Saint of the Day: June 15th - SS Vitus, Crescentia and Modestus.

Butler'sLivesoftheSaints SAINTS VITUS, CRESCENTIA, and MODESTUS

Martyrs
Vitus was a child nobly born, who had the happiness to be instructed in the Faith, and inspired with the most perfect sentiments of his religion, by his Christian nurse, named Crescentia, and her faithful husband, Modestus.
His father, Hylas, was extremely incensed when he discovered the child's invincible aversion to idolatry; and finding him not to be overcome by stripes and such like chastisements, he delivered him up to Valerian, the governor, who in vain tried all his arts to work him into compliance with his father's will and the emperor's edicts. He escaped out of their hands, and, together with Crescentia and Modestus, fled into Italy. They there met with the crown of martyrdom in Lucania, in the persecution of Diocletian.
The heroic spirit of martyrdom which we admire in St. Vitus was owing to the early impressions of piety which he received from the lessons and example of a virtuous nurse. Of such infinite importance is the choice of virtuous preceptors, nurses, and servants about children.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
Antiphon
The hairs of your head are all numbered;
do not be afraid,
you are of more value than many sparrows.
Prayer:
Grant to your Church, we beseech you, o Lord, through the intercession of your holy Martyrs, Vitus, Modestus and Crescentia, not to think high-mindedly, but to grow in humility pleasing to you; that, despising what is base, she may with unbounded love diligently do whatever is right.
[The Roman Breviary (1964)]