Vitus (saint)

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The Martyrdom of St. Veit in the boiler with boiling oil, representation by Veit Altar (1514/17) of the Veitskirche in mite
Depiction of the legend of Vitus on the ceiling fresco of the parish church of St. Vitus in Iffeldorf
Sculpture of St. Veit in the oil boiler, Veit Stoss , linden wood, around 1520, Germanic National Museum in Nuremberg

Vitus or in Latin Vitus (* in Mazara in Sicily ; † around 304 in Lucania , southern Italy ) is said to have died as a martyr under Diocletian . He is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church and is one of the fourteen helpers in need .

Legend

According to legend, his parents gave Veit as a child to the nurse Crescentia and her husband Modestus , who taught him the Christian faith. When his father found out, he wanted to dissuade his son and later kill him. Vitus, however, remained steadfast and fled with Crescentia and Modestus to Lucania , where an eagle brought them bread and Vitus performed all sorts of miracles .

When Emperor Diocletian heard about the boy, he brought him to Rome because Veit was supposed to heal his son, who was afflicted by an evil spirit. Although Veit succeeded in this, he should give up his faith and sacrifice to the pagan gods. When Veit refused again, he was thrown in front of the lions to be torn to pieces. But the lions lay down before him, licked his feet, and did nothing to him. Eventually Veit was thrown into boiling oil along with Modestus and Crescentia. Angels saved them from it and brought them back to Lucania, where they died. Eagles guarded their bodies until the widow Florentia found them and buried them.

Worship and relics

756 who came relics of St. Vitus in the Basilica of Saint-Denis in Paris as a gift in the first Benedictine monastery, from where 836 Saxony , which later gefürstete imperial abbey Corvey (founded 822) on the Weser, whose patron Vitus is today. Via Corveyer Benedictine missionaries (e.g. St.  Ansgar ) the veneration of Vitus and the relics of St. Vitus further north and east. In 1355 his head was transferred to Prague to be kept in St. Vitus Cathedral , which was built in his honor by King Charles IV .

St. Veit is the patron saint of pharmacists, innkeepers, beer brewers , winemakers , coppersmiths , dancers and actors, Saxons , youth, domestic animals, Bohemia , Prague , Mönchengladbach , Ellwangen , Höxter and Sicily . He is called to cure convulsions, epilepsy , rabies , Vitus dance , bed-wetting and snakebite.

With the Slavs , Sankt Veit is also the mushroom patron (= mushroom patron), who are supported by good goblins who make the mushrooms grow well. In the course of Christianization, he replaced the god Svantevit , who, revered as a field protector, rode a white horse and carried a cornucopia. The mushrooms emerged from the foaming drool of his horse. In Corveyer Land, Vitus was seen as a lottery day for the growth of mushrooms (“When it rains on Vitus, then it rains mushrooms”). The late drying up of a certain karst spring there only after Vitus was considered a good sign for a dry but beneficial summer.

He was called in the case of epilepsy , which recurred in the Middle Ages , as well as the dance frenzy. In this "psychological epidemic" (also called St. Vitus's dance) people felt the need to form a group and dance until they were completely exhausted.

Patronage

→ St. Vitus Church

St. Veit is the patron saint and name-building for the following cities:

St. Veit, a depiction from 1672 in Eichstätt
Coat of arms of the Vienna district of St. Veit
San Vito Romano coat of arms
Belgium
Germany
France
Italy
Croatia
  • Rijeka (formerly St. Veit am Flaum)
Austria
Slovenia
Hungary

Remembrance day

The day of St. Vitus on June 15 was considered to be the feast day of St. Veit in the Middle Ages also as the beginning of midsummer (“Here the sun doesn't like higher!”, “Time turns to St. Veit”). The day of this saint also has a special meaning for the Serbs .

reception

In the 4th stanza of the Frankenlied , the "Heil'ge Veit von Staffelstein" is sung and a representation in the coat of arms is used by the communities of Flein and, similarly, Veitshöchheim and Sankt Veit im Pongau . The British hard rock band Black Sabbath released a song called St. Vitus Dance (on their album Black Sabbath Vol. 4 ) in their psychedelic phase . While the title evidently addresses St. Vitus's dance, the lyrics are about something completely different, namely distrust in a relationship crisis.

The American doom metal band Saint Vitus named themselves after Saint Vitus based on the title of Black Sabbath.

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Vitus  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Armin Kaumanns: Mönchengladbach: The legend of Saint Vitus. In: RP online. March 8, 2010, accessed August 24, 2016 .
  2. ↑ e.-kirche.de: Evang. - Luth. Veitlahm parish , accessed on December 1, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Vitus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Vitus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Martyr, helper, saint
DATE OF BIRTH 3rd century
PLACE OF BIRTH Mazara , Sicily
DATE OF DEATH at 304
Place of death Lucania