In memory of St. Victor in Marseilles was founded two monasteries - male and female, both were laid founder John Cassian in the beginning of V century.

Victor Marseilles lived in the III century and was executed on the orders of Emperor Maximilian for refusing to take part in pagan sacrifices. The monasteries were built on the burial site of Victor and several martyrs. Monastery of Saint-Victor in Marseille is one of the oldest on the territory of modern France, along the abbey Marmoutier Tours (III century founder Martin of Tours) and Lerins (beginning of the V century, the founder of the holy Onorato).

In the IX century monastery, the former residence of the bishops of Marseilles, was looted during the raids of the Saracens, and the female monastery was destroyed and did not, and later was restored. The friary was rebuilt at the end of X century by order of Bishop Onorato II. It was at that time the church was built, which has been preserved to this day. In the second half of the XIV century abbot Guillaume Grimoar (who later became Pope Urban V) expanded the building of the church, and hedged it round the ramparts.

During the French Revolution, the abbey was destroyed, and its premises were turned into a barn, a prison and barracks. At the beginning of the XIX century in the church again began to hold services, and a few decades later the whole complex of the Abbey of Saint-Victor was given the status of a national historic monument. Restoration preserved buildings of the monastery began only after a hundred years, in the second half of the XX century.

Of the features and relics of the church it is worth noting the V century white marble altar, a statue of St. Victor, the body middle of the XIX century, an underground crypt with tombs of bishops, which houses one of the main values ​​- statue of the Black Madonna. From the crypt in the church of the image pick up only during the celebration of the Presentation of the Lord. In addition, the abbey houses a collection of sarcophagi, which are recognized as examples of early Christian art. Once a monastery, and possessed a large library, but it was lost in the XVI century, preserved only the library catalog.