St. Victorinus of Pettau

  Posted on November 6, 2020  by admin  No comments

Born: 3rd century Greece 

Died: 303 or 304 AD Modern Ptuj (Pettau or Poetovio)

Venerated: in Roman Catholic Church, Orthodox Church

Feast day: 2 November

Wrote a number of well-known and scholarly commentaries on the Old and New Testament; only scraps of the writings about Genesis and Revelations have survived. His works were greatly admired by Saint Jerome, and are believed to be the first writings in Latin by a Christian on the Old Testament. 

Noted preacher. Bishop of Pettau, Upper Pannonia (in modern Styria Austria). Fought several of the heresies of the day. Martyred in the persecutions of Diocletian. 

Like many in his day, Victorinus was a Millenarian – he believed that Christ would return to the earth to rule for a thousand years. This thinking was later condemned as heresy, and many of his writings were suppressed and subsequently lost.