Pope Victor I

Pope and Bishop of Rome from 189 to 199

Pope Victor (189-198C.E.) I was the fourteenth Pope, the official title is Bishop of Rome of the Catholic Church.[1][2]

Victor I

Pope Victor was the first African pope. He attempted to resolve the ongoing controversy over the celebration of Easter through a great meeting of church members from Rome and Gaul (France) and areas of and around Mesopotamia (Iraq) that Easter should be celebrated on a Sunday instead of on Passover, whichever that day occurred on. The Asia Minor church however, stayed fast to the celebration on Passover. Pope Victor at first declared the congregation in Asia Minor excommunicated but under protest seems to have withdrawn and those members of the church were accepted back into the Church.[3]

He secured the release of some Christians who were condemned to the mines of Sardinia as a result of his request with the emperor's mistress.[4]

His feast day is celebrated on July 28.[4]

  1. Richard P. McBrien, Lives of the Popes: The Pontiffs from St. Peter to John Paul II, (San Francisco:Harper San Francisco, 1997, p. 41
  2. Catholic Encyclopedia, (NY:Robert Appleton Company) [1]
  3. Richard P. McBrien, Lives of the Popes: The Pontiffs from St. Peter to John Paul II, (San Francisco:Harper San Francisco, 1997, pp. 41, 42
  4. 4.0 4.1 Richard P. McBrien, Lives of the Popes: The Pontiffs from St. Peter to John Paul II, (San Francisco:Harper San Francisco, 1997, p. 42