Holy Martyrs Viktōr and Stephanida of Damascus

Saints Viktōr and Stephanida of Damascus

The eleventh of November is the feast-day of another pair of early Syrian martyrs for Christ, Saints Viktōr and Stephanida of Damascus. These saints lived during the second century and were persecuted during the reign of the Emperor of the Porch, Marcus Aurelius. These saints enjoy a universal cultus which is of a singular importance in our modern time. Saint Stephanida, on account of the etymology of her name, has been invoked by the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches for protection and aid against the novel coronavirus.

Saint Viktōr [Gk. Βίκτωρ, L. Victor, Ar. Fîktûr فيكتور] was born in Italy, and was a loyal Roman soldier who served in the Army and was stationed in Damascus. The governor of Damascus at that time was named Sebastianos. Though it is unclear from the evidence whether he had the Emperor’s express sanction to do so, Sebastianos began a ruthless purge of the Christians from the army ranks in his præcinct, by ordering all the soldiers under his command to offer sacrifices to the idols. Naturally, the young Italian refused to make this sacrifice, and when Sebastianos ordered him to do so, invoking his loyalty to the Emperor, Viktōr replied: ‘I am a warrior under command of the Heavenly King. Him only will I serve. I reject your foul idols!’

The military commander then ordered that Viktōr’s limbs be locked into vices and that his digits, both fingers and toes, be broken and torn from their sockets one at a time. The young soldier endured this pain and various other torments that were inflicted upon him, calling upon the name of the Lord. Then the executioners brought food to him, which had been laced with a deadly poison by a pagan sorcerer. Again Saint Viktōr prayed to the Lord, and he swallowed all of the tainted food. The poison did Viktōr no harm, and all who were there marvelled and feared to see it. The sorcerer, who saw his arts defeated by the holy martyr, abjured his powerless idols and was converted to faith in Christ. Another wonder wrought by the martyr was that soldiers with diseases of the eye were cured and their sight restored.

But the executioners began to rend and burn the martyr’s flesh. Upon seeing this, the young bride of one of the tormentors, a fifteen-year-old girl of Ægyptian descent named Stephanida [Gk. Στεφανίδα, L. Corona, Ar. Kûrûnâ كورونا] could bear no longer, and ran to the martyr to tend to his wounds and plead for mercy. But seeing what he had already endured, and the wonders that the holy martyr had wrought, she opened her mouth and glorified Christ before the governor. The cruel Sebastianos ordered that the young girl be seized, that two young palm trees be bent to the ground, and that the girl’s limbs be tied to each. The palm trees were then released and the young martyr for Christ was torn bodily between them – in this way she earned the glorious crown which her name foreshadowed.

During his torments, Saint Viktōr prophesied that death would take the executioners within twelve days, and that the governor would be overthrown within twenty-four days. Sebastianos ordered that the saint be beheaded, and he too went to the glories of the life æternal and received the laurels due to Christ’s athletes. And as Saint Viktōr had prophesied before his death, so the doom of the executioners and the governor all came to pass.

Local Christians took their relics and buried them with honour in Damascus. However, they soon found their way to Rome where they were celebrated and venerated by many pilgrims. In the year 997, the Saxon king Otto III had the relics brought from Rome to Aachen in Germany, where they were enshrined in the Cathedral. The cultus of these two saints has been particularly popular among woodsmen and among gamblers, but in the 1300s with the approach of the Black Death, Germans began to pray to Saint Stephanida for protection from the plague, and several villages which sought her intercession were spared from the ravages of the disease. Today many are seeking her intercessions against the novel coronavirus, on account of the Latin form of her name, Saint Corona. Holy martyrs Viktōr and Stephanida, fearless witnesses to Christ before the pagans, pray unto Christ our God that our souls may be saved!

Apolytikion for Saints Viktōr and Stephanida of Damascus, Tone 4:

Your holy martyrs, O Lord,
Through their sufferings have received incorruptible crowns from You, our God.
For having Your strength, they laid low their adversaries,
And shattered the powerless boldness of dæmons.
Through their intercessions, save our souls!