Happy Feast Day St. Vitus
c.290 - c.303 Feast Day: June 15 Patronage: actors, dancers, comedians, epileptics, dogs, and against oversleeping, snake bites, storms, animal attacks, lightning and Saint Vitus Dance (Chorea). Saint Vitus, the son of a pagan Sicilian, became a Christian along with his tutor and nurse at the age of 12. When his father found out he had them arrested and tortured. Legend has it that an angel freed them from prison and they fled to Rome. While there, Vitus exorcised a demon from Emperor Diocletian’s son. When Vitus wouldn’t sacrifice to the pagan gods, they attributed it to sorcery and threw him in a pot of boiling oil, along with a rooster (as part of a ritual against sorcery). The rooster became a symbol for Vitus, making him the patron against oversleeping. He was martyred in Lucania, Italy and is one of the 14 Holy Helpers.
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