Feast day: June 15

St. Vitus

Martyr · d. c. 303

Patron of Dancers, against epilepsy

A boy of Sicily martyred with his tutor and nurse in the last great persecution, who became one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers and one of the most invoked saints of medieval Europe.

Vitus was a young martyr — according to his legend, a boy of about twelve — who died for the faith in southern Italy or Sicily during the persecution of Diocletian, around the year 303. He is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, and though his cult is ancient and immensely popular, the historical details of his life are obscured by legend.

The story tells that Vitus was the son of a pagan senator in Sicily, secretly raised a Christian by his nurse, Crescentia, and her husband, Modestus. When his father discovered his faith and could not shake it, the three fled together. Brought at last before the emperor, Vitus is said to have cured the emperor's son, yet still refused to sacrifice to the gods, and the three were martyred together.

In the late Middle Ages Vitus became associated with a curious affliction. A 'dancing mania' that swept parts of Europe — people seized by uncontrollable, frenzied dancing — came to be called 'St. Vitus's Dance,' and sufferers sought relief at his shrines. The name was later applied by physicians to the nervous disorder of involuntary movement, chorea.

From these associations he became the patron of dancers and actors, and the saint invoked against epilepsy, nervous disorders, and the dancing sickness. He remains widely venerated across central Europe.

The nervous disorder 'St. Vitus' Dance' is named for him, after the dancing done at his shrines on his feast in hope of good health.

Image: artist unknown (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons.

Source: newadvent.org/cathen/15490b.htm