St. Vitus
Feast Day: June 15
Legends link Vitus with Sts. Crescentia and Modestus, his nurse and tutor, respectively, who converted this son of a Sicilian
senator to Christianity. When the conversion was discovered by his father, all three fled to southern Italy, then Rome, where they were tortured and martyred during the persecution of Emperor Diocletian. The cult of Vitus grew in medieval Italy and Germany; he is venerated as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers and is the patron saint of dancers, actors and the Czech Republic. He is also invoked against storms and epilepsy; “St. Vitus’s dance” was a popular name for Sydenham’s chorea, a disorder causing involuntary, jerky bodily movements.
