Victor I was the first bishop of Rome of African descent and the first to celebrate the Roman liturgy in Latin rather than Greek — a foundational moment in the formation of the Latin Christian tradition. He was the fourteenth pope.
His pontificate is principally remembered for the Quartodeciman controversy: the Christians of Asia Minor celebrated Easter on the day of the Jewish Passover (the 14th of Nisan) regardless of which day of the week it fell on, while Rome and most other churches always celebrated it on the Sunday following. Victor summoned synods across the empire to settle the matter on the Roman side. When the Asian bishops, led by Polycrates of Ephesus, refused to conform, he attempted to excommunicate them — an extraordinary assertion of papal authority for the second century. St. Irenaeus of Lyon intervened and persuaded him to relent.
Tradition holds he was martyred under the Emperor Septimius Severus. He is buried near St. Peter on the Vatican Hill.