It was inhabited in very ancient times by the Osco-Samnites; later in the Roman age. Augustus established there a colony of veterans, whence its name of Colonia Iulia Augusta Ve-nafrum. In the valley there are ruins of a theatre and an amphitheatre. The Lombards established there a gastald dependent on the Duke of Benevento; later in the 10th century it became a county; subsequently it became a fief of the Pandona, Peretti, Savelli, Caracciolo, and Miranda families. The city's patrons are the holy martyrs Nicander, Marcian, and Daria. The first two are attributed by a Passio to V. (BHL, 6073), whereas the Hieronymian Martyrology lists them as martyrs of Durastoro in Moesia (P. Franchi de' Cavalieri, Note agiografiche, IV [Studi e testi, 24], Rome 1912, pp. 141-157). The first bishop appears to have been Constantine at the end of the 5th century; the see was vacant between 591-95 (Jaffé-Wattembach, 1135-1190). The first diocesan synod was celebrated by Bishop V. Martinelli on 21 September 1634. The Cathedral, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, built with Roman remains, has three naves; it was damaged by the earthquake of 1349 and by fire in 1356. It was reconsecrated in 1764 by Monsignor Stabile. Pope Benedict XIV granted privileges to the canons by a brief of 1743. For statistical data V. ISERNIA, to which it has been united since 1852.
VENAFRO. - Saint, martyr. - There are two well-known saints of this name: the proto-bishop of Salona (v.) and the martyr of Camerino (v.).
The details concerning the V. of Salona are uncertain; according to local traditions it seems that V., sent from Rome to evangelize Dalmatia, perished there under Valerian or Aurelian in circumstances that are not specified. A fragment of an inscription found near Salona (v.) has been considered his epitaph.
Pope John IV (640-42) transferred his body to Rome together with those of other Dalmatian martyrs and in their honour built, near the baptistery of the Lateran, the oratory that still exists with its splendid museum (Lib. Pont., I, p. 330). He is commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on 1 April, but this may refer more to the dedication of the Lateran oratory than to the martyr's dies natalis. There is no proper Passio of the V. of Salona; Delehaye, along with others, thinks that elements of a lost Passio might be found in that of the namesake venerated at Camerino on 18 May (Acta SS. Maii, IV, Paris 1866, pp. 136-44). This too, however, is highly legendary and modelled on that of St. Agapitus (BHL, 125-27). The study of the reliquary of St. V. of Camerino (11th-13th century), discovered in 1942 in the crypt of the church in Camerino, may perhaps provide elements for solving the intricate hagiographical problem.