VIVA
491
VIVARINI
Tuscan Sna and the Gulf of Taranto. It is easily
possible that the same martyr Vitus is meant in both
cases, because only the name of a territory is given,
not of a city, as the place where t he mart \r was vener-
ated. This testimony to the pulilic veneration of the
three saints in the fifth century jiroves positively that
they are historical martyrs. There are, neverthe-
less, no historical accounts of them, nor of the time
or the details of their martjTdom. During the sixth
and seventh centuries a purely legendary narrative of
their martjTdom ajijieared which was based upon
other legends, especially on the legend of Potitus, and
ornamented with accounts of fantastic miracles. It still
e.xists in various versions, but has no historical value.
According to this legend Vitus was a boy seven years of age (other versions make him twelve years old), the son of a pagan senator of Lucania. During the era of the Emperors Diocletian .and Maximinian, his father Hylas and Valerianus, the administrator of Sicily, sought in every way, including various forms of torture, to make him apostatize. But he remained steadfast, and God aided him in a wonderful manner. He fled with his tutor Modestus in a boat to Lucania. From Lucania he was taken to Rome to drive out a demon which had taken possession of a son of the Emperor Diocletian. This he did, and yet, because he remained steadfast in the Christian Faith, he w.os tortured together with his tutor Modestus and his nurse Crescent ia. By a miracle an angel brought back the martjTs to Lucania, where they died from the tortures they had endured. Three days later Vitus appeared to a distinguished matron named Flo- rentia, who then found the bodies and buried them in the spot where they were. It is e\ndent that the author of the legend has connected in his invention three saints who apparently suffered death in Lucania, and were first venerated there. The veneration of the martjTs spread rapidly in Southern Italy and Sicily, as is shown by the note in the "Martyrologium Hier- onymianum". Pope Gregory the Great mentions a monastery dedicated to Vitus in Sicily ("Epist.", I, xlviii, P. L., LXXVII, 511). The veneration of Vitus, the ciiief saint of the group, also appeared very early at Rome. Pope Gelasius (492-496) mentions a shrine dedicated to him (Jaffe, "Reg. Rom. Pont.", 2nd ed., I, 679), and at Rome in the seventh century the chapel of a deaconry was dedicated to him ("Liber Pont.", ed. Duchesne, I, 470 .sq.). In the eighth centurj' it is said that relics of St. Vitus were brought to the monastery of St-Denis by Abbot Ful- rad. They were later presented to Abfjot VVarin of Corvey in Germany, who solemnly transferred them to this abbey in 836. From Corvey the veneration of St. Vitus spread throughout Westphalia and in the districts of eastern and northern Germany. St. Vitus is appealed to, above all, against epilepsy, which is called St. Vitus's Dance, and he is one of the Four- teen Martvrs who give aid in times of trouble. He is represented near a kettle of boiling oil, because accord- ing to the legend he was thrown into such a kettle, but escaped miraculou.'ily. The feast of the three saints was adopted in the historical Mart>Tologies of the early Middle Ages and is also recorded in the present Roman Martvrologj- on 1.5 June.
Acta SS.. .lune. II. 1021-1(«7'; MoMBHmus, Snruiuarium, II, 349-351 ; (2nded.). II. fi.34-638; ralahgun rodirum hagiograph.. ed. B0LLANDI8T8 (Brussels). I, 11-12, .M-.W; A/on. Germ. Hist.: Script., II, .576-.58-5; HiMoria translationis fr. Viti, ed. Stentrup (Monster, 1906): Bihliolheca hnginaraphica lalina, II, 1257-1259; Supplementum (2nd ed.), 30S-309; DiForRCQ. Eliide sur lea grMa martyrum romnins, II (Paris, 1907), Ifi.5-177; Kessel. SI. Veit, seine Geschichle, Verehrunij und bildlirhen Darstellunoen in JahrbUcher des Vereins fUr AUertumsfreunde im Rheintande, XLIII (1867), 1.52-183; Schildqen. .S(, Vitus und der dariische Swantovit in ihrer Besiehunu zu einander in Programme (Monster, 1881).
J. P. KlRSCH.
Viva, DoMENico, writer, b. at I.,ecce, 19 Oct., 1648; d. 5 July, 1726. He entered the Society of Jesus
12 May, 1663. He taught the humanities and Greek,
nine years' philosojihy, eight years' moral theology,
eight years' Schola.stic theology, was two years prefect
of studies, was rector of the College of Naples in 1711,
and provincial of Naples. Works: (1) "Enchiri-
dion", a work relating to the jubilee, especially that
of the Holy Year, and in general concerning indul-
gences; (2) a course of theology for schools, com-
plied from his lectures at the college at Naples;
(3) "Opu.scula theologico-moraha", for students;
(4) a course of moral theology. These works are held in high esteem and are quoted by St. Alphonsus Liguori, La Croix, etc.; (5) "Trutina theologica damnatarum thesium" (1708), his most famous work, in four parts and two volumes. In the first volume are enumerated the proposi- tions condemned by three popes: 45 by Alexander VII, 65 by Innocent XI, 39 by Alex- ander VIII, and the 5 condemned propositions of the ".\ugu8tinus" of Jansenius. The second volume is devoted to the study and refutation of the 101 proposi- tionsof Quesnel, condemned bythe BuO "Unigenitus" of Clement XI in 1713. The first volume had been published in 1708 and by 1757 had reached sixteen editions, and in the same period vol. II had gone through six editions. To some editions were added the valuable comments of Father Antonio Zaccharia, librarian of the House of Este, in which pontifical documents are cited and the author defended against Daniel Concina, Giovanni Vincenzo Patuzzi, and others. The third edition (Benevento, 1717) con- tains a treati.se in which appeal to a future council is declared illegal when the pope has spoken and the Church, spread over the entire world, has accepted his judgment; which is demonstrated by the testimony of the oecumenical councils and by the assemblies of the French clergy.
SoMMERvooEL, BUI. dc la C. rff J.: Feller, Did. hist. (Paris, 183S); Viva, Opera (Ferrara, 1757); Menolog. S.J., 5 ,Iu!y.
R.\m6.\ Ruiz Amado.
Vivarini, a family of Italian painters. Alvise, b. in 1446 or 1447; died in 1502. He was the son of Antonio, and was educated by his uncle Bartolom- meo. Of his early history very little is known. In 1488 he wrote to the Signoria in Venice, begging that he might be allowed to prove his skill side by side with that of the two Bellini in the decoration of one of the great rooms, that in which the Grand Council met. His petition was granted, but the pictures he executed have disappeared. In 1492, from the same body, he received the honorary title of Depentor in Gran Conseio and a stipend of five ducats a month. For some years he was by most critics connected with Giovanni Bellini, by some regarded as Bellini's pupil, or a forem.an in his studio, and by others as a per.son of little interest, an unimportant Murancsc painter, who imitiited Bellini's methods, and copied his ideas and technique. It is very largely owing to Bernhard Beren.son's investigations when compiling his work on Lotto that Alvi.se has been given his rightful posi- tion as an eminent Veneti.an painter, who exercised great and lasting influence on his succe.s,sors. He was an original workman, highly thought of in his own time, a great figure among.st the Venetian masters of the fifteenth centurj-, by no means an unimportant member of the Vivarini family, and not a follower of Bellini, but eminent on his own account, and also because he was the master of Cima, Lotto, Alontegna, •and Bonsignori. His influence upon his puj)ils is considerable, and extends to others who were not specially known as his pupils, as Ba.saiti, Pordenone, and Antonello da Messina.
His first dated work is t he polyptych of 1475, painted for Montefiorentino, and still to be seen in that Franciscan monastery. His Madonna of 1480 is in the Venice Academy. There is a picture dated 1483 at Barletta, one at Naples of 1485, a Madonna at Vienna,
