Ambrosius Vs. Vitalinus, Son of Vitalis and St. Ambrose With the Two Vitalises

The Martyrdom of Saint Vitalis by Federico Barocci

I once tried to make a case for Vitalis, father of the Vitalinus who supposedly fought Ambrosius at Wallop, being either a Latinization of the AS personal name Fitela, found in a place-name close to Amesbury, or that Fitela may have contributed to a Vitalis being located in the region:

https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2024/08/the-battle-of-ambrosius-and-vitalinus.html

At the time, I did not have the benefit of being able to access some wonderful source materials which appear to show that Fitela was, indeed, Latinized.  These sources (the URLs of which are supplied below) record instances of Vitalis being used for Fittleton and similar place-names elsewhere in England.

I asked Dr. Richard Coates about the matter.  What follows is our discussion on the subject:

Richard,

The older place-name books all give an OE Fitela for Fittleton in Yorkshire. But I find some excellent recent sources giving L. Vitalis...

Any idea which is right?

https://opendomesday.org/place/SU1449/fittleton/

https://pase.ac.uk/domesday/name/3394/

Fitela could be a (weak masculine) adaptation of Vitalis, but only after Latin [w] had become [v] in a Western Romance language. [v] >> [f] presents no problem in OE, because early <f> may well often represent  [v]. But the date of first usage is critical.

So Fitela is more likely, later being Latinized as Vitalis. Correct?

Possibly.

When I was exploring the Fitela-Vitalis connection, I had missed something, however.  For it turns out that St. Ambrose (who, apparently, was conflated with his Gallic prefect father of the same name) had to do with not just one, but two saints named Vitalis.

In the first instance, Ambrose was involved in the translation of relics of a St. Vitalis of Bologna.  But it is the second Vitalis who is more interesting.  He was a saint of Ambrose' own Milan who was martyred in Ravenna by being tossed into a well (L. puteus).  See

https://www.ravennamosaici.it/en/san-vitale-between-worship-and-iconography/?_gl=1*1jx6c5d*_up*MQ..*_ga*ODEwNzM4MjIwLjE3ODMzNjQwMjQ.*_ga_NXY7LP33MX*czE3ODMzNjQwMjQkbzEkZzAkdDE3ODMzNjQwMjQkajYwJGwwJGgw

His sons, Gervasius and Protasius, were later exhumed by St. Ambrose.  Another set of saints - Celsus and Nazarius - are also dug up by Ambrose.  I have elsewhere associated this with the motif of Emrys digging up the two cinerary urns at Dinas Emrys. 

It is the martyrdom by being deposited in a well that here should concern us.  Why?  Because of the accepted etymology of Ambrosius's Wallop battle site.

Wallop is from the AS and means "valley of the well/spring". Hence Geoffrey of Monmouth's 'springs of Galabes' of his Merlin-Ambrosius story.

From Bosworth and Toller:

willa

noun [ masculine ]

willa, wella, wylla, an. ; m.

A well, spring, fountain (lit. and fig.)

So, the placement of Vitalinus, son of Vitalis at Wallop looks to be yet more fraudulent history in the HB, as well as being more evidence for Ambrosius being Continental and of the 4th century, not of the 5th century.