St Vitalis (14th February)

St Vitalis is the only martyr from Spoleto that is included in the Martyrology of Jerome.  Hardly anything else is known about him except for an inscription that was originally in the church of San Lorenzo, Terzo della Pieve (a small settlement some 13 km north west of Spoleto that seems to have been of Roman origin). 

The inscription recorded that Bishop Spes (ca. 380-410) and his daughter Calvenzia (a virgin, consecrated to God)  had discovered the relics in tact.  Bishop Spes had translated them to the church of San Lorenzo and interred them under an altar which he had dedicated to the saint. 

Bishop Paolo Sanvitale (who probably had a particular veneration for "San Vitale") translated the relics and the inscription to the Duomo in 1597:

• The inscription was broken, probably during its translation.  It is known from a transcription contained in a letter written by Paolo Sanvitale and from a fragment that is now in Sant' Eufemia.

• A relic of the tibia of St Vitalis, contained in a reliquary (1597) commissioned by Paolo Sanvitale, is now in the Cappella delle Reliquie, Duomo.