St. Victorinus of Pettau

St. Victorinus of Pettau was bishop of Pettau (Poetovio) in the Roman province of Pannonia, in present-day Slovenia, in the later third century, and is honored as the earliest known writer of biblical commentaries in the Latin language, though Greek was said to be his stronger tongue. He thus stands at the beginning of the great tradition of Latin scriptural interpretation.

He wrote commentaries on several books of the Bible, of which his Commentary on the Apocalypse, on the Book of Revelation, is the most important to survive, giving valuable early witness to how the early Church read that mysterious book; some of his views, such as a form of millenarianism, were later corrected. St. Jerome, who esteemed his learning while noting the roughness of his Latin, is an important source for his life and works. Victorinus won the crown of martyrdom during the persecution of the Emperor Diocletian, about the year 303 or 304. He is venerated as a saint, his memory kept on 2 November.