Dancing with Saint Vitus

You see, my interest in Saints goes back a ways, when even as a kid, always the strange one, I’d identify Saints like other might identify ball players. I quickly found his story, but the more I read about him, the more I wanted to know. I never knew what "Saint Vitus Dance" was either, and I wondered how in the heck a nerve disorder had come to be named after him in the first place. The thought of a dancing Saint seemed incongruous with sanctity. Here I was reading that it had become a 17th century custom to dance in front of the image of Saint Vitus to gain his favor, but that didn’t answer how or where the Saint’s connection to dancing originated from. There had to be another part of the story I thought, but it wasn’t long before the day’s distractions gently nudged my interest further down my Things To Do list, and before I knew it the subject had slipped my mind again.

I was listening to the public radio station the following weekend when I was reminded again. The DJ was playing a track from an artist by the name of Alessandra Bellini, and went on to say that the song was a type or style similar to the Flamenco. It was called a Tarantella, named after a dance that had its roots in the Medieval Dance Mania. Just before going to station identification he uttered one last sentence. He said that the Dance Mania, from the middle ages was also known as the Saint Vitus Dance. There it was again! I had to find out about this. I passed the next garbage sale with merely a drive by look, actually more eager to go home and further research Saint Vitus on the internet than to rummage through my neighbor’s junk. I had to find out about this. I don’t know why exactly, I just had to satisfy my curiosity once and for all. What in the world was the Saint Vitus dance? Was it an epidemic, a cult, a folkdance, a fairytale or what?

Well, once I got past a wealth of information on the heavy metal band called Saint Vitus Dance, I was amazed to eventually discover historical accounts of the strange medieval phenomenon. As it is with all landmark moments in history, the Dance Mania is a peculiar example of several elements coming together at just the precise moment to cause something never before or since known, at least not on the scale it appeared during the centuries it existed. Yes, I said centuries. Oh we may have our occasional Raves, Toronto Blessings, and Saint Vitus Dance heavy-metal rock concerts, but this odd phenomenon is said to have existed for over three hundred years, from the late fourteenth century until the seventeenth, at which point it disappeared as mysteriously as it began. The more I researched, the more I found accounts of these very episodes that sparked the tradition of the Tarantella and caused the connection between Saint Vitus, the dance and the strange disease. Throughout the period, this combination of mass hysteria and disease epidemic continued to make its mark. Some have speculated that a kind of parasite related to this disease would cause a chemical reaction tantamount to taking LSD to occur. Psychiatrists and medical historians have classified these episodes as group mental disorders and blamed the stresses of the period including the recent loss of half the European population to the Black Plague. Whatever its cause, the phenomenon grew, not peaking until the 17th century.

The Saint Vitus Dance

During the latter half of the 14th century the effects of the Black Plague were still profoundly felt when odd behavior began to spread throughout Europe. This affliction took such violent hold of a victim’s central nervous system that its sufferers appeared to be demonically possessed. Symptoms that included headache, malaise, appetite loss, breathlessness and fainting were further complicated by the onset of hallucinations and delusions. Facial grimacing and wild erratic gyrations were punctuated with jerking movements, maniacal laughter, foaming at the mouth and even seizures. These sights inspired superstition and fear in the public imagination. In this era when neither science nor medicine could explain the mysteries of life, the supernatural realities of the unseen world were woven into the fabric of everyday life. People were at a loss to explain what was happening as victims added these strange symptoms to the ever expanding list that usually started with convulsions or tremors. As it continued to take more victims it spread like wildfire to the excitement of throngs of pilgrims and onlookers who came from everywhere to witness the events that the ensuing madness generated. They converged with those either bitten or seduced to take part in what would become forever known as the Saint Vitus Dance.

As the numbers of the afflicted grew, they needed a cure. Through experimentation and invention some very strange rituals developed. People were convinced that music and dancing were the only effective remedies discovered, and it was thought that people would die within days or even hours if there was no music. It was believed that music was the only incentive sufficient to stimulate them, (it was later speculated that the music may have had some kind of effect on actually prolonging the condition) and so musicians would incite them to dance with local instruments. Always upbeat music, played with the intention of causing the afflicted to dance, it was played with the hope that by their vigorous dancing the afflicted would be able to sweat out the poison from their system. The dancing would continue until the dancers collapsed with exhaustion, finally free from the poison’s grip.

In Italy it became known as the Tarantella traditional dance music that is still played today. The folkdance is said to have its roots in this phenomenon, and those afflicted with tarantismo initiated the dances that gave rise to the actual dance form. Because this was still unjustly being blamed on the bite of the tarantula; it became named after the region of Italy where these spiders were common, although physicians later proved the spider innocent. It was rare that anyone actually recalled seeing a spider, but many remained convinced that they had been bitten.

The phenomenon snowballed as tens of thousands of people participated in public orgies and wild dances lasting for days or even weeks. During these outbreaks it is said that they tore off their clothing and danced through the streets naked. Some allegedly laughed or wept to the point of death. Women howled and made obscene gestures while others squealed like animals. Some rolled themselves in the dirt or developed a penchant for being struck on the soles of their feet. Others, in pain from swelling and distended stomachs, obtained more relief from kicks and blows, readily administered by the crazed onlookers. These wild parties would continue until finally the crowd, in one massive hallucination, lay sprawled everywhere in exhaustion. Often times the sufferers would find themselves at one of the many chapels of Saint Vitus, either by their own volition, coercion or force. The Priest would lead the writhing mass of bodies through the Church door to say Mass and recite exorcisms.. Some of them left forever cured, others would return again and again. Some contend that this disease was a variety of Sydenham’s chorea but never have the symptoms been so varied, widespread or severe. Its final disappearance was attributed by some to occur when the odd set of circumstances that led to the strange phenomenon was somehow offset by the disappearance of one of the contributing factors, exactly which one we may never know. Most people at the time attributed the disappearance of the epidemic to the healing power of Saint Vitus, as many prayed that the Saint intercede for them, and free them from the disease that bore his name.

Why Saint Vitus? Saint Vitus was probably one of the most popular Saints of the day with many Churches and Shrines already devoted to him. As legends of the Saint’s intercessions grew to include story after story of victims cured by him, he began to gain a reputation for curing the dangerous affliction that led to these mass delusions and sometimes ended in death. Other Saints were occasionally credited with saving victims, but it seems Saint Vitus had a little more time on his hands with the Plague now at bay, and he eventually became most popular for this one cause. This Dance Mania, despite its Christian undertones, developed into a huge movement and cult of the era and by all accounts was apocalyptic, hedonistic and strangest of all psychologically contagious. The behavior was indeed strange, because while exhibiting actions that were clearly part of the Christian tradition, like paying homage to Jesus, Mary, and various Saints, other elements were foreign, heretical and even deemed demonic. Accounts say that "in their songs they uttered the names of devils never before heard of . . . this strange sect." "They indulged in disgraceful immodesty, for many women, during this shameless dance and mock-bridal singing, bared their bosoms, while others of their own accord offered their virtue." So while on the one hand, it seemed to attract followers and people who thought it to be of God, the Catholic Church stood firmly against it, and implored the intercessions of Saint Vitus when they needed to break one from its spell.

Patron of Comedians, Dancers, Dogs, Early Risers and Epileptics

The legend of Saint Vitus has little to tie him to the affliction that would forever bear his name. His humble story, which has a number of versions and countless anecdotes, always begins with the young Vitus, an only child and the son of the well-to-do Sicilian Senator named Hylas. At an early age Vitus was zealous, and boldly became a Christian at twelve years of age. When stories of his miracles became widely known he caught the attention of the Administrator of Sicily, who then summoned the young man to be brought before him so that he might put a stop to his foolishness and convince him to renounce his faith in Christ. His efforts proved unsuccessful, with Vitus only increasing in his zeal. Stories abound of Vitus and his tutor and servant, Modestus and Crescentia, until they were martyred in Lucania during the year 303AD. Toward the end of the fourteenth century it was maintained that St. Vitus had, just before he bent his neck and prepared himself for the blow from the sword that would make him a Martyr, prayed to God that he might protect from the Dancing Mania all those who should honor the day of his commemoration, and fast upon its eve. A voice from heaven was heard, saying, "Vitus, thy prayer is accepted." Thus, it was said, St. Vitus became the Patron Saint of those afflicted with the Dancing Plague, despite the fact that the Dancing Plague was not to hit Europe for yet another ten centuries.