Portal:Catholic Church/Patron Archive/June 15 2007

Vitus was a Christian saint from Sicily. 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.

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"). This testimony to the public veneration of the three saints in the fifth century proves positively that they are historical martyrs.

According to this legend, Vitus was the son of a pagan senator of Lucania, in the 7 to 12 years old bracket (some versions make him younger, others older). 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 he fled with his tutor St. Modestus and Modestus' wife/Vitus' nanny St. Crescentia 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 tutors. 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.

Attributes:depicted in a cauldron, with a rooster or a lion Patronage:actors; comedians; Czechoslovakia; Rijeka - Croatia; dancers; dogs; epilepsy; Mazara del Vallo, Sicily; Forio, Ischia; oversleeping; Prague, Czech Republic; rheumatic chorea (Saint Vitus Dance); snake bites; storms; Vacha, Germany; Zeven, Lower Saxony, lightning strikes, Prayer: