The Nicene Age · AD 313–400

Victricius of Rouen

b. c. AD 330; bishop of Rouen from c. 386/390; d. c. 407 (held at the ceiling) · Bishop of Rouen · Missionary to the Nervii and Morini · Rotomagus (Rouen) → Britannia

The Nicene Age

Who Victricius of Rouen was

The strongest single item in the whole of this round. Bishop of Rouen from about 386, a former soldier who had been tortured for refusing service, and the evangeliser of the Nervii and Morini in the far north of Gaul. In 394 or 395 he was summoned to Britain to settle a doctrinal dissension among the bishops there, and he says so himself in the opening pages of De Laude Sanctorum — written within a year or two of the journey. It is the only securely attested ecclesiastical event in Roman Britain in the 390s, and the only one reported by a participant in the first person. Paulinus of Nola, who corresponded with him, called him a living martyr.

Also listed in bishops beyond the great sees.

Common questions

When did Victricius live?

Victricius of Rouen is dated b. c. AD 330; bishop of Rouen from c. 386/390; d. c. 407 (held at the ceiling) in the archive, which places Victricius in the Nicene Age (AD 313–400). The dating is traditional and approximate; the archive marks it as uncertain rather than fixing a year the sources do not give.

What did Victricius write?

Victricius of Rouen has 1 catalogued writing in the archive: De Laude Sanctorum (In Praise of the Saints).

Which early sources mention Victricius?

Victricius of Rouen is named in 2 primary-source passages catalogued here, drawn from Victricius of Rouen and Paulinus of Nola. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.

Where was Victricius from?

The archive associates Victricius of Rouen with Rotomagus (Rouen), Britannia. The sources record more than one location, so the places are listed in the order the record moves through them.

Writings (1)

De Laude Sanctorum (In Praise of the Saints)

c. AD 396
[Written for the reception of relics at Rouen; its opening excursus is the first-person account of the British journey.]

Primary-source mentions (2)

Every passage below is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.

De Laude Sanctorum, the opening excursus — Victricius’ own account of his summons to Britain

c. AD 396
[He records that he was called to Britain to settle a dissension among the bishops, and that he went.]
Victricius of Rouen · De Laude Sanctorum (PL 20.443)

Victricius of Rouen’s sermon In Praise of the Saints, preached in AD 396 on the arrival of relics at Rouen — an early and important statement of the theology of relics. Printed in Migne, Patrologia Latina 20, col. 443; critical text by Jacob Mulders and Roland Demeuldre, Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 64 (1985).

Epistula 18, to Victricius — ‘martyr vivus’

c. AD 400
[Paulinus addresses him as a living martyr, in reference to his torture as a soldier.]
Paulinus of Nola · Paulinus, Ep. 18

Letter 18 of Paulinus of Nola, addressed to Victricius of Rouen. Edited by Wilhelm von Hartel, Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 29 (1894); English translation by P. G. Walsh, Ancient Christian Writers 35 (1966).

Connected in the archive

People

Named alongside Victricius in the sources

These figures are placed with Victricius by the record — in a council roll, a martyr-act, a letter or a history — without Victricius naming them in return.

Events in this lifetime

Place

Places served

The 2 places the sources put Victricius, in the order the record moves through them. This is what the sources attest, not a reconstructed route.

  1. 1Rotomagus
  2. 2Britanniaprovince only

See these places on the atlas →