Victorinus of Pettau | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Victorinus on a fresco in the parish church ofNova Cerkev (Slovenia) | |
| Bishop of Poetovio and Martyr | |
| Born | Likely inRoman Greece |
| Died | 303 or 304 AD Ptuj (Pettau or Poetovio) |
| Venerated in | Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Church |
| Feast | 2 November |
| Attributes | Palm,pontifical vestments |
Saint Victorinus of Pettau (alsoPtuj orPoetovio;Greek: Βικτωρίνος Πεταβίου; died 303 or 304) was anEarly Christian ecclesiastical writer who flourished about 270, and who was martyred during the persecutions of EmperorDiocletian. A Bishop of Poetovio (modernPtuj in Slovenia; German:Pettau) inPannonia, Victorinus is also known asVictorinus Petavionensis orPoetovionensis.[1] Victorinus composed commentaries on various texts within the Christians'Holy Scriptures.
Born probably inRoman Greece on the confines of theEastern andWestern Empires or inPoetovio with rather mixed population, due to its military character, Victorinus spokeGreek better thanLatin, which explains why, inSt. Jerome's opinion, his works written in the latter tongue were more remarkable for their matter than for their style.[2] Bishop of the City of Pettau, he was the first theologian to use Latin for hisexegesis.
His works are mainly exegetical. Victorinus composed commentaries on various works of the Bible, includingGenesis,Exodus,Leviticus,Isaiah,Ezekiel,Habakkuk,Ecclesiastes, theSong of Songs,Matthew, and theApocalypse of John (Revelation). He also composed theological treatises against varieties of Christianity he considered heretical. The only works of his that survived past antiquity, however, are hisCommentary on the Apocalypse[3] and the short tractOn the construction of the world (De fabrica mundi).[4]
Victorinus was much influenced byOrigen.[5]Jerome gives him an honorable place in his catalogue of ecclesiastical writers. Jerome occasionally cites the opinion of Victorinus (onEcclesiastes 4:13,Ezekiel 26, and elsewhere), but considered him to have been affected by the opinions of the Chiliasts or Millenarians.[6] According to Jerome, Victorinus died a martyr in 304.[7]
By contrast to Jerome's positive reception in the late fourth and early fifth century, Victorinus's works were condemned and listed as forbidden an according to theGelasian Decree, a 6th-century work attributed to the 5th centuryPope Gelasius I; it includes a list of works compiled by heretics or used by schismatics to be rejected and avoided, and lists Victorinus's work there.[8]
Victorinus is commemorated in both the LatinCatholic Church and theEastern Orthodox Church on 2 November. Until the 17th century he was sometimes confused with the Latin rhetorician,Victorinus Afer.
Victorinus wrote a commentary on theBook of Revelation that was later republished in a redacted form by Jerome in the 5th century AD. An original, unredacted manuscript was found in 1918. The commentary was composed not long after theValerian Persecution, about 260. According toClaudio Moreschini, "The interpretation is primarily allegorical, with a marked interest in arithmology."[9] Johannes Quasten writes that "It seems that he did not give a running commentary on the entire text but contented himself with a paraphrase of selected passages."[10] Victorinus interpreted Revelation 20:4-6 quite literally in amillennialist (chiliastic) fashion: as a prophecy of a forthcoming rule of the just in an Earthly paradise.[11][12]
The book is interesting to modern scholars as an example of how people in antiquity interpreted the book of Revelation. Victorinus sees the four animals singing praise to God as the Gospels, and the 24 elders seated on thrones inRevelation 4 are the 12 patriarchs of the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 apostles. He also agrees with views that theWhore of Babylon "drunk with the blood of martyrs and saints" represents the City of Rome and its persecutions of Christians, and thatThe Beast described inchapter 13 represents EmperorNero. As Nero was already dead during Victorinus's time, he believed that the later passages referred toNero Redivivus, a monstrous revived Nero who would attack from the East.[13] Victorinus sees the sharp two-edged sword that Christ wields with his mouth in Revelation 1 as the biblical canon, with one edge being the Old Testament and another the New Testament. He also believed that the "two witnesses" in Revelation were the prophetsElijah and another that he suspects isJeremiah because "his death was never discovered." For Victorinus, the two witnesses (and Christ) are the only inhabitants of Paradise in the present age, as all (even Christian martyrs) are currently in Hades. However, the two witnesses will descend to Earth in the age described in Revelation to finally meet their deaths.[12]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "St. Victorinus".Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
| Settlements | Administrative seat:Ptuj
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