Saint of the day January 22, 2025
St. Vincent of Saragossa
DAILY SAINT
Nirmala Josephine
1/22/20253 min read


Vincent was born in today’s Spain and carries the title of “protomartyr,” indicating he was the first, or “proto,” man to die for Christ on the Iberian Peninsula. Little is known of his life, but the testimony of Saint Augustine sheds light on his character. As with many early saints, many legends are attributed to him.
According to these legends, Bishop Valerius of Saragossa, Spain, had a speech impediment, which led him to first ordain and then appoint Deacon Vincent, who was well spoken, as his personal preacher. The local Roman governor at the time, Dacian, ruthlessly carried out the edict of Emperor Diocletian to force Christians to renounce their faith by burning incense to Roman gods. Both the elderly bishop and his deacon were arrested by Dacian and imprisoned.
While in prison, Deacon Vincent said to the bishop, “Father, if you order me, I will speak.” The bishop replied, “Son, as I committed you to dispense the word of God, so I now charge you to answer in vindication of the faith which we defend.” That was all Vincent needed. At that moment, the words of Holy Scripture were fulfilled in Vincent, “When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given what you are to say at that moment. For it will not be you who speaks but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you” (Matthew 10:19–20). The deacon gave his “sermon” with serenity in the face of torture and death, and the governor was tormented by his own outrage.
Legend has it that Vincent was scourged, stretched on the rack, fixed to a fiery grate, lacerated with iron hooks, burned with hot iron, and then thrown onto the prison floor covered with broken glass. Through it all, Vincent remained at peace, for he did not fear “those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul” (Matthew 10:28). The legend concludes that Vincent’s joy in the face of this torture was so great that it caused one of his jailers to immediately convert.
The governor, however, was not done yet. He gave Vincent a soft bed on which to recuperate, hoping to entice him to renounce his God through comfort. But neither threats of violence nor promises of comfort held any appeal for Vincent. No sooner was he laid upon the bed than he died. His body was thrown to vultures, but ravens came to his defense. Another account, from a sermon by Saint Leo, states that Vincent’s body was cast into the sea, but Providence washed him ashore, and his fellow Christians gave him a dignified burial where a shrine was later erected over his grave. The place in southern Spain where, according to legend, these final events unfolded, is now called Cape Saint Vincent. Flocks of ravens and vultures still hover over this very coast.
Reflection
In his holy life and martyrs death Vincent has inspired – and continues to inspire – Christians whose eyes are opened to the continued work of the Holy Spirit in and through Christ’s Church as she continues His redemptive mission in a world waiting to be born again.
Vincent was a man like us who encountered the same Risen Lord Jesus whom we have encountered. He struggled with the choices which always accompany living the Christian life in the midst of a culture that has squeezed God and His truth out of the center of its daily life. A culture much like our own.
Vincent shows us the power of the Gospel. He beckons us to rededicate our own lives to heroic virtue and service to Jesus Christ and His Church in this Third Christian Millennium, a new missionary age. We must remember, that we are all called to be saints.The same power of the Holy Spirit which was at work in both the life and death of Vincent the Deacon is at work within us.