the platform chanting the Alleluia. At that moment he was struck by an arrow in the throat. The book fell from his hand, and he himself fell backwards, dead.

(trans. Moorhead 1992, 18-19)

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.

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

Categories:

Social origin or status - Soldiers

PR1088.

Religious grouping (other than Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian) - Arian

PR1088.

Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος

PR1088.

Relation with - Heretic/Schismatic

PR1088.

Conflict - Violence

PR1088.

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER2434, http://presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2434