VITALE and VALERIA, saints, martyrs. - They are respectively the titular saints of the basilica of S. Vitale
at Ravenna and of the church (now uncovered) of S. Valeria outside the Vercellese gate at Milan.
According to an ancient tradition, based on a pseudo-Ambrosian letter of the 5th century (BHL, 3514) and documented for the 6th century by Venanzio Fortunato (Vita s. Martini, IV, 680-85) and by the Martyrologium Hieronymianum (under 18 and 19 June), they were the parents of the Milanese martyrs Gervasio and Protasio and were themselves martyred, the former at Ravenna for having encouraged s. Ursicino during his torment, and the latter on her return from Ravenna to Milan. Conversely, G. B. De Rossi holds that the Milanese church is merely a cella memoriae of the gens Valeria (various funerary inscriptions of which have been found in the area), while Vitale of Ravenna is believed to be the namesake martyr of Bologna, since there are no traces of a tomb beneath the Basilica and Pier Crisologo (Serm., 128) excludes the existence of other Ravennate martyrs apart from s. Apollinare. 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