Marseille is like an attractive older woman with a lot of makeup. From the ship, anchored at the far end of the pier, the city looks beautiful — a crescent of four-and-five-story buildings cradled by the surrounding hills.

But up close, her age shows. There is a lot of graffiti. The rows of buildings are separated by winding roads that feel like an afterthought. And the city feels old, but not ancient. We wanted ancient, not old.

But Marseille’s story isn’t really about its buildings. It’s anchored in a man named Victor.

Denied entry at Notre-Dame de la Garde

The shuttle bus was supposed to drop us in old town, but when we exited the bus, I saw nothing that looked ancient. So, I called an Uber to take me to Notre-Dame de la Garde. 

Notre-Dame de le Garde is a 19th century church that sits atop one of the hills overlooking Marseille, providing sweeping panoramic views of the city and the port.

I was there for more than the view. However, my pilgrimage was for naught because there was a religious service  in the sanctuary, and it was closed to the public. Somehow, I had stumbled upon one of the few cathedrals in Europe actually being used as a church instead of a museum. 

The projected thirty-minute wait was more time than I had, so I trundled down the steep hill to the Abbey of St. Victor.

Marseille’s first martyr

At the Abbey of St. Victor I saw Victor–at least part of him. His shrine is at the front, to the right of the altar. The highlight of the shrine is the reliquary with one of the great man’s bones.

If you follow the GSB team on our travels, you know we are not much into shrines, but we are all about bones. Maybe I’ll explain in a later post.

Victor was an anomaly for his time: a Christian officer in the Roman army. It was 303 A.D. — the height of Diocletian’s Great Persecution—and Victor publicly denounced the Romans’ practice of worshipping idols, a gutsy thing to do at the time. As a result, he was arrested, tortured, and thrown into prison. 

While in prison, Victor led three Roman soldiers to the Lord.

He was then brought before Roman authorities and ordered to burn incense to a statue of Jupiter. In a move worthy of a Hollywood action hero, Victor not only refused to submit—he kicked the statue over. The Romans then tortured Victor and beheaded him, making him Marseille’s first martyr.

The lesson of Victor

The Romans executed Victor believing they had silenced another troublesome Christian. Instead, to quote Tertullian, Victor’s blood became seed of the kingdom. The church took root in Marseille, and in 415 A.D. the Abbey of St. Victor was founded here in his name.

It’s popular today to repeat the quote attributed to Francis of Assisi: “Preach the gospel, and if necessary use words.” Victor certainly lived out the gospel through his boldness, courage, and sacrifice. But he did more —he spoke it. The apostle Paul explains why words matter:

How will they call upon in whom they have not believed? And how will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? — Romans 10:14

Our character is not a substitute for evangelism; it is a support for it. How we live gives credibility to our testimony, but it is through our testimony that others, like the soldiers in prison with Victor, find Jesus.

Click here if you’d like to follow along on this travel devotional. I’ll be sending these posts out each day along with a few other insights from the trip. I’ll also send you my ebook, Discovering Your Calling.

Until tomorrow. GS