Vitus

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For other uses, see Vitus (disambiguation).

Saint Vitus
An image of St. Vitus, Heiligenstadt (Franconia)
Martyr
Died	303, Lucania, Italy
Venerated in	Eastern Orthodox Church, Roman Catholic Church
Feast	June 15
Attributes	in a cauldron, rooster, lion
Patronage	actors; comedians; Czechoslovakia; dancers; dogs; epilepsy; Mazara del Vallo, Sicily; Forio, Ischia; oversleeping; Prague, Czech Republic; rheumatic chorea aka Saint Vitus Dance; snake bites; storms; Vacha, Germany; Zeven, Lower Saxony

Vitus was a Christian saint from Sicily, Italy, Roman Empire. He died as a martyr during the persecution of Christians by co-ruling Roman Emperors Diocletian and Maximian in 303. He is counted as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers of the Roman Catholic Church.

Saint Vitus' Day is celebrated on June 28 according to the Gregorian calendar, and on June 15 according to the Julian calendar.

During the Middle Ages, people from both Central Europe and Northern Europe (Germany, Latvia etc) celebrated the feast of Saint Vitus with the so-called Saint Vitus Dance, though that term also has a meaning of a nervous disorder exhibited by trembling, see Chorea (disease).

St. Vitus is considered the patron saint of actors, comedians, dancers, and finally epileptics. He also protects against lightnings, animal attacks and oversleeping, and is the patron saint of Bohemia. Vitus is the patron saint of the towns of Forio in Campania, Italy and the town of Winschoten in the Netherlands. Various places in Austria and Bavaria are named Sankt Veit in his honor. The feast of St. Vitus is also important to the Serb Orthodox Church (see Vidovdan).

[edit] Biography - Sts. Vitus, Modestus, and Crescentia

The martyrdom of Vitus, Modestus, and Crescentia. From a 14th century manuscript.

According to the legend, all three were martyrs under Diocletian; feast, 15 June. The earliest testimony for their veneration is offered by the "Martyrologium Hieronymianum" (ed. G. B. de Rossi-Louis Duchesne, 78: "In Sicilia, Viti, Modesti et Crescentiae"). The fact that the note is in the three most important manuscripts proves that it was also in the common exemplar of these, which appeared in the fifth century.

The same Martyrologium has under the same day another Vitus at the head of a list of nine martyrs, with the statement of the place, "In Lucania", that is, in the Roman province of that name in Southern Italy between the Tuscan Sea and the Gulf of Taranto. It is easily possible that the same martyr Vitus in both cases, because only the name of a territory is given, not of a city, as the place where the martyr was venerated.

This testimony to the public veneration of the three saints in the fifth century proves positively that they are historical martyrs. There are, nevertheless, no historical accounts of them, nor of the time or the details of their martyrdom. During the sixth and seventh centuries a purely legendary narrative of their martyrdom appeared which was based upon other legends, especially on the legend of Poitus, and ornamented with accounts of fantastic miracles. It still exists in various versions, but has no historical value.

According to this legend Vitus was a boy seven years of age (other versions make him twelve years old), the son of a pagan senator of Lucania. During the era of the Emperors Diocletian and Maximilian, his father sought in every way, including various forms of torture, to make him apostatize. But he remained steadfast, and God aided him in a wonderful manner. He fled with his tutor St. Modestus (who has canonized homonyms) in a boat to Lucania. From Lucania he was taken to Rome to drive out a demon which had taken possession of a son of the Emperor Diocletian. This he did, and yet, because he remained steadfast in the Christian Faith, he was tortured together with his tutor St. Modestus and his nurse St. Crescentia, who are venerated on the same liturgical feast. By a miracle an angel brought back the martyrs to Lucania, where they died from the tortures they had endured. Three days later Vitus appeared to a distinguished matron named Florentia, who then found the bodies and buried them in the spot where they were. It is evident that the author of the legend has connected in his invention three saints who apparently suffered death in Lucania, and were first venerated there.

[edit] Cult

St. Vitus Cathedral is the main church of the former imperial capital, Prague.

The veneration of the martyrs spread rapidly in Southern Italy and Sicily, as is shown by the note in the "Martyrologium Hieronymianum". Pope Gregory the Great mentions a monastery dedicated to Vitus in Sicily ("Epist.", I, xlviii, P.L., LXXXVII, 511).

The veneration of Vitus, the chief saint of the group, also appeared very early at Rome. Pope Gelasius I (492-496) mentions a shrine dedicated to him (Jaffé, "Reg. Rom. Pont.", 2nd ed., I, 6 79), and at Rome in the seventh century the chapel of a deaconry was dedicated to him ("Liber Pont.", ed. Duchesne, I, 470 sq.).

In the eighth century it is said that relics of St. Vitus were brought to the monastery of St-Denis by Abbot Fulrad. They were later presented to Abbot Warin of Corvey in Germany, who solemnly transferred them to this abbey in 836. From Corvey the veneration of St. Vitus spread throughout Westphalia and in the districts of eastern and northern Germany.

St. Vitus is appealed to, above all, against epilepsy, which is called St. Vitus's Dance, and he is one of the Fourteen Martyrs who give aid in times of trouble.

He is represented near a kettle of boiling oil, his iconographic attribute because according to the legend he was thrown into such a kettle, but escaped miraculously.

The feast of the three saints was adopted in the historical Martyrologies of the early Middle Ages and is also recorded in the present Roman Martyrology on 15 June.

In 1969 Roman Catholic Church restricted the cult of Saint Vitus to local calendars, while those of Modestus and Crescentia were suppressed on the basis that they were mere fictions.