Vitale and Valeria, Saints, Martyrs

VITALE AND VALERIA, Saints, Martyrs. - They are the titular saints respectively of the basilica of S. Vitale in Ravenna and of the church (now uncovered) of S. Valeria outside Porta Vercellina in Milan.

According to an ancient tradition, which is based on a pseudo-Ambrosian letter of the 5th century (BHL, 3514) and is documented for the 6th century by Venantius Fortunatus (Vita s. Martini, IV, 680-85) and by the Hieronymian Martyrology (under 18 and 19 June), they would be the parents of the Milanese martyrs Gervasius and Protasius and would have been in turn martyred, the one at Ravenna for having encouraged St. Ursicinus during his torture, and the other during her return from Ravenna to Milan. Conversely, G. B. De Rossi holds that the Milanese church is a simple cella memoriae of the gens Valeria (various sepulchral inscriptions of which have been found in the area), while for Vitalis of Ravenna it is believed to be a question of the homonymous martyr of Bologna, since there are no traces of a tomb beneath the Basilica and Peter Chrysologus (Serm., 128) excludes the existence of other martyrs of Ravenna apart from St. Apollinaris. The feast of V. and V. is celebrated on 28 April, the date of the consecration of the Ravenna Basilica (Lanzoni) or of that of the Titulus Vestinae in Rome (Delehaye).

BHL: F. Savio, Due lettere falsamente attribuite a s. Ambrogio, in Nuovo bull. d'arch. crist., 3 (1897), pp. 153-77; Lanzoni, pp. 725-31, 1005-1006; H. Delehaye, Trois dates du Calendrier romain, in Anal. Boll., 46 (1928), pp. 50-67.

Giovanni Lucchesi