Vitalianus of Capua

Saint Vitalian of Capua was bishop of Capua and died on 16 July 699. He is regarded as the legendary founder of the sanctuary of Montevergine. He is a saint of the Roman Catholic Church; our sources mention no Orthodox veneration. His commemoration is on 16 July.

It is often said that he was from Capua. He is mentioned in the Roman Martyrology of Baronius on 16 July. In other calendars he is mentioned as being from an ancient town on the Appian Way, halfway between Benevento and Capua. Both cities regard him as their bishop, since it was possible to be for a short time bishop of one city, then of the other. The saint's name, however, does not appear in the oldest calendar of Capua, of the twelfth century.

The main source of his life is a parchment codex of the twelfth century, found by Monsignor Stefano Borgia in the library of the church of Benevento. According to this Life, for his holiness, and against his will, Vitalian was elected by the people and clergy twenty-⁠fifth bishop of the city of Capua. But some prelates, who hoped to seize the episcopal throne, changed his clothes at night for women's clothes. Waking for the morning service and not noticing the change, the prelate appeared in church dressed so. They mocked him and accused him that, preaching chastity, he did not keep it himself. Vitalian, defending his innocence, at once cast off the garment and left the diocese, setting out for Rome, to the pope. But his enemies pursued him and, overtaking him on the seashore, near ancient Sinuessa, tied him in a leather sack and threw him into the waves. Through divine protection the saint reached Ostia, where he was freed from the sack unharmed. There he lived about seven months.

Meanwhile Capua, under the punishment of God for the wickedness of its inhabitants, was laid waste by a long drought, plague and famine. Seeing this, the inhabitants found Saint Vitalian and begged him to resume his episcopal service. On his return to Capua a heavy rain fell. But he gave up the episcopate and, feeling that death was near, withdrew as a hermit, first to a place near ancient Caserta, then called Miliarum (or perhaps Maltanum), then to the peaks of Mount Virgilian, whose name later changed to Montevergine, where the sanctuary of the same name would arise. There he built a church in honour of the Most Holy Mother of God, where he was also buried on 16 July 699.