Feast Day of Saint Vitus

Event Dates

The patron saint famous only for his connection to a strange nervous disorder gets his due every year, in Marano Lagunare, in the Italian province of Friuli. The saint's day is marked by a solemn procession of decorated boats, which proceed along the canals of the city to the church of Saint Vitus, where there is a mass in his honour.

Saint Vitus' Dance, or Sydenham Chorea, manifests in the form of uncontrollable dance-like movements, along with loss of memory and cognitive function. The connection between the saint and the disease arose for obscure reasons. One account has it that worshippers in 16th-century Germany started to think they could gain the favour of their patron by dancing in front of his image for hours. The semi-mystical dancing trance-state in which they entered bore striking similarities to the disease (maybe they were just very un-coordinated dancers...).

Other areas of patronage of the saint include young people, dogs, dancers, lightning and epilepsy. He is one of the "Fourteen Helpers", a group of saints which received particular attention in Germany and France and whose intercession was meant to be particularly helpful and effective.

website: www.comune.maranolagunare.ud.it