January 22 is the feast of St. Vincent of Zaragoza, the deacon and martyr of the persecution of Diocletian, d. 304. A native of Huesca, he served as deacon to Bishop Valerius of Zaragoza, and was martyred at Valencia, after torture that the Acta describe in detail — the gridiron, the rack, the prison where he converted his jailer. He is one of the three martyrs named in the Roman Canon, with Popes Cornelius and Cyprian.
The cult of Vincent spread rapidly through the Western Church; his feast is attested in the Depositio martyrum of 354. The relics are venerated at the monastery of São Vicente de Fora in Lisbon, where they were translated in 1173, and at the Cathedral of Valencia, which holds what is said to be his arm. From Zaragoza, where he served as deacon, to Lisbon, where his relics lie, the January 22 feast is the feast of the deacon whose name — vincent, "conquering" — made him the patron of winegrowers.
