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292 292 ST. VICTORIA Four of his children were present, namely, Satominus and Felix, lectors, St. Mary (10), who was already con- secrated to a religions life, and Hilarion, still a child; Dativns, a senator, was also there. Besides Victoria and Mart, the women present were SS. Eye, Hegi- OLA, ReSTITUTA, "PBSMXYAy POMPONIA, Hebedina, Secunda, Januabia, Satuk- NINA, MaBGABITA, HONOBATA, ReGULA (l), Matrona, Cecilia, Bebeoina. They were all seized and brought before the local magistrate, in the very place where Fondanus, a former bishop of the town, had had the cowardice to deliver np the holy Scriptures to be burnt. The fifty confessors were sent in chains to Carth- age, and it is recorded that they appeared rather like people going to a joyous festival than like prisoners about to be tried for their lives. At Carthage they were tried by Anulinus, the proconsul, who questioned Dativus first as the person of highest rank. He began mth the usual form of asking who he was. Dativus did not say he was a senator but merely answered, " I am a Christian." He was then ordered to be tortured. As the executioners were beginning their work, one of the confessors, named Thelica, threw himself into the midst of them, saying, '* We also are Christians. We were present at the assembly." Anulinus ordered him to be cruelly beaten at once, and he was afterwards put on the rack and asked to name the Christians who were present at the assembly and to say who .was their leader. Thelica knowing that he acted in accordance with the wishes of his brethren, gave the first honours to Satuminus, by saying that he was their priest and that without him the meeting would not have been regular and complete. Thelica was remanded to prison, and Dativus, who was all this time on the equuleus, was again questioned. Vic- toria's brother, a senator named Fortu- uianus, appeared against him, accusing him of having perverted the mind of his sister Victoria, and taken her and two other young girls — Restituta and Secunda — to Avitina. Victoria who was present, defended herself and Dativus, by saying that she had not gone to Avitina with Dativus or by the per- suasion of any man ; that she had gone of her own free will, in order to be present at the meetings of the Christians. Dativus was remanded to prison and the others were examined and tortured : they all said that the obligation to keep Sunday was indispensable and that being Christians they must meet on that day to worship God. They were then sent to prison, where Octavius and Felix, the lector, died of their wounds the same night. Victoria and the little Hilarion were kept until the last, as the prooonsal hoped to induce them to renounce their religion. Victoria belonged to a heathen fiamily and had fled from her home on the eve of a marriage which her parents had arranged for her; she had thrown herself out of a window and had hidden first in a church and then with some Christians. Under their protection she took the vow of virginity, according to the form then practised in Africa, Italy and Gaul. As part of the ceremony she offered her head on the altar and oUiged herself to preserve her hair uncut all her life. She was soon infected with the ardour for martyrdom shown by so many Christians of the time. Her brother tried to excuse her and procure her liberation, on the ground that she was of unsound mind and had been de- ceived by the Christians ; but the wisdom of her answers proved that she was in her right senses and a girl of superior intelligence. Anulinus asked her if she would go home with her brother, but she refused and chose rather to rejoin her companions in prison. The pro- consul did not doubt that he could convert the boy Hilarion and sought to save him on the plea that he had been led to the meeting by others. The diild said, '' I am a Christian. I was present at the meeting of my own free will and without any compulsion." The procon- sul tried to intimidate him with threats of childish punishment, but Hilarion laughed at him. Anulinus, irritated, threatened to cut off his nose and ears. The boy replied, " You may do it, but I am a Christian." He was then ordered to return to prison. He olasped Ids little hands, and his baby voice said,