Editing Saint Vitus

{{short description|Sicilian saint}}
{{other uses}}
{{EngvarB|date=June 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2021}}
{{Infobox saint
|honorific_prefix=[[Saint]]
|name=Vitus
|birth_date={{circa|290}}
|death_date={{circa|303}} (age 12–13)
|feast_day=15 June
|venerated_in=[[Catholic Church]]<br />[[Eastern Orthodox Church]]
|image=Vitus CXXVr.jpg
|caption=Saint Vitus, from the ''[[Nuremberg Chronicle]]'', 1493
|birth_place=[[Mazzara del Vallo]], [[Sicily]]
|death_place=[[Lucania]], modern-day [[Basilicata]], [[Italy]]
|titles=Martyr, Holy Helper
|beatified_date=
|beatified_place=
|beatified_by=
|canonized_date=
|canonized_place=
|canonized_by=
|attributes=Depicted in a [[cauldron]], with a [[rooster]] or a [[lion]]
|patronage=[[acting|Actor]]s; [[comedy|comedian]]s; [[Rijeka, Croatia]]; [[Czechoslovakia]]; [[dance]]rs; [[dog]]s; [[epilepsy]]; [[Mazara del Vallo|Mazara del Vallo, Sicily]]; [[Forio|Forio, Ischia]]; [[sleep|oversleeping]]; [[Prague, Czech Republic]]; [[rheumatic chorea]] (Saint Vitus Dance); [[Serbia]]; [[snake bite]]s; [[storm]]s; [[Vacha, Germany]]; [[Zeven]], [[Lower Saxony]]; the [[Gooi|Gooi, Netherlands]]; [[E Clampus Vitus]]
|major_shrine=
|issues=
|prayer=
|prayer_attrib=
}}

'''Vitus''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|v|aɪ|t|ə|s}}), whose name is sometimes rendered '''Guy''' or '''Guido''', was a [[Christian martyr]] from [[Sicily]]. His surviving [[hagiography]] is pure legend. The dates of his actual life are unknown.<ref name=BW>Basil Watkins, ''The Book of Saints: A Comprehensive Biographical Dictionary'', 8th rev. ed. (Bloomsbury, 2016), p. 758.</ref><ref name=DA>Donald Attwater, ''The Avenel Dictionary of Saints'' (Avenel Books, 1981), p. 338.</ref> He has for long been tied to the Sicilian martyrs Modestus and Crescentia but in the earliest sources it is clear that these were originally different traditions that later became combined.<ref name=DHF>David Hugh Farmer, ''The Oxford Dictionary of Saints'', 5th rev. ed. (Oxford University Press, 2011), s.v. "Vitus (Guy), Modestus, and Crescentia".</ref> The figures of Modestus and Crescentia are probably fictitious.<ref name=BW/>

According to his hagiography, he died during the [[Diocletianic Persecution]] in AD 303. In the [[Middle Ages]], he was counted as one of the [[Fourteen Holy Helpers]]. In [[Germany]], his feast was celebrated with dancing before his statue. This dancing became popular and the name "Saint Vitus Dance" was given to the neurological disorder [[Sydenham's chorea]]. It also led to Vitus being considered the patron saint of dancers and of entertainers in general.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://saints.sqpn.com/saintv07.htm |title=Saint Vitus |publisher=Saints.sqpn.com |access-date=2013-12-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120808173149/http://saints.sqpn.com/saintv07.htm |archive-date=2012-08-08 |url-status=dead }}</ref> He is also said to protect against lightning strikes, animal attacks and oversleeping. His [[feast day]] is celebrated on 15 June. In places where the [[Julian calendar]] is used, this date coincides, in the 20th and 21st centuries, with 28 June on the [[Gregorian calendar]].

==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.

{{Clear}}

==Veneration==
[[File:St Vitus Cathedral from south.jpg|thumb|upright|[[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 AD 756, [[Saint Fulrad|Abbot Fulrad]] is said to have brought the [[relics]] of St. Vitus to the [[Saint-Denis Abbey|monastery of St-Denis]]. They were later presented to Abbot Warin of [[Corvey]] in Germany, who solemnly transferred some of them to this abbey in AD 836. From Corvey the veneration of St Vitus spread throughout Westphalia and in the districts of eastern and northern Germany. His popularity grew in [[Prague]], Bohemia when, in AD 925, king [[Henry I of Germany]] presented as a gift the bones of one hand of St. Vitus to [[Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia|Wenceslaus]], Duke of Bohemia. Since then, this relic has been a sacred treasure in the [[St. Vitus Cathedral]] in Prague. Other relics of Saint Vitus were taken in [[Pavia]] (they were kept in the church of [[San Marino, Pavia|San Marino]]) by the emperor [[Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles IV]] in 1355 and were brought to Prague.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AbZ-rhlSlxsC&dq=charles+IV+saint+vitus+pavia&pg=PA150|title=Prague. The Crown of Bohemia, 1347-1437|year=2005 |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |isbn=9781588391612 |access-date=11 August 2022}}</ref>

The veneration of St. Vitus became very popular in [[Slavs|Slavic]] lands, where his name (Sveti Vid) may have replaced more ancient worship of the god of light [[Svetovid]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mzos.hr/svibor/nameE.htm |title=SVIBOR – The Meaning and the Origin of the Word |publisher=Mzos.hr |date=1996-06-14 |access-date=2013-12-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120305105129/http://www.mzos.hr/svibor/nameE.htm |archive-date=2012-03-05 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In [[Serbia]] his feast day, known as [[Vidovdan]], is of particular historical importance.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Đorđević|first=Dimitrije |title=The role of St. Vitus Day in modern Serbian history|journal=Serbian Studies|volume=5|issue=3|date=Spring 1990|publisher=[[North American Society for Serbian Studies]]|url=http://www.serbianstudies.org/publications/pdf/Vol5_3_1990-%20DimitrijeDjordjevic-TheRoleofSt_VitusDayinModernSerbianHistory.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.serbianstudies.org/publications/pdf/Vol5_3_1990-%20DimitrijeDjordjevic-TheRoleofSt_VitusDayinModernSerbianHistory.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|pages=33–40}}</ref> The day is part of the [[Kosovo Myth]] — the [[Battle of Kosovo]] occurred on that day; several events have symbolically occurred on that day, such as the 1914 [[Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria|assassination of the Austrian royal couple]]; Vitus was the patron saint of the [[Kingdom of Serbia]].<ref name="CoveWestwell2002">{{cite book|author1=Dennis Cove|author2=Ian Westwell|title=History of World War I.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7DR_fheHdCAC&pg=PA72|date=January 2002|publisher=Marshall Cavendish|isbn=978-0-7614-7231-5|page=72|quote=... was scheduled for June 28. This was a significant date for both Princip and the archduke. It was the day of St. Vitus, the patron saint of Serbia,}}</ref> In [[Hungary]] he has been venerated as ''Szent Vid'' since the early Middle Ages. In [[Bulgaria]], it is called Vidovden (Видовден) or Vidov Den (Видов ден) and is particularly well known among the [[Shopi]], in the western part of the country.  In [[Croatia]], 123 churches are dedicated to St. Vitus.

In the [[Netherlands]], Vitus is the patron saint of [[Winschoten]], as well as of the region of the Gooi, where in each of the three largest towns (Hilversum, Bussum and Naarden), the main Catholic Church is dedicated to St Vitus.

Vitus is one of the [[Fourteen Martyrs]] who give aid in times of trouble. He is specifically invoked against [[Sydenham's chorea|chorea]], which is called ''St. Vitus Dance''.

He is represented as a young man with a palm-leaf, in a cauldron, sometimes with a raven and a lion, his [[Saint symbology|iconographic attribute]] because according to the legend he was thrown into a cauldron of boiling tar and molten lead, but miraculously escaped unscathed.

The names of Saints Modestus and Crescentia were added in the 11th century to the Roman Calendar,<ref name=CR>"Calendarium Romanum" (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 1969), p. 126</ref> so that from then on all three names were celebrated together until 1969, when their feast was removed from the [[General Roman Calendar]]. Vitus is still recognized as a saint of the [[Catholic Church]], being included in the [[Roman Martyrology]] under 15 June,<ref>"Martyrologium Romanum" (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2001 {{ISBN|88-209-7210-7}})</ref> and [[Mass (liturgy)|Mass]] may be celebrated in his honor on that day wherever the [[Roman Rite]] is celebrated,<ref>[[General Instruction of the Roman Missal]], [http://www.salesianer.de/liturgie/igmr2002.htm 355]</ref> while Modestus and Crescentia, who are associated with Vitus in legend, have been omitted, because they appear to be merely fictitious personages.<ref name=CR/>

Vitus is the patron saint of the city of [[Rijeka]] in [[Croatia]]; the towns of [[Ciminna]] and [[Vita, Sicily|Vita]] in [[Sicily]]; [[Forio]] on the island of [[Ischia]], the town of Sapri in [[Campania]]; the ''contrada'' of San Vito, in [[Torella dei Lombardi]], in [[Avellino]]; the town of [[Rapone]], Italy; the Gooi region in the [[Netherlands]]; the Italian colony of [[San Vito (Costa Rica)|San Vito]] in Costa Rica; and the town of [[St. Vith]] in [[Belgium]]. Various places in [[Austria]] and [[Bavaria]] are named [[Sankt Veit (disambiguation)|Sankt Veit]] in his honour.

The saint's feast day is also the subject of a popular weather rhyme: "If St. Vitus' Day be rainy weather, it shall rain for thirty days together". This rhyme often appears in such publications as [[almanac]]s; its origin is uncertain.

Michael J. Towsend writes that "the phrase 'The patron saint of [[Methodism]] is St Vitus' summed up with reasonable accuracy many people's impressions of the Methodist Church. Methodists, surely, are supremely busy people, always rushing around organizing things and setting up committees to do good works. They can generally be relied upon to play their part in running [[Christian Aid Week]], the sponsored walk for the local hospice or the group protesting about homelessness, and they are known, even now, to be activists in trades unions and political parties."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theway.org.uk/back/s094Townsend.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.theway.org.uk/back/s094Townsend.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|title=A sacramental spirituality for Methodism|last=Townsend|first=Michael J.|work=The Way|publisher=[[Society of Jesus]]|page=100|access-date=4 May 2021}}</ref>

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Flein-st-veit.jpg|Martyrdom of Saint Vitus, [[Germany]] circa 1515, St. Vitus church, [[Flein]]
File:HeiligenstadtSanktVeit.JPG|An image of Saint Vitus in [[Heiligenstadt in Oberfranken|Heiligenstadt]], [[Franconia]]
File:Martyrdom of saint Vitus.PNG|Martyrdom of Saint Vitus, [[Germany]] circa 1450, [[National Museum in Warsaw]]
File:Wappen at st veit.png|Martyrdom of Saint Vitus/Sankt Veit on the coat of arms of [[Sankt Veit im Pongau]], [[Austria]]
File:Grucking St. Vitus Hochaltar 963.jpg|High altar of Saint Vitus in [[Fraunberg, Bavaria]], {{circa}} 1770
File:St.Veit Pfarrkirche - Hochaltar 1.jpg|[[Gothic Revival architecture|Gothic Revival]] high altar (1911) at the Saint Vitus Parish Church in [[Pfarrkirchen im Mühlkreis]], [[Upper Austria]], by Ludwig Linzinger
File:Kostel sv. Víta v Libědicích.jpg|Church of Saint Vitus, [[Libědice]], [[Czech Republic]]
File:Overzicht toren met ingangsportaal - Blaricum - 20408105 - RCE.jpg|Church of Saint Vitus, [[Blaricum]], [[Netherlands]]
File:St. Vitus-Kirche in Treffelhausen.jpg|Church of Saint Vitus, Treffelhausen, [[Baden-Württemberg]], Germany
File:Dani Sv Vida Rijeka 0610 1.jpg|Banners celebrating the feast of St. Vitus in [[Rijeka]], [[Croatia]]
</gallery>

==See also==
* [[List of early Christian saints]]
* [[Portal:Catholic Church/Patron Archive/June 15|Saint Vitus, patron saint archive]]
* [[Statue of Vitus, Charles Bridge]]
* [[Dancing mania]]
* [[The Dancing Mania, an epidemic of the Middle Ages|The Dancing mania]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
* {{Catholic|wstitle=Sts. Vitus, Modestus, and Crescentia}}
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Vitus, St |volume= 28 |last= Delehaye |first= Hippolyte |author-link= Hippolyte Delehaye | page = 152 |short= 1 }}

==External links==
{{commons category|Vitus|Saint Vitus}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070108085044/http://www.catholic-forum.com/SAINTS/saintv07.htm Patron Saints Index profile of Saint Vitus]
* [http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=140 Catholic Online profile of Saint Vitus]
* [http://saintvitus.com/SaintVitus/#Saint Information on Saint Vitus, the saint, on saintvitus.com]
* {{in lang|it}} [http://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/57300 San Vito]

{{Fourteen Holy Helpers}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vitus, Saint}}
[[Category:290 births]]
[[Category:303 deaths]]
[[Category:3rd-century births]]
[[Category:4th-century Christian martyrs]]
[[Category:4th-century Romans]]
[[Category:Burials at St. Vitus Cathedral]]
[[Category:Christian child saints]]
[[Category:Comedy]]
[[Category:Fourteen Holy Helpers]]
[[Category:Sicilian saints]]
[[Category:Angelic visionaries]]
[[Category:Miracle workers]]
[[Category:Exorcists]]
[[Category:Christians martyred during the reign of Diocletian]]