Innocent, an Albanian, lived in the time of Saints
Jerome and Augustine. Jerome, writing to the virgin Demetrias, says
of him: “Hold fast to the faith of holy Innocent, who is the son
of Anastasius of blessed memory and his successor on the Apostolic
throne. Receive no strange doctrine, however shrewd and prudent you
may think yourself.” Orosius writes that like the just Lot, he was
withdrawn by God’s
providence from Rome, and preserved in safety at Ravenna, that he
might not be a witness of the ruin of the Roman people. After the
condemnation of Pelagius and Celestinus, he decreed, contrary to
their heretical teaching, that children, even though born of a
Christian mother, must be born again by water in order that their
second birth may cleanse away the stain they have contracted by the
first. He also approved the observance of fasting on the Saturday in
memory of the burial of Christ our Lord. He ruled the Church 15
years, one month, and 10 days.
Victor, an African, succeeded Pope Saint Eleutherius to the See of Peter in 189 AD during the rule of the emperor Severus. He confirmed the decree of Pius I which ordered Easter to be celebrated on a Sunday. Later on, Councils were held in many places in order to bring this rule into practice, and finally the first Council of Nicea commanded that the feast of Easter should be always kept after the 14th day of the moon, lest the Christians should seem to imitate the Jews. Victor ordained that in case of necessity, baptism could be given with any water, provided it were natural. He expelled from the Church the Byzantine, Theodosius the Currier, who taught that Christ was only man. He wrote on the question of Easter, and some other small works. Victor suffered martyrdom in about 202 AD and was buried in the Vatican on the 5th of the Calends of August, after having governed the Church 9 years, one month, and twenty-eight days.
Dom Prosper Guéranger:
“That great Babylon is fallen is fallen, which made all nations to drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication: and in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth (Apocalypse xiv. 8; xviii. 24).
The great Pope Innocent I whose memory seems to have been purposely united with that of the martyrs, bears witness to the deluge in which during his Pontificate pagan Rome at length perished utterly, and made way for the new Jerusalem come down from Heaven. Like the ancient Sion, the Rome of the Caesars would not yield to the offers of that God, who alone could fulfil her desires of immortality. Even since the triumph of the Cross under Constantine, no city of the empire had remained so obstinately given to the worship of idols, or shed so much of that noble blood which might have renewed her youth. And yet after the defeat of her vain idols, God, in His patience, determined to wait a century longer, the last decade of which was a series of salutary threats and merciful interventions, the evident work of the Christ whom she still obstinately repulsed. The incursions of the Goths, allies one day, enemies the next, everywhere spreading anarchy, gave her an opportunity of returning to superstitions which the Christian Emperors had not tolerated. And in her dotage she welcomed the Tuscan soothsayers who had come to help her against Alaric, and allowed them to re-establish the worship of idols. Terrible was her awakening when, on the morning of August 24th 410, the true God of armies took His revenge, and while the barbarians were engaged in wholesale massacre and pillage, lightning set fire to the town and destroyed the statues in which she had so long placed her confidence and her glory.
The avengers of God, destroying Babylon, spared the tombs of the two founders of the Eternal Rome. On these Apostolic foundations Innocent began to rebuild the holy City. Soon on her seven hills, purified by fire, she rose again, more brilliant than ever, the destined centre of the world of mind. It was in the year 417, the last of Innocent’s Pontificate, that Saint Augustine, hearing that the Pelagian heresy was condemned, cried out: “Letters have arrived from Rome; the dispute is at an end.” The Councils of Carthage and Milevum, which on this occasion had requested the confirmation of their decree by the Apostolic See, did in this but continue the uninterrupted tradition of the Churches with regard to the supremacy of their Mother and Mistress. This fact is eloquently attested by the holy Pope Victor who shares with the martyrs the honours of today. His great name calls to mind the Councils of the second century, held by his orders throughout the Church to treat of the celebration of Easter: the condemnation he pronounced, or intended to pronounce, against the Churches of Asia, without any one questioning his right to do so. Lastly, the uncontroverted anathemas he hurled against Montanus and the precursors of Arius.
VICTOR, jealous guardian of that divine praise with regard to the Solemnity of solemnities, and avenger of the Man-God in his divine nature, and INNOCENT, infallible teacher concerning the grace of Christ and witness too of His inexorable justice, teach us to unite confidence with fear, uprightness of belief with the susceptibility a Christian ought to have with regard to his faith, the only foundation of justice and love. Martyrs and Pontiffs, may your united attraction draw us along the straight road which leads to Heaven.
Glorious Saints who, either by shedding your blood in the arena or by promulgating decrees from the Apostolic Chair, have exalted the faith of the Lord, bless our prayers. Give us to understand the teaching conveyed by your meeting today on the sacred cycle. We, who are neither martyrs nor pontiffs, may, nevertheless, merit to share in your glory, for the motive which explains your union today must be for us, each in his degree, the cause of salvation: the Apostle tells us that in Christ Jesus nothing avails “but faith that works by charity” (Galatians v. 6). It is only by that faith for which you laboured or suffered that “we wait for the hope of justice” (Galatiansv. 5) and expect the crown.Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:
In Thebais in Egypt, the commemoration of many holy martyrs who suffered in the persecution of Decius and Valerian. At this time, when Christians sought death by the sword for the name of Christ, the crafty enemy devised certain slow torments to put them to death, wishing much more to kill their souls rather than their bodies. One of these Christians, after suffering the torture of the rack, of hot metal plates and of seething oil, was smeared with honey and exposed in the broiling heat of the sun with his hands tied behind him, to the stings of wasps and flies. Another was bound and laid among flowers, when a shameless woman approached him with the intention of exciting his passions, but he bit off his tongue and spat it in her face.
At Ancyra in Galatia, the holy martyr Eustathius. After various torments, he was plunged into a river, but being delivered by an angel, was finally called to his reward by a dove coming from heaven.
At Miletus, in the time of the emperor Licinius, the holy martyr Acatius, who completed his martyrdom by having his head struck off, after having undergone different torments and been thrown into a furnace, from which he came out uninjured through the assistance of God.
In Bretagne, St. Sampson, bishop and confessor.
At Lyons, St. Peregrinus, priest, whose happiness in heaven is attested by glorious miracles.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.
Thanks be to God.
