Ælfric

“ Then the tormentors fastened the servant of Christ
in the hard rack, and severely stretched him
as a man stretches a web, and the cruel one says to him,
'What sayest thou now, Vincentius? What dost thou think of thyself,
and of thy poor body in these evil torments?'
The holy man then saith to the cruel one thus: —
'This I desired and ever wished for.
Nothing is liefer to me that (ever) happened to me in my life,
and thou agreest very much with my own desire.
I wish not that thou shouldst cease, since I myself am ready
to suffer torments for the glorious Lord. ”

“ As I persecute him more with greater persecution,
so I make him always the more glorious.
But if the earth may not destroy the man,
let him be sunk in the waves of the sea,
that I may not so oft be ashamed at the victory of him alone
in the sight of men, who behold it all ”

“ In the Hispanian land of the Spanish people,
was the holy martyr, who was named Vincentius,
born among men, and by his kinsmen nourished
in much Christianity; and he in Christ's lore
was greatly advancing, until he became ordained
as a holy deacon, serving the Saviour
with the illustrious bishop Valerius,
who was the illustrions teacher in the Hispanian land,
as the narrative tells us in the Latin tongue.
Then arose the persecution of impious tormentors
wide throughout the world, very madly,
against belief in Christ, and against Christian men ”