Vitus

Who they were

Tradition makes Vitus a Christian boy of seven, arrested for his faith and for his miracles, who fled with his tutor Modestus and nurse Crescentia to Lucania; summoned by Diocletian to free his son from a demon, he refused afterwards to sacrifice to the gods, and all three were martyred near the river Sele.

Historians hold that only Vitus is certainly historical; Modestus and Crescentia were added later. Churches were dedicated to him by the fifth century, and monasteries in Sicily by the sixth.

The miracles

There was never a formal cause: Vitus has been honoured as a martyr since the early centuries. The wonders in his story are legend and were never formally examined.

Why that counted as sanctity

Vitus is honoured as a young martyr who would not deny Christ even before the emperor.