View source for Pope Victor I

{{Short description|Head of the Catholic Church from c. 189 to 199}}
{{Infobox Christian leader
| type = Pope
| honorific-prefix = [[Pope Saint]]
| name = Victor I
| title = [[Bishop of Rome]]
| church = [[Catholic Church]]
| image = Pfarrkirche Semmering Glasfenster.jpg
| caption = [[Stained glass]] image of Pope-Saint Victor, with anachronistic [[papal tiara]] ([[Semmering, Austria]])
| term_start = 189
| term_end = 199
| predecessor = [[Pope Eleutherius|Eleutherius]]
| successor = [[Pope Zephyrinus|Zephyrinus]]
| birth_date = 110–130
| birth_place = [[Africa (Roman province)|Roman Africa]], [[Roman Empire]]
| death_date = 199
| death_place = [[Rome]], [[Roman Italy|Italy]], [[Roman Empire]]
| other = Victor
| feast_day = 28 July or 11 January
}}
'''Pope Victor I''' (died 199) was a [[Roman Africans|Roman African]] prelate of the [[Great Church| Catholic Church]] who served as the [[Bishop of Rome]] in the late second century. The dates of his tenure are uncertain, but one source states he became pope in 189 and gives the year of his death as 199.<ref name="ce">Kirsch, Johann Peter (1912). "Pope St. Victor I" in ''The Catholic Encyclopedia''. Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company.</ref> He was born in the [[Africa (Roman province)|Roman Province of Africa]]. He was later considered a saint. His [[feast day]] is celebrated on 28 July as "St Victor I, Pope and Martyr".<ref>See the [[General Roman Calendar of 1954]]</ref> He was of [[Berber people|Berber]] origin.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Oxford Handbook of Ecclesiology|first=Paul|last=Avis|year=2018|isbn=9780191081378|pages=627–628|publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref>

==Biography==
The primary sources vary over the dates assigned to Victor's episcopate, but indicate it included the last decade of the second century. [[Eusebius]] puts his accession in the tenth year of [[Commodus]] (i.e. AD 189), which is accepted by Lipsius as the correct date. Jerome's version of the Chronicle puts his accession in the reign of [[Pertinax]], or the first year of [[Septimius Severus]] (i.e. 193), while the Armenian version puts it in the seventh year of Commodus (186). The ''[[Liber Pontificalis]]'' dates his accession to the consulate of Commodus and Glabrio (i.e. 186), while the ''[[Liberian Catalogue]]'', a surviving copy of the source the ''Liber Pontificalis'' drew upon for its chronology, is damaged at this point.<ref>Raymond D. Davis, ''The book of Pontiffs (Liber Pontificalis)'' (Liverpool: University Press, 1989), pp. 6, 94.</ref>

Concerning the duration of his episcopate, Eusebius, in his ''[[Church History (Eusebius)|Ecclesiastical History]]'', does not state directly the duration of his episcopate, but the Armenian version of Eusebius' Chronicle gives it as 12 years. The Liberian Catalogue gives his episcopate a length of nine years two months and ten days, while the ''Liber Pontificalis'' states it was ten years and the same number of months and days; the Felician Catalogue something over ten. Finally, Eusebius in his ''History'' (5.28) states Zephyrinus succeeded him "about the ninth year of Severus", (201), while the ''Liber Pontificalis'' dates it to the consulate of Laternus and Rufinus (197). Lipsius, considering Victor in connection with his successors, concludes that he held office between nine and ten years, and therefore gives as his dates 189–198 or 199.

According to an anonymous writer quoted by Eusebius, Victor excommunicated [[Theodotus of Byzantium]] for teaching that Christ was a mere man.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Philip Schaff: NPNF2-01. Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine - Christian Classics Ethereal Library|url=https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.iii.x.xxix.html|access-date=2022-01-20|website=www.ccel.org}}</ref> However, he is best known for his role in the [[Quartodecimanism|Quartodeciman controversy]]. Prior to his elevation, a difference in dating the celebration of the [[Christian observance of Passover|Christian Passover]]/[[Easter]] between [[Rome]] and the bishops of [[Asia Minor]] had been tolerated by both the Roman and Eastern churches.

The churches in Asia Minor celebrated Easter on the [[Quartodeciman|14th of the Jewish month of Nisan]], the day before Jewish [[Passover]], regardless of what day of the week it fell on, as the Crucifixion had occurred on the Friday before Passover, justifying this as the custom they had learned from the apostles; for this the Latins called them ''Quartodecimans''. Synods were held on the subject in various parts—in Judea under Theophilus of Caesarea and Narcissus of Jerusalem, in Pontus under Palmas, in Gaul under [[Irenaeus]], in Corinth under its bishop, Bachillus, at Osrhoene in Mesopotamia, and elsewhere—all of which disapproved of this practice and consequently issued by synodical letters declaring that "on the Lord's Day only the mystery of the resurrection of the Lord from the dead was accomplished, and that on that day only we keep the close of the paschal fast" (Eusebius H. E. v. 23).

Despite this disapproval, the general feeling was that this divergent tradition was not sufficient grounds for [[excommunication]]. Victor alone was intolerant of this difference, and severed ties with these ancient churches, whose bishops included [[Polycrates of Ephesus]];<ref>{{Cite web|title=Philip Schaff: NPNF2-01. Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine - Christian Classics Ethereal Library|url=https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.iii.x.xxv.html|access-date=2022-01-20|website=www.ccel.org}}</ref> in response he was rebuked by Irenaeus and others, according to Eusebius.

[[File:Saint Victor de Tunis.jpg|thumb|Bilingual plaque in the [[Cathedral of Saint Vincent de Paul]], [[Tunis]], commemorating Victor I.]]

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography|Christianity|History|Saints}}
*[[List of Catholic saints]]
*[[List of popes]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Literature ==
* {{BBKL|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070607210920/http://www.bautz.de/bbkl/v/victor_i_p.shtml |volume=12|column=1334-1337|author= Josef Rist|artikel=VICTOR I.}}
* {{Catholic Encyclopedia|wstitle=Pope St. Victor I|author=Johann Peter Kirsch|volume=15}}
* Handl A. (2016). Viktor I. (189?-199?) von Rom und die Etablierung des “monarchischen” Episkopats in Rom. ''Sacris Erudiri: a Journal on the Inheritance of Early and Medieval Christianity,'' 55, 7-56.

== External links ==
* {{commons category-inline}}
* {{CathEncy|wstitle=Pope St. Victor I|short=yes}}
* [http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/90137 San Vittore I Papa e martire - 28 luglio]
* {{Hl-Lex|b|Victor_I.htm|Victor I.}}
* [http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/01_01_0189-0199-_Victor_I,_Sanctus,_Martyr.html Collected works of Migne Patrologia Latina]
* {{Hl-Lex|b|Victor_I.htm|Victor I.}}
* [http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/01_01_0189-0199-_Victor_I,_Sanctus,_Martyr.html Complete works by Migne Patrologia Latina]

{{s-start}}
{{s-rel|grt}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Pope Eleuterus|Eleuterus]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Bishop of Rome]]|years=189–199}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Pope Zephyrinus|Zephyrinus]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Popes}}
{{Catholic saints}}
{{History of the Catholic Church}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Victor 01}}
[[Category:199 deaths]]
[[Category:2nd-century archbishops]]
[[Category:2nd-century Berber people]]
[[Category:2nd-century Christian saints]]
[[Category:2nd-century popes]]
[[Category:2nd-century Romans]]
[[Category:African popes]]
[[Category:Berber Christians]]
[[Category:Papal saints]]
[[Category:Popes]]
[[Category:Saints from Roman Africa]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:Burials at St. Peter's Basilica]]