In addition to the stained glass windows, Archbishop Lori will be blessing the refurbished tabernacle, a relic in our altar, and the pedestals that hold our candelabras that were made by parishioner Dan Brown.

More about the relic:

Relic stone embedded in the altar of Saint Joseph Eldersburg

Stone inscription: Et Ossibus S. Victorianae et Aliorum

Translation: “From the bones of Saint Victorian and others” (possibly the merchants who were martyred with him) 

Saint Victorian Feast Day March 23

Died in the year 484 C.E.

Saint Victorian was Martyred in Carthage with four other wealthy fellow merchants, including Frumentius. Initially named proconsul by Hunneric, the Arian king of the Vandals, he was seized and put under pressure to convert to Arianism. When he refused, he was executed with the other merchants after being tortured at Adrumetum.

Saints Victorian, Frumentius and Companions are venerated as Christian martyrs of the Roman Catholic Church. They were killed at Hadrumetum in 484 by the Arian Vandals. Accounts of their martyrdom state that Huneric, King of the Vandals, began persecuting Catholic priests and virgins in 480, and by 484 began persecuting simple believers as well. Victorian was a wealthy Catholic of Hadrumetum who had been appointed proconsul by Hunneric. He served as an obedient administrator to the king until he was asked to convert to Arianism. Victorian refused and was tortured and killed.

The Roman Martyrology states that four other wealthy merchants were martyred on the same day as Victorian’s death. Two were named Frumentius; they were merchants of Carthage. The other two were brothers of the city of Aquae Regiae, Byzacena, who were killed at Tabaia.