Vincent was a native of Huesca, in northeastern Spain, and was ordained as a deacon by Valerius, Bishop of Saragossa, who commissioned him to preach throughout his diocese. In the early years of the fourth century, the fervent Christian community in Spain fell victim to a persecution ordered by the Roman emperors Diocletian and Maximian. Dacian, governor of Spain, arrested both Valerius and his deacon Vincent, and had them imprisoned at Valencia.

According to one account, Valerius had a speech impediment, and so Vincent was often called upon to preach for him. When the two prisoners were challenged to renounce their faith, amid threats of torture and death, Vincent said to his bishop, “Father, if you order me, I will speak.” Valerius is said to have replied, “Son, as I committed you to dispense the word of God, so I now charge you to answer in vindication of the faith which we defend.”

The young deacon then told the governor that he and his bishop had no intention of betraying the one true God. The vehemence and enthusiasm of Vincent’s defense showed no caution in his defiance of the judges, and Dacian’s fury was increased by this exuberance in Christian witness. Valerius was exiled, but the angry Dacian ordered that Vincent be tortured.

Although the accounts of his martyrdom have been heavily embellished, Augustine of Hippo writes that Vincent’s unshakeable faith enabled him to endure grotesque punishments and, finally, death. Vincent’s cult spread rapidly throughout the early church, and he was venerated as a bold and outspoken preacher and witness to the truth of the living Christ. He remains an important model for the ministry of deacons not only in doing works of justice and mercy, but also in proclaiming and teaching the truths of the Christian faith to the church and to the world.