VENANTIUS, Saint, Martyr. - There are two better-known saints of this name: the first bishop of Salona (v.) and the martyr of Camerino (v.).
The information concerning Venantius of Salona is uncertain; according to local traditions it appears that Venantius, sent from Rome to evangelize Dalmatia, perished there under circumstances that cannot be precisely determined, in the time of Valerian or Aurelian. A fragment of an inscription found near Salona (v.) has been considered the epitaph of Venantius.
Pope John IV (640-42) transported his body to Rome together with those of other martyrs of Dalmatia, and in their honor built, near the baptistery of the Lateran, the oratory that still exists with its splendid mosaic (Lib. Pont., I, p. 330). In the Roman Martyrology he is commemorated on April 1, but this is perhaps rather the dedication of the Lateran oratory than the dies natalis of the martyr. There is no Passio proper to Venantius 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 May 18 (Acta SS. Maii, IV, Paris 1866, pp. 136-44). This one, however, is also very legendary and modeled on that of St. Agapitus (BHL, 125-27). The study of the reliquary of St. Venantius of Camerino (11th-13th century), brought to light in 1942 in the crypt of the church of the same name in Camerino, may perhaps offer elements for the solution of the intricate hagiographic problem.
Bibliography5 works
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1907, p. 696; F. Bulić, Sv. Venačije privi biskup Solinski i musenik dvanjki, in Vjenisk hrv. arheol. društva u Zagrebu, 15 (1926), pp. 55-71; H. Delchaye, Les oric. du culte des martyrs, Brussels 1933, p. 255; C. Mezzana, Il cofano argenteo di S. V. a Camerino, in Riv. di Arch. crist., 20 (1943), pp. 317-27; Martyr. Romanum, pp. 120, 195.