Victor

From the Catholic Encyclopedia

Bishop of Tunnunum (Tonnenna, Tunnuna) in Northern Africa and zealous supporter of the Three Chapters; died about 569, probably in confinement at a monastery in Constantinople. On account of his fanatical adherence to the three Chapters, which had been condemned by an edict of Justinian I in 544, he was first imprisoned in the monastery of Mandrakion, then exiled to the Balcaric Islands on the Mediterranean Sea, and finally to Egypt. In 564 he was summoned before the emperor and the Patriarch of Constantinople, with five other African bishops, and ordered to submit to the emperor's edict. All of them remained obstinate and were imprisoned in different monasteries of Constantinople. Victor is the author of a celebrated chronicle from the creation of the world to the end of the year 566. Only that part of the chronicles which extends from 444 to 566 is extant. It is of great historical value, dealing chiefly with the Eutychian heresy, the controversy about the Three Chapters, and giving some details concerning the Arians and the invasion of the Vandals. It was first edited by Canisius in 1600, is reprinted in Migne, P.L., LXVIII, 941-62, and was newly edited by Mommsen in "Mon. Germ. Hist. Auct. Antiq.", XI, (Berlin, 1894), 178-206. The chronicle was continued to 590 by Joannes Gothus, founder of the Abbey of Biclar in Spain (Migne, P.L., LXXII, 859-70 and Mommsen, loc. cit., 211-20). Victor is probably also the author of "De Poenitentia", a treatise formerly attributed to St. Ambrose and printed in Migne, P.L., XVII, 971- 1005.

PAPENCORDT, Geschichte der Vandalischen Herrschaft in Afrika (Berlin, 1837), 359-65; HOLDER EGGER, Victor von Tunnuna in Neues Archiv fur ëltere deutsche Geschichtsforschung, I (Berlin, 1876), 298 sq.; LECLERCQ, L'Afrique Chrétienne, II (Paris, 1904), 271-72; STOKES in Dict. Christ. Biog., IV, 1126.

MICHAEL OTT