Saint Vincent, Deacon and Martyr

Vincent was a deacon of Bishop Valerius of Saragossa in Spain. In the persecution of Diocletian, the governor Dacian had both brought in chains to Valencia. The bishop, who had a stammer, was sent into exile, while Vincent, who preached for him, was tortured on the rack and on a gridiron. He died in prison in 304.

The poet Prudentius wrote a long hymn on his sufferings, and Augustine preached on his feast several times. His cult spread through Spain, Gaul and Italy, and he became the best known martyr of Spain. Tradition holds that ravens guarded his body when it was thrown out unburied; centuries later his relics were taken to Lisbon, whose emblem is a ship with two ravens.