Saint Vincent was archdeacon of the church at Saragossa.
Valerian, the bishop, had an impediment in his speech; thus
Vincent preached in his stead and answered in his name when both
were brought before Dacian the president, during the persecution
of Diocletian. When the bishop was sent into banishment, Vincent
remained to suffer and to die. First of all, he was stretched on
the rack; and when he was almost torn asunder, Dacian the
president asked him in mockery “how he fared now.” Vincent
answered, with joy in his face, that he had ever prayed to be as
he was then. It was in vain that Dacian struck the executioners,
and goaded them on in their savage work. The martyr’s flesh was
torn with hooks; he was bound in a chair of red-hot iron; lard
and salt were rubbed into his wounds; and amid all this he kept
his eyes raised to heaven, and remained unmoved. He was cast
into a solitary dungeon, with his feet in the stocks; but the
angels of Christ illuminated the darkness, and assured Vincent
that he was near his tr