Vitus was a
ChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who Christians believe was the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, and the Son of God.The term "Christian" is also used adjectivally to...
saintSaints, individuals of exceptional holiness, are significant in many religions, particularly Christianity.-General characteristics :Though the term is mostly used for Christians considered holy or virtuous, many religions use similar concepts to elevate people worthy of respect, e.g. see Hindu...
from
SicilySicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is an autonomous region of Italy. Several much smaller islands surrounding it are considered to be part of Sicily....
. He died as a
martyrA martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce a belief, usually religious.-Meaning:...
during the persecution of Christians by co-ruling
Roman Emperors DiocletianGaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus , born Diocles and commonly known as Diocletian , was Roman Emperor from 20 November 284 to 1 May 305. Born to a Dalmatian family of low status, he rose through the ranks of the military to become cavalry commander to the emperor Carus...
and
MaximianMarcus Aurelius Valerius Maximianus Herculius , commonly referred to as Maximian, was Caesar from July 285 and Augustus from April 1, 286 to May 1, 305. He shared the latter title with his co-emperor and superior, Diocletian, whose political brain complemented Maximian's military brawn...
in 303. Vitus is counted as one of the
Fourteen Holy HelpersThe Fourteen Holy Helpers are a group of saints venerated together in Roman Catholicism because their intercession was thought to be particularly effective, especially against various diseases...
of the
Roman Catholic ChurchThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
.
Saint Vitus' Day is celebrated on 15 June. In places where the
Julian CalendarThe Julian calendar, a reform of the Roman calendar, was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC, and came into force in 45 BC . It was chosen after consultation with the astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria and was probably designed to approximate the tropical year, known at least since Hipparchus...
is used, this date coincides, in the 20th and 21st centuries, with 28 June on the
Gregorian CalendarThe Gregorian calendar is the internationally accepted civil calendar. It was first proposed by the Calabrian doctor Aloysius Lilius, and decreed by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar was named, on 24 February 1582 by the papal bull Inter gravissimas...
.
In the late
Middle AgesThe Middle Ages of European history is a period of European history covering roughly a millennium in the 5th century through 16th centuries. More specific starting and ending points are sometimes adopted by scholars to suit their respective specializations or current focus...
, people in
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
and countries such as
LatviaLatvia , officially the Republic of Latvia is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , and to the southeast by Belarus . Across the Baltic Sea to the west lies Sweden...
celebrated the feast of Vitus by dancing before his statue. This dancing became popular and the name "Saint Vitus Dance" was given to the neurological disorder
choreaChoreia is an abnormal involuntary movement disorder, one of a group of neurological disorders called dyskinesias. The term choreia is derived from a Greek word χορεία , as the quick movements of the feet or hands are vaguely comparable to dancing or piano playing.The term hemichoreia refers to...
. It also led to Vitus being considered the patron saint of dancers and of entertainers in general.
Vitus is considered the
patron saintA patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, or person. Patron saints, because they have already transcended to the metaphysical, are able to intercede effectively for the needs of their special charges...
of
actorAn actor or actress is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
s,
comedianA comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain members of an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
s, dancers, and epileptics. He is also said to protect against
lightningLightning is an atmospheric discharge of electricity accompanied by thunder, which typically occurs during thunderstorms, and sometimes during volcanic eruptions or dust storms...
strikes, animal attacks and oversleeping, and is the patron saint of
BohemiaBohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands, currently the Czech Republic...
. Vitus is the patron saint of the city of
RijekaRijeka is the city and the principal seaport of Croatia, located on Kvarner Bay, an inlet of the Adriatic Sea. It has 144,043 inhabitants . The majority of its citizens, 80.39% , are Croats...
in
CroatiaCroatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a country in southeast Europe, at the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean Sea. Its capital is Zagreb...
, the towns of
CiminnaCiminna is a Sicilian city in the province of Palermo, located approximately 30 miles south east of its capital, Palermo. The city's economy is derived mainly from agriculture and traditional crafts...
in
SicilySicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is an autonomous region of Italy. Several much smaller islands surrounding it are considered to be part of Sicily....
,
ForioForio is a town and comune of c. 14,000 inhabitants in the province in Naples, Italy, situated on the island of Ischia....
on the Island of
IschiaIschia is a volcanic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea, at the northern end of the Gulf of Naples. The roughly trapezoidal island lies about 30 km from Naples and measures around 10 km east to west and 7 km north to south with a coastline and a surface area of...
, in
CampaniaCampania is a region of southern Italy in Europe. The region has a population of around 5.8 million people, making it the second-most-populous region of Italy; its total area of 13,595 km² makes it the most densely populated region in the country...
,
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
, the contrada of San Vito, in
Torella dei LombardiTaurella dei Lombardi is a town in the province of Avellino, Campania, Italy.
...
, in
AvellinoAvellino is a town and comune, capital of the province of Avellino in the Campania region of southern Italy. It is situated in a plain surrounded by mountains 42 km north-east of Naples and is an important hub on the road from Salerno to Benevento.-History:Before the Roman conquest, the...
,
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
, and the town of
WinschotenWinschoten is a municipality and city in the northeast of the Netherlands.Population : 18.497; area: 22,24 km2....
in the
NetherlandsThe Netherlands is a country in Northwestern Europe, constituting the major portion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east...
.
Various places in
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
and
BavariaBavaria , with an area of and almost 12.5 million inhabitants, is located in the southeast of Germany and is the largest state of Germany by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
are named
Sankt VeitSankt Veit is the German name for Saint Vitus.Places named Sankt Veit in Austria include:* Sankt Veit an der Glan, Carinthia** Sankt Veit an der Glan , Carinthia* Sankt Veit an der Gölsen, Lower Austria* Sankt Veit im Pongau, Salzburg...
in his honour.
Martyrdom of Saints Vitus, Modestus and Crescentia
According to the legend, Vitus, Modestus and Crescentia were martyrs under Diocletian. The earliest testimony for their veneration is offered by the "
Martyrologium HieronymianumThe Martyrologium Hieronymianum was a medieval list of martyrs, one of the most used and influential of the Middle Ages...
" (ed. G. B. de Rossi-
Louis DuchesneAbbé Louis Marie Olivier Duchesne was a French priest, philologist, teacher and a critical historian of Christianity and Roman Catholic liturgy and institutions....
, 78: "In Sicilia, Viti, Modesti et Crescentiae"). The fact that the note is in the three most important manuscripts indicates that it was also in the common exemplar of these, will appeared in the fifth century. The same
Martyrologium has under the same day another mention of a Vitus at the head of a list of nine martyrs, with the statement of the place, "In
LucaniaLucania was an ancient district of southern Italy, extending from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Gulf of Taranto. To the north it adjoined Campania, Samnium and Apulia, and to the south it was separated by a narrow isthmus from the district of Bruttium...
", 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 it is the same martyr Vitus in both cases.
According to J.P. Kirsch, the author the
article in the
Catholic EncyclopediaThe Catholic Encyclopedia, also referred to today as the Old Catholic Encyclopedia, is an English-language encyclopedia published in the United States. The first volume appeared in March 1907 and it was completed in April 1914...
from which the information in this section is drawn, the 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 appears to be based upon other legends, especially on the legend of Poitus, and ornamented with accounts of fantastic miracles. According to this legend, which has no apparent historical value, Vitus was a 7-year-old son of a senator of Lucania (some versions make him 12 years old). He resisted his father's attempts, which included various forms of torture, to make him apostatize. He fled with his tutor Modestus and Modestus's wife Crescentia, who was Vitus's nanny, to Lucania. He was taken from there 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
angelAngels are spiritual beings found in many religious traditions. They are broadly viewed as messengers of God, sent to do God's tasks. Traditions vary as to the precise nature and role of these messages and tasks...
brought back the three 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. The author of the legend doubtless connected in his invention three saints who apparently suffered death in Lucania, and were first venerated there.
Veneration
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 St Vitus, the chief saint of the group, also appeared very early at Rome.
Pope Gelasius IPope Saint Gelasius I was pope from 492 until his death in 496. He was the third and last pope of African origin in the Roman Catholic Church, Gelasius was a prolific writer whose style placed him on the cusp between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Gelasius had been closely employed by...
(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 756 AD it is said that the 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 some of 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. His cult grew in
PraguePrague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Nicknames for Prague have included "the mother of cities" , "city of a hundred spires", or Stověžatá Praha in Czech and "the golden city" or Zlaté město in Czech.Situated on the River Vltava in central Bohemia, Prague has been the...
, Bohemia when, in 925 A.D., king
Henry I of GermanyHenry I the Fowler was the duke of Saxony from 912 and king of the Germans from 919 until his death. First of the Ottonian Dynasty of German kings and emperors, he is generally considered to be the founder and first king of the medieval German state, known until then as East Francia...
presented as a gift the bones of one hand of St Vitus to
WenceslausSaint Wenceslaus or Saint Wenceslas Help:IPA , was duke of Bohemia from 921 until his death. Wenceslas is best known in the English-speaking world as the subject of the Christmas carol "Good King Wenceslas."He was the son of Vratislav I, Duke of Bohemia from the Přemyslid dynasty...
, Duke of Bohemia. This relic is since then a sacred treasure in the
St. Vitus CathedralSaint Vitus's Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Prague, and the seat of the Archbishop of Prague. The full name of the cathedral is St. Vitus, St. Wenceslas and St. Adalbert Cathedral...
in Prague.
The cult of St Vitus became very popular in Slavic lands, where his name (Sveti Vid = St. Vitus) replaced the old cult of the god of light Svantovid. Just in
CroatiaCroatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a country in southeast Europe, at the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean Sea. Its capital is Zagreb...
, 123 churches are dedicated to St. Vitus.
Saint Vitus is invoked primarily against chorea, 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 as a young man with a palm-leaf, in a kettle, sometimes with a raven and a lion., his
iconographic attributeChristianity has used symbolism from its very beginnings. Each saint has a story and a reason why he or she led an exemplary life. Symbols have been used to tell these stories throughout the history of the Church. A number of Christian saints are traditionally represented by a symbol or iconic...
because according to the legend he was thrown into such a cauldron of boiling tar and molten lead, but escaped unscathed miraculously.
The names of Sts Modestus and Crescentia were added in the eleventh century to the Roman Calendar, so that from then on all three names were celebrated together until the year 1969, when their feast was removed from the
calendar of feasts proposed for celebrationThe General Roman Calendar indicates the days of the year to which are assigned the liturgical celebrations of saints and of the mysteries of the Lord that are to be observed wherever the Roman Rite is used...
throughout the
Roman RiteThe liturgical rite of the Catholic Church of Rome is called the Roman Rite. The quite distinct term Latin Rite usually refers not to a liturgical rite but to the particular Church within the Roman Catholic Church that was sometimes referred to also as the Patriarchate of the West...
. However, Saint Vitus is still recognized as a saint of the
Roman Catholic ChurchThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
, being inscribed in the
Roman MartyrologyThe Roman Martyrology is the official Martyrology of the Roman Rite of the Roman Catholic Church. It provides an extensive but not exhaustive list of the saints recognized by the Church.-History:...
under June 15, and
MassThe Mass is the Eucharistic celebration in the Latin liturgical rites of the Catholic Church. The term is used also of similar celebrations in Old Catholic Churches, in the Anglo-Catholic tradition of Anglicanism, in many Lutheran Churches, and in a small amount of High Church Methodist parishes...
may be celebrated in his honor on that day wherever the
Roman RiteThe liturgical rite of the Catholic Church of Rome is called the Roman Rite. The quite distinct term Latin Rite usually refers not to a liturgical rite but to the particular Church within the Roman Catholic Church that was sometimes referred to also as the Patriarchate of the West...
is celebrated. On the other hand, the Sts Modestus and Crescentia who are associated with St Vitus in legend have been omitted because they appear to be merely fictitious personages.
Traditional Roman Catholics continue to celebrate the feast day of
"Sts Vitus, Modestus and Crescentia, Martyrs" as either a Simple feast or a
CommemorationIn the Tridentine Mass period of the Roman Rite, when a higher-ranked liturgical celebration impeded the celebration of a lesser that, either permanently or by coincidence, fell on the same day, the prayer of the lower-ranked celebration was usually added to that of the higher...
(see the
General Roman Calendar of 1962This article lists the feast days of the General Roman Calendar as it was in 1962, following the reforms of Pope John XXIII introduced with his motu proprio Rubricarum instructum of 23 July 1960...
).
VidovdanVidovdan is a religious holiday, St. Vitus' Day, whose feast is on June 15. Where the Eastern Orthodox Church still uses the Julian Calendar, as in Serbia, that date coincides, in the 20th and 21st centuries, with June 28 in the Gregorian Calendar...
is Vitus' Day in Serbia among the Serb Orthodox Church.
External links