Editing Saint Vitus (section)

==Martyrdom==
[[File:Vitusmodestuscrescentia.jpg|thumb|left|The martyrdom of Vitus, Modestus, and Crescentia, from a fourteenth-century manuscript]]

According to the hagiography, Vitus, Modestus and Crescentia were martyrs under [[Diocletian]]. 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 indicates 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 mention of a Vitus at the head of a list of nine martyrs, with the statement of the place, in [[Eboli]], "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 it is the same martyr Vitus in both cases.

According to J. P. Kirsch,<ref>The author of [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15490b.htm the article] in the [[Catholic Encyclopedia]] from which the information in this section is drawn</ref> the testimony to the public veneration of the three saints in the fifth century proves 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 [[legend]]s, especially on the legend of [[Potitus]], and ornamented with accounts of fantastic miracles. According to this legend, 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 turn away from his faith. 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 [[exorcism|drive out a demon]] which had taken possession of a son of the Emperor Diocletian. He successfully performed the exorcism, but, because he stayed faithful to Christianity, he and his tutors were [[tortured]]. By a [[miracle]] an [[angel]] 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 where they lay.

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