GIOVENALE, saint. - Bishop of Narni in the fourth century, died, probably, in 376 (cf. Anal. Boll., 54 [1936], p. 168). A Vita, later than the seventh century and of highly doubtful reliability, states that he was of African origin, ordained by Pope Damaso, and died on 7 August, but gives 3 May as the day of his feast. Yet in it, as in the Sacramentarium Gelasianum, which contains the Mass in his honor (ed. H. A. Wilson, Oxford 1894, p. 172), G. is called only bishop and confessor.
Thus uncertain is the designation of martyr attributed to him by St. Gregorio Magno (Dial., IV, 12 and Homil. in Evang., XXXVII, 9), not expressly supported even by the Martirologio geronimiano (p. 228), which nevertheless, in the Bernese manuscript, commemorates G. on 3 May, together with Evenzio, Alessandro, and Teodulo, martyrs of the Via Nomentana. The tomb of G., adorned with an oratory attributed to his successor Massimo, was greatly venerated in antiquity and is still preserved in the cathedral of Narni. From the Liber Pontificalis (I, p. 296) there is notice of a monastery founded by Belisario near Orte and dedicated to G.
BIBLI: Acta SS. Maii, I, Parigi 1866, pp. 390-417; concerning the «Translatio Juvenalis et Cassii» and the bishops of Narni Lucam: MGH, Scriptores, XXX, II, fasc. II, Lipsia 1929, pp. 976-83; A. Hofmeister, Die Translatio, ecc., in Neues Archiv, 41 (1919), pp. 526-55; E. Wüscher-Becchi, Das Oratorium des hl. Cassius und das Grab des hl. Fecenalis in Narni, in Römische Quartalschrift, 19 (1911), pp. 61-71; id., Il sepolcro di s. G. primo vescovo di Narni, in Arch. per la storia ecl. dell'Umbria, 1 (1913), pp. 248-274; Lanzoni, p. 402 ff.; Martyr. Romanum, p. 170.