(CE:2301b)
VICTOR, abbot of the Enaton, listed in the SYNAXARION as the author of two "histories of monks" at 7 Tubah (recension from Upper Egypt) and 14 Tubah (recension from Lower Egypt). He is probably the author of the narratives of monastic history celebrated in the Middle Ages, from which the author(s) of the two recensions of the Synaxarion drew. This was necessary when he (they) did not have suitable documents to compose a notice for a particular day, as had been done in other synaxaria, or to compose extracts from various narratives and sermons.
It is known only that Victor was "abbot" of the LAURA, the group of several monasteries having a church and several buildings in common, something rare in Egypt. His was the ENATON, which was situated, as its name indicates, nine miles west of Alexandria.
Victor's dates can be stated precisely, for in a story that he reports as an eyewitness, he speaks of Marwan II, the last Umayyad caliph. But the Synaxarion speaks of Marwan ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz, which in all probability is a metathesis by the author for ‘Abd al- ‘Aziz ibn Marwan, who became governor of Egypt (684-685) and was a son of the Marwan who ruled as caliph in Damascus, for the text speaks later of the patriarch John, probably JOHN III (677-686).
It was perhaps the same person who wrote the story preserved in the recension from Upper Egypt at 30 Hatur, although he speaks only of SCETIS and not of the Enaton, though the story is under the name of "Victor."
Finally, a Victor "the secretary" (he may be the same person) transmitted a collection of four stories of saints of the same genre (National Library, Paris, archives 305, fols. 344v-354v) in a sole manuscript dated to 1609.
RENÉ-GEORGES COQUIN
