St Victorinus (13th June)

According to a late tradition, St Victorinus was St Rufinus’ successor as Bishop of Assisi.  In 250, he was arrested along with a number of companions outside Assisi on the road that led down to the River Tescio.  In the aftermath of an affray, one of the companions was beheaded and another two were thrown into a well.  (A well in the Abbazia di San Pietro is known as the well of the two martyrs, and since the abbey is itself outside the Roman walls and by the road to the Tescio, it is likely that it was built on what was thought to be the site of these martyrdoms).

St Victorinus was then beheaded by a bridge on the Tescio that became known as Ponte San Vittorino.  His relics were preserved in what was probably a Benedictine abbey on this site until ca. 1000, when they were translated to the Abbazia di San Pietro. 

(The original burial church survived until the earthquake of 1832, when it finally succumbed.   Stones from the rubble were used in the rebuilding of the nearby church of Santa Maria degli Angeli.)