some interpretations claim that svetovit was another name for radegast, while another states that he was a fake god, a wendish construction based on the name st. vitus. however, the common practice of the christian church was to replace existing pagan deities and places of worship with analogous persons and rituals of christian content, so it seems more likely that saint vitus was created to replace the original svanto-vit. according to a common interpretation, svantevit was a rugian counterpart of the pan-slavic perun.