Hagiographical Texts from Sinai Manuscripts

The holy and blessed martyr Victor and the blessed woman Stephenia. The emperor Diocletian became king in the two hundred and eightieth year, on the seventh of April, and he sent out the edicts of his decree throughout his entire dominion, to all: to the rulers, the princes, and the officials, that they should compel all the Christians to worship the abominable idols. There was a certain man named Sebastianus, a prince of Cilicia. He summoned Victor, one of the soldiers, and said to him gently, as if he were unaware of his Christianity: "I have heard, then, that the emperor, the lover of the gods, has written to me letters in this manner, that all the Christians who are in our dominion should be compelled to worship our immortal gods?" The blessed Victor answered and said to him: "The reign of that emperor of yours has no strength, for it is transitory and perishable, but the lordship of our Lord Jesus Christ has no end, O Lord." Sebastianus said to him: "Until now, have you not been one of the soldiers?" Victor said to him: "Although I was a soldier and put on the garment and the outward appearance of a soldier in form, inwardly I serve my God Christ." Sebastianus said to him: "Have you not eaten of the imperial meat until now?" The blessed Victor said: "I am twenty-nine years old, and from then on I have never eaten of that meat.

Sebestianos said to him: “And why did you not eat?” The blessed Victor said to him: “So that you might know that I have not unjustly, with sorrow and sighing, gathered the royal bread from many poor people.” Sebestianos said to him: “Until now you were wise and sensible, and now in an instant you have become mad and foolish.” The blessed Victor answered and said to him: “God has chosen the madness of this world, so that the wise may be put to shame.” Sebestianos said: “O Victor, become wise and yield to the invincible gods.” The blessed Victor said: “If I submit to you and yield to your false gods, then I would be found more foolish than all men who are under heaven.” Sebestianos said to him: “Do not compel me to give you bitter and great torments.” The blessed Victor said to him: “Bring them on, so that quickly the name of your king may be erased from the earth, for you will not have mercy on me because of the torments which you are able to inflict upon me, for I have within me Jesus the Saviour and Redeemer, who strengthens me and gives me endurance for your torments.” Sebestianos said to him: “O Victor, in this lawless law of yours, are you a reader of your books or a deacon?” The blessed Victor said to him: “I am not worthy of that honour, for I am a sinful man, but the true Paul taught us this.

Sebestianos said: “Is Paul God?” The blessed Victor said: “He is not God, but he laid the foundation for men and set the foundation, and when another wise master builder comes, he will build upon that foundation which was laid by Paul the little one.” Sebestianos said: “Your books are unlearned, like the babblings of children and worthless.” The blessed Victor said to him: “My books are divine, for when I read them, the angels of God and a multitude of children cover me within them.” Sebestianos said: “Do you not see these torments which are prepared for your sake and for Helios?” The blessed Victor said to him: “O ignorant and unenlightened Sebestianos, do you not see these angels standing before me and around me? If now I am patient in this hour, I shall become a partaker of your torments by the Lord.” Sebestianos said to the torturers: “Break his hands, cast him down with the catapult.” And they did so, as the judge commanded them. The blessed Victor said: “I thank my God for this great day, which He has granted me, His servant...” Sebestianos said to the torturers: “Will you not remove this sorcerer from me? Heat a great cauldron with strong water and throw him into it.

And they heated that cauldron and cast the blessed one into it. The blessed Victor answered and said to that duke: “Are your waters cold?” When Sebestianos heard this word, the devil inflamed his heart, and he said: “Indeed, is this not the primicerius, the commander of the cavalry?” Because of this, they poured that boiling water over him and filled the cauldron with cold water. Victor said to him: “If you are cold, then your waters are cold.” When the duke heard this, he gnashed his teeth and ground them over him. And again the blessed Victor said to him: “Did you not have silver to buy wood, since you heated this water? Behold, in my house there is silver lying; send and bring it, and buy with it two loads of dry wood, and with that heat this cauldron, so that I may feel the warmth of the water. And my wealth has not been multiplied, for I labored night and day and distributed it to the poor.” Sebestianos said to his servants: “Take from that tree and pour it onto my hands.” And they did thus: ... The blessed Victor answered and said: “May God forgive you, O Sebestianos. Never has a man been seen from whom a thorn is extracted and brought out. Thus I feel in my flesh what you do to my body.” Sebestianos ordered the tormentors to flay the skin from that blessed one.

And the blessed and holy martyr Victor answered and said to him: "Even if you boil this outer skin of mine, I have within me another skin, which you will never be able to boil away from me." Then they boiled the skin of blessed Victor, as the duke had commanded, and after the boiling he commanded that he be hung on a wooden beam inside the bathhouse, where the seat of that lawless one was. And there was a certain (woman) of noble birth in that place, whose name was called Stephania. She looked through the window of the bathhouse and saw the blessed Victor hanging on the beam, and she said with weeping and lamentation: "Be saved and blessed, O blessed Victor, and offer your sacrifice like righteous Abel; God has chosen you like Enoch the scribe, who was translated to God. God has loved you like Noah, who saw this world renewed. God has saved you, like that one was saved by Daniel from the lions' den; endure, O blessed one, the patience of Job the wrestler, and become a wrestler in Shunir. And like that one who reproached Goliath, and God destroyed him, with your hands overcome that Goliath, the enemy of our souls. Behold, I see two angels, who ministered, and they brought two crowns: one, the greater, brilliant and high, for you; and the other, the lesser, for me.

Although I am a vessel unworthy and weak, lead me with you to the place of execution of the holy cross. And Saint Stephenia said this, and she was near the dux, and her words were heard by the dux. Then Sebastianus said: "Who is this woman, who speaks these words? Bring her in and present her before me." Then the torturers brought her in, as the mighty one commanded them, and presented her before him. The dux said to her: "What is your name, O woman?" Saint Stephenia said to him, which is translated as "crown": "And I have hope from my Lord Jesus Christ the God, that I shall receive from him an unfading crown." Sebastianus said to her: "O Stephenia, how old are you?" Stephenia said to him: "Thirteen years and two months." Sebastianus said: "How many years have you been joined to a husband?" Stephenia said to him: "It is seven days since I was joined to a husband." Sebastianus said: "And so quickly you wish to destroy your beauty?" Stephenia said to him: "It is better that I destroy my earthly beauty, and behold that bridegroom of mine from heaven, Jesus Christ, my eternal God.

He said to her, Sebastianus: "You are still a child, and you are unable to endure the torments which are coming upon you. Do not listen to the long and deceptive speech of the sorcerer." Stephenia answered and said to him: "You are a sorcerer and a deceiver; that one is a servant of the living God." Sebastianus said: "And who is that, if not your sorcerer?" Stephenia said: "I believe and I confess." Sebastianus said: "Summon her husband and let him adorn this one with a necklace." Then her husband came, answered and said to that holy woman: "What is this deed which you do, O Stephenia? Your feet have not yet been placed in my house, nor have I known you openly, who I am. Why then have you desired to be the doer of such a deed? Let someone else put on the garment and the adornment which I have made for the honor of your beauty?..." And there was a multitude of men and women standing there. One of the men, a certain elder, said to Sebastianus the dux: "Will you not tire of torturing this pitiful child Stephenia?" When Stephenia heard this, she said to the assembly of men: "Do you not know the work of the world, that each of you will pass away to his own tomb?" And to those women she said: "Why have you abandoned your own husbands and come here to see my torment?

Lead each of you to your own task, and do not pity me, for my helper is Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, and He will deliver me, He who gave me the strength to overcome this lawless Duke Sebastianus with patience." And when Sebastianus heard this word, he said to the servants: "Bend down with a device the tops of the two palm trees which stand near one another, and bind to each of them a part of Stephenia's body tightly, and release them violently upward." And the tormentors did according to the duke's command. And when they released the tops of the palm trees, they sprang violently upward, and the two parts tore apart that blessed body of the holy martyr Stephenia. And her martyrdom was completed on the twenty-fifth of the eighth month, to the glory of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Then he commanded that they take down the body from that wooden instrument and cut off her head with a sword. And a voice was heard from heaven above that camp, and it said: "Be strong and be fortified, O Bictur, my servant, for I am with you." And when this voice was heard in the assembly, Sebastianus said: "Behold, the sorcerer has even incited the demons in the air." And the voice came again and said: "O Bictur, be strong and be fortified.

Then the holy Biktor prayed and said, and spoke: "Look upon my humility, O Lord, Son of God, and send down upon me the grace of your miracles." And the holy Biktor called out to those horsemen and to the swordsmen of that lawless mighty one, and announced to them and said, that "after the seventh day Sebastianus will die, and on the third day his army will be scattered, and his soul will be carried off by fiery angels and brought to that outer darkness and to that unquenchable fire forever." Then the holy Biktor bent his knees, and the swordsmen cut off his head, as he had commanded them. And from his neck first came milk and after that blood. And after the seventh day that saying of the holy Biktor, which he had spoken with tears concerning Duke Sebastianus, was fulfilled, that he died an evil and terrible death, and his entire army was scattered. The holy Biktor suffered on the eighth of the month, the twenty-fifth, and the feast of his commemoration is on the third of the month of October, for the praise of his martyrdom and for the glorification of the Trinity, the one-essence, of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, whose power, honor, and fullness, strength, firmness, and beneficence are now and forever, amen.