Saint Vitus

Vitus was a Sicilian boy from Mazara, the son of a pagan father, and he died in 303 during Diocletian’s great persecution. According to tradition, he was just over twelve years old. His passio tells that, having lost his mother, he was raised by his nurse Crescentia and his tutor Modestus, who made him a Christian. His father denounced him to the governor Valerian; all three were arrested, tortured and taken to Lucania, where they died. The cult spread across Europe at an astonishing speed, and Vitus is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers — the saints invoked in the Middle Ages against specific ills. His share was movement disorders: the neurological illness that causes involuntary movements is still called, in everyday language, Saint Vitus’ dance. The origin lies in the group dances performed in front of his chapels in Germany in the fifteenth century, which had more to do with mass hysteria than with him. He is the patron saint of a great many towns in southern Italy, of Prague — where the cathedral bears his name — and of all Bohemia, as well as of dancers, epileptics and dogs. If your name is Vito, today is your name day.