Venantius the Martyr

ON ST. VENANTIUS THE MARTYR

AT CAMERINO IN ITALY.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

The ancient cult of the Saint. The Translation & relation of the Body. Apocryphal Acts.

Venantius, Martyr at Camerino in Italy (St.)

D. P.

[1] Camerino, a most ancient city between the borders of Umbria and Picenum, situated on the ridges of the Apennine mountain, is believed to have been founded and to have received its name from the ancient Camertes, when these, expelled from Etruria, where they had dwelt by the river Clanis and the city Clusium, The ancient city of Camerino has St. Venantius as Patron having been driven out by the Pelasgians, had chosen these seats. How great it once was can be gathered from this, that three hundred years before Christ was born, under the Consulship of Q. Fabius Maximus and M. Rutilius, when the Romans were then most flourishing, it was of such great value, that for the sake of firmer aid they almost ambitiously sought the alliance of the Camertines, which they afterwards cultivated with the greatest religious devotion, even when the Emperors afterwards reigned: indeed their posterity then gloried that they had lived under their own Kings, as we shall see below. Concerning their antiquity may be read Cluverius, book 2 of Ancient Italy, chapters 3 and 6, and Ughelli, in volume 1 of Sacred Italy, among the Bishops of Camerino: where in the Preface he brings forward an inscription, carved on a Tiburtine stone, still extant in the same place, in which with L. Septimius Severus, who reigned from the year CXCIII until CCXI, for eternal security and glory by equal right the Camertes confirmed an alliance. Of this city the divine patron is St. Venantius the Martyr, & in the suburban Collegiate Church, dedicated to his name, he is venerated with the greatest reverence on this XVIII of May. Since indeed his body, relayed thither in the year MCCLXIX, whose body is there, whence ten years before it had been removed, as will be said below; was there deposited in a little silver chest, fastened with three seals: & thus, found again on the XXIII day of March in the year MDLVIII, Cardinal Marianus Perbenedictus marvelously adorned it, the body together with the ampulla of blood being deposited in a marble mausoleum. Now this Cardinal died in the year MDCXI. Afterwards Aemilius Alterius further exalted the cult of that Saint, who in the year MDCLXX, from being Bishop of Camerino, after the XLII year of that See, made Roman Pontiff Clement X, ordered that he be venerated throughout the whole Church under the rite of a Semidouble.

[2] There has moreover been submitted to us from Camerino a document of various Churches, oratories, & other places dedicated to St. Venantius, in which either some of his Relics are preserved, or signs of his cult are set forth. but elsewhere various Churches First is named the Church of St. Venantius near Fabriano, to which, Ughelli being witness, the already mentioned William, Bishop of Camerino, in the year MCCLVII granted, that the baptismal font, which was outside the enclosures of the church, for the greater decency of divine worship, might be transferred within the Church itself. There are besides Churches of St. Venantius in the town of Meletica, which lies adjacent to the territory of Camerino toward the North; in the territory of Cingoli, in the same place in Picenum; in the diocese of Spoleto, a fortress called the parish Church of St. Venantius; in the territory of Siena three miles from the city, the Collegiate Church of St. Venantius, where he is venerated with great devotion; at Rome, a new Church for the Camerino nation, where formerly was the Church of St. John in Marcantello; in the territory of Orvieto, a fortress & Church of St. Venantius, where his feast is celebrated with a fair on the XVIII of May. At Ragusa also there is a collegiate Church, & it is called the temple of St. Venantius & of peace. In Apulia, altars seven miles from Sulmona, is the Oratory of SS. Venantius & Porphyrius, where there is an altar & a footprint in the rock, & St. Venantius is venerated on the XVIII of May. At Florence in the Church of St. Mark there is a chapel, with mosaic work, sufficiently ancient, in honor of St. Venantius. At Lucca there is also his chapel, in the Forest as they call it, where he is venerated with much devotion. At Bologna there is a chapel erected to him by Cardinal Gozadinus & some Relic of his brought in. On Monte San Martino of the diocese of Fermo there is an altar under the invocation of St. Venantius the Martyr. fortresses. There are moreover indicated fortresses of St. Venantius in the borders of Bologna & Ferrara, in the diocese of Comacchio, in the Duchy of Sora & also in the diocese of Fermo, in the Morana Valley of the March of Ancona, indeed also at Camerino, of which fortress the Rector with secular power was the very Chapter of St. Venantius itself, until that power was taken away. By the vow also of the people his cult was established at Montefeltro in the Duchy of Urbino, & among the people of Recanati. The solemn memory of the same is observed in the Cathedral Church of Aversa, where also his Legend is held. Finally of his sacred Relics a rib is preserved in the church of the College of Ascoli of the Society of Jesus; concerning which, treating in the additions to this day, Jacobillus Relics at Ascoli & Rome. seems to say, that it is dedicated to St. Venantius. Another rib at Rome in the Vatican Church of St. Peter, which Jacobillus writes was brought thither in the time of Gregory XIII: & therefore the feast is prescribed to be celebrated there under a simple rite; & Pancirolius mentions it in the Treasury of the City, region 7, church 17 & in the Index of Relics. At Rome also from a similar cause St. Venantius is said to be venerated in the churches of SS. Eustachius, Cecilia & Mark; & in this one indeed there is a chapel, founded under his name by D. Barnabas Benignus, with a plenary Indulgence every year. In the territory of Bari moreover, the fortress of San Salvatore, in which the holy body rested for a whole eight years, still preserves the tomb built in his honor.

[3] And these indeed are monuments of the ancient cult, all undoubted and certain: the apocryphal legend deferred for a while would that the history of the Passion were equally certain. For since from it, as from a fountain, flowed solely whatever about this Holy Martyr in prose or verse, in Latin or in Italian, in older or more recent age, was ever written; or was once recited in the Church, first indeed the Camerine, now also the universal, or is recited today among the divine Offices; it is most greatly to be wished, that it had been written most gravely and most faithfully. But as vainly as we wish that, so little faith can we attribute to whatever abridgments received therefrom. the history of the body removed and relayed is set first. Wherefore that Passion being for a while omitted & deferred to the end, we exhibit the history of the body carried away and relayed back, described in verses by a contemporary Poet, just as Ughelli offers it to us, in volume I of Sacred Italy, column 601, communicated by Camillus Lilius, a noble Camertine: yet having sought and received first the license of comparing Ughelli's edition with the original; not indeed the autograph of the Poet himself, but the apograph of Camillus, and that on the faith of R. P. Ferrantes Ferreccioli of Camerino of the Congregation of St. Charles, communicated to us through R. P. Nicolaus Bartolini, Presbyter of the Congregation of the Mother of God. I would also wish license to be given me to supply certain lacunae by conjecture, & to bring a few other things wrongly transcribed to some convenient sense, which done by us the sign* will indicate.

THE HISTORY

OF THE BODY CARRIED AWAY AND RELAYED BACK

From the edition of Ferdinand Ughelli, collated with the apograph of Camillus Lilius.

Venantius, Martyr at Camerino in Italy (St.)

BHL Number: 8525

BY A CONTEMPORARY AUTHOR.

[1] That it may be plain to future peoples, holy Venantius, when a hostile hand bore away thy body from its own temple and from the fatherland at once; or when it stood restored to the fatherland, in compressed song I shall disclose. Which to me, Christ the Father, mayest thou deign duly to report, who oftentimes makest a boy's mouth to be eloquent. The years of the Lord being now completed twelve hundred In the year 1259 under Alexander IV And sixty less one, this fatherland stood having suffered ruin, under the time of the Fourth Pope Alexander the Great: under whose time a certain man by name Manfred, a Sicilian King and tyrant, stood in the way of Latium, with a great hazard of war. He who once impiously transferred ^a battle-lines bristling in varied array to the very shores of Camerino. Whose leader of horsemen, a certain man called by name Percival ^b, was a fellow-countryman of Genoa: whom the house of Doria begot, whom prosperous fortune made great Percival occupying Camerino for King Manfred, In the sight of the King, if he be held a King. He, coming most safely supported by a wing of horsemen, Entered the fatherland of Camerino, which then men of various sorts held, under the will of a lord, the powerful ones.

[2] At such a time there was one fierce traitor, by name Raynerius Ugolini: who, being then the worst Podestà of Camerino at that time, by his treason took care to drive out the citizens And to lay waste the fatherland at the same time: who, compelled by disaster, unwilling left the fatherland ^c by the lot of fear.

Then Percival from the chest carries off the Saint's body, brought forth that Excellent body, now renowned of the kindly Martyr: Which he bore to the Sicilians in great portions upon a ^d chariot. A bright casket of silver was made under that very Time, in which the venerable body remained secured. Great lights enough, shining by night and day, Stood before the aforesaid holy body. The enemy brought this to Manfred already mentioned, [as] a great gift, who finally caused it in a certain Castle, namely a smoky Pontus, to be enclosed, which he gives to the castle of San Salvatore: Adorned likewise with great adornments, and With songs of high-sounding praise excelling on every side. The name of the castle is held to be San Salvatore, Which the Sea surrounds on every side with high rocks.

[3] O venerable mercy of God & greatest power: Which dost correct unbridled sinners, that they themselves May be converted to thee, but not die; And oftentimes thou sufferest the bodies of Saints to be taken away, By unfaithful enemies, at first by a blind crime in this manner, And very often to tarry in a foreign land; That men may know that all things ^e are powerfully mingled, And that nothing can be done without thy governance. And although thou sufferest thy Saints, O most Holy One, Thus to be carried away: yet thou dost not thyself wish The lights of virtues to perish, by which they are venerated in every nation. This body remained in the parts of the Apulians ^f, for years Eight complete. After these things God himself, kindly, Prepared to bring to the grieving people a side lateral Helper's aid, which the crafty enemy from afar This was the will of the Supreme Pontiff ^h and of his Counts also, That with few they should withstand those enemies, Who by their own right wished to destroy the faithful.

[4] Then there arose a certain lover of the true faith The illustrious Charles, upright, & discreet in arms, King of the Sicilian Kingdom, best champion, & strong lion, Another Roland ⁱ in strength & probity, In sense a Solomon, in the defense of right a David. He was Frankish by race, & Frankish in his powerful heart: Who by the virtue of God terrified the strong enemies. Him, & the King of the Franks, the same parents Begot, flourishing in the virtue of magnificent praise. To the parts of Latium, supported by the great support Of a magnificent people, supported also by the arms of the Franks. He came finally to make answer to Manfred: Manfred being conquered through King Charles Whom finally he laid low in the Beneventan ^k field, Conquered, destroyed, & ruined all the enemies. He, after he had joyful triumphs in peace, And was a happy King over a great Sicilian host, Which under the will of the Lord Pope governed the kingdom: Against him came a certain hostile enemy, By name Conrad ^l, son of King Conrad By name, sprung from the royal stock of the great one & Conradin, Now under the great name of Frederick, by chance ruling The kingdom of the empire of the Roman people: Whose supporters, their battle-lines arrayed for arms, In the ^m Palentine, where he had ordered the camp to be pitched, Through unknown places, in the field, were scattered in hazard. He himself fell in battle under a sinister lot; Whose head was struck off on the pleasant overflowing Shore of Naples, as is open to all.

[5] Therefore the ravaging battles on every side being calmed, And the Lord King abiding in tranquil peace, A Writer of the Apostolic See, Conrad by name, A certain prudent man & of the kindly Martyr's temple Who stood as Prior ^o, wished to direct his steps To the Lord Pope [p] Clement: to whom with coaxing prayer With bent neck he poured forth bitter tears: Before whose feet the aforesaid one oftentimes went. restored by the orders of Clement IV, Not slow, indeed swift; not timid, but well secure, He always asked the Pope with solicitous voice, How he might finally cause that body to be restored to him. That Supreme Prelate, bent by prayers under murmur, Commanded the aforesaid King, that he restore the body taken away To the said Conrad, who bore many torments In his body through the steps of journeys oftentimes. Who although at first he stood in the way of restoring the body; Yet in the end [it] he restored. Adorned in order This was indeed led back to the fatherland of Camerino, The body of the eminent Martyr, in the time of [q] harvest, Eminent ones, of the lofty one, & with great gift adorned Enclosed duly in two caskets of silver. With eminent praises that is led to the temple, in his own temple it shines with miracles. Which had been his: in which God himself openly Always gives the greatest miracles, the Creator of the world; O helpful Venantius, take care to defend the people, Thou of thine own fatherland; to whom mayest thou be a shining taper: And spare thou me, ward off the vice of my breast: That my mind may be able to rejoice, & to be placed In the highest heavens, in which thou thyself dost reign faithful.

NOTES.

II, believed to have suffocated his father, took up the administration of Sicily in the name of his brother Conrad in the year 1251; and the tyranny being gradually confirmed by various successes, at length in the year 1258 he caused himself to be saluted King by the Sicilians. Relying on the support of the Saracens; most hostile to the Pontiff and to the Pontiff's dominions.

p. Clement died in this same year 1268, on the 29th of November.

Therefore not until the following year 1269 was the sacred body carried back to Camerino: which if it was not restored while Clement was still alive, must be ascribed to the singular favor of God, that it could be obtained from Charles while the See was vacant (for not until September of the year 1271 was a successor elected) since it would have been easy to frustrate the mandate of the dead man in its effect.

And this is all the more certain knowledge that we can offer about the cult & body of St. Venantius; whose name since it is not found among any ancient Martyrologists, it is given to understand, that no Acts of his were known in the first eight or ten centuries to the Italians, among whom the Passions of Martyrs & the Lives of Saints were diligently enough collected. But what kind afterwards were composed & of what faith, that you may be able to judge for yourself; those very ones, although otherwise unworthy of this work, here we shall give in full; observing moreover this, that the things which were translated from them into the proper Office & Mass, for arranging the Antiphons, Responsories, & Versicles, be printed in a different character from the rest; & so it appears that neither is that Office more ancient than the Acts, nor of greater faith.

* huge * varied * of the powerful one * he carried through * secretly * holy * at first * high-sounding * themselves * all nation, or nations. * side * with too much * and of the Franks * Unites & or Disjoins * by title * by arts * solicitous * that * with marble * adorned * care

APOCRYPHAL ACTS

From an old MS. of the Abbey of St. Euticius of Norcia.

Venantius, Martyr at Camerino in Italy (St.)

BHL Number: 8523

FROM A CAMERINE MS.

[1] In the times of Antiochus the great King, there was a man in the city of Camerino, by name Venantius, fearing the Lord. He left all his things to his parents, Accused before Antiochus on account of the Faith but nevertheless the gold & silver & garments he gave to the poor. In fastings & prayers day and night he served the Lord. Many powers in that city the Lord showed through him. * It was announced to King Antiochus, who reigned in those times, by accusers saying: There is one boy in the city of Camerino, by name Venantius, fearing Christ, & blaspheming the Lord Jove. * But King Antiochus hearing this was exceedingly angry: & coming with great fury into the city he commanded the soldiers, to seek out Venantius more quickly. * Now there was a little cave near the gate of the city, which is toward the East, under which he dwelt clothed in haircloth, & night and day he served the Lord in fastings & prayers. * And when he had heard that he had been sought by the King, he came to the gate & preached the word of Christ. * Porphyrius was strengthening the servant of Christ

Porphyrius, Venantius excellently fortified beforehand, saying, Fear not from the face of the Emperor, for the Lord has said: When you come before Kings & Governors, do not think how or what you shall speak: for I will give you a mouth & wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to resist: after labor & combat we shall receive a reward, just as He said, Come to me all you who labor & are burdened, & I will refresh you.

[2] Saying such things he came before the face of the Emperor. Blessed Venantius said: Pagan King, why do you seek the disciples of Christ? he generously confesses Him before him, The King, exceedingly angry, said: Whence are you? Venantius answered: I was born in this city, brought up in a monastery. The King said: Who is your father? Venantius answered: My father Suprinus, a Christian, born of a noble race, gave me into a monastery, & there I was brought up in the faith of Christ. The King said: Venantius, I see your flourishing youth & comely appearance, I wish that you be in my palace a cupbearer: * I give you a bracelet & a ring & a purple garment. Venantius answered: The gold & silver, which you promise, give to the poor: because just as water extinguishes fire, so almsgiving extinguishes sin. The King said: I see you a boy, & I do not know your merit: by promises you, Venantius, ought to hear me: approach therefore, & sacrifice to the most invincible God Jove. I give you the power of binding & loosing, & of doing harm to the Christians: & if you will not, by various punishments I will make you perish. Venantius answered, Your silver & metal & lead I do not adore; & therefore I do not fear your torments. The King said: Sacrifice to the Gods, lest you fall into punishments; & that no one may say that your madness leads you to death, & that I mock your race. Venantius answered: Even if you kill me by the most shameful death, and threats being despised: my Judge & my Lord is in heaven, whom we await to judge the world, * when He shall say: Come, you blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom, which is prepared for you from the origin of the world; & because He knows the hearts of men. You, who dwell in this world, appear to be the son of the devil, therefore through your malice in many arguments you make me to be solicitous about Christ my God. The King said: I wish that you tell me, whence this wisdom came to you. Venantius answered: Christ my Lord is with me: & you say, Whence did this wisdom come to you?

[3] Then the King ordered him to be severely beaten. Venantius said; You do me not pain but refreshment. Then the King delivered him to the ministers & to the Governor, saying, Unless Venantius sacrifices, kill him by various punishments. Then the Governor, angry, said to his soldiers, delivered to the Governor, O Jupiter! O Mercury! why has Venantius of fifteen years spoken thus? I do not perceive that your soldiers torment me. And, exceedingly angry, he said: Take him, & bind his hands & feet, & cast him into prison, & let no one approach him: & for four days give him no water, no bread, or anything that can be eaten; until he fails. Then Blessed Venantius lay in prison with bound hands & feet, & prayed saying: O Lord Jesus Christ, & strengthened by an Angel in prison, good Shepherd, do not forsake me, because I have you as a father in heaven: hear & hearken to me, heal my wounds: * I glorify you, I praise you, & I bless you, do not cast me from your face, because I am a boy: I do not know how to speak rightly, but give the spirit of speaking, of being silent, & of answering: that I may open my mouth, & you fulfill it: & if my pain is upon me, be not angry, but strengthen me, King of the Saints. The prayer being made he was lulled to sleep: & behold an Angel of the Lord loosed him, & his flesh was restored, as it had been before. * Then the jailer went to the prison, to see if he were already dead, & found him praying. He marveled, & reported to the Prefect, saying: I have seen great marvels of Venantius: he was singing psalms & praying to his God, with hands & feet loosed, & his flesh was restored.

[4] Then the Prefect ordered him to be led into his presence, & said to him: Venantius, sacrifice to the gods, lest you suffer various punishments. he is scorched with lamps, * Venantius answered; Neither do I adore your gods, nor do I fear your Emperor, nor do I serve you. The Governor, angry, said, Strip him, & suspend him in the air with burning lamps, & burn his tender body, so they did, but he was praying saying: Burn, O Lord, my reins & my heart: I have passed through fire, lead me into eternal refreshment. The executioners ceased to burn him. The Governor said, Consent to me, & sacrifice to the gods. Venantius answered: I do not consent, nor do I adore deaf & mute gods. Then the most impious Governor said to the ministers: Take him, & suspended by the head with smoke set beneath he is tortured, & on the rack suspend him, & put the sharpest smoke under his head, & say, This is the blasphemer of the gods. The ministers did just as the Governor commanded, & always four squads were beating him. Then the Governor ordered, that no one should approach him, until he failed. But Anastasius the Cornicularius, after four days went where he hung, to see if he still lived: & he found him walking about upon the smoke, in a white garment singing psalms: I shall not die but I shall live & shall tell the works of the Lord.

[5] Anastasius the Cornicularius announced to the Governor saying: I have seen a great miracle. Then the Governor said, whence Anastasius the scribe, seeing him safe, is converted, What shall we do with him? Anastasius the Cornicularius said: I believe, that the God of the Christians is great, & there is no other besides Him. The Governor said to him: And you, as I see, are seduced. * Then Anastasius said: Most willingly do I wish to undergo sentence, lest I see the holy & just one tortured. Venantius hearing these things, that Anastasius had spoken thus, spread out his hands & raised his eyes to heaven, & prayed to the Lord saying: I give you thanks, O Lord the only-begotten Savior, God from God, true light from true light; the Word which is before all beginning, who reignest with the Father & the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen. Anastasius said to Blessed Venantius: Man of God, show me the light of eternal life, that I may be able to see the true light. Venantius said: Go into the part of the city, & baptized seek the man of God Porphyrius, & he will baptize you & your whole house in the faith of Christ. It was announced to Antiochus the Emperor, that Anastasius believed in Christ: & exceedingly angry he caused him to come to him, & said: Anastasius, do you believe in the God of the Christians? Anastasius said: I believe & my whole house. The King when he heard, commanded the Governor, to lead him outside the gate of the city, & behead him & his whole house. he is beheaded with his family. And so they did, & led him to the Broad-Way, which leads to the city toward the East, & they were beheaded. At night Christian men came & buried their bodies.

[6] But the King ordered Venantius to come to him, & said to him: Venantius, why do you subvert the city? Venantius again variously tortured, Venantius said: I do not subvert, but confirm. Then the King, angry, commanded that they shave the hair of his head, & sprinkle live coals: & so they did. Then he commanded the ministers to macerate his back, & shut him up in prison: & so they did. But Attalus the Praeconarius said to the Governor: What solicitude is there for you? I will go & make him sacrifice. Then the Governor said: By the great power of Jove, & by the power of our Lords the most invincible Princes; that if you persuade him, I will make you what I am. So Attalus went to the prison, where Venantius was: & said to him: Believe, Venantius, & withdraw from your folly, & sacrifice to the gods: why do you die in torments, & vainly solicited by Attalus the apostate & lose the flower of your youth? But I, just as you, was a Christian, & now am a minister of Jove. Believe & sacrifice to the gods. Venantius said: You see me a boy, I am below age, not like you mad & a son of the devil: who say, Adore deaf & mute idols, which are fabricated by men: who know not the Lord, who was born of a Virgin. Rather your father is the devil, & you do his will, you who say the Lord is Jove, whose minister you are. Attalus said: Venantius, sacrifice to the gods: it is allowed me to say all things, because I hold you. And while he was saying these things, the Governor sent, & ordered Venantius to be brought forth from the prison: & while he was being led, the voice of the Praetor was sent: Let Venantius blaspheming the Gods be tortured with the most wicked torments.

[7] Therefore Venantius came before the Governor, & said to him: his jaws crushed by the order of the Governor Do not tempt Christ my Lord, lest while you wish to tempt you be tempted by your father the devil. The Governor said: Crush his teeth & jaws. So it was done: & they cast him into the public square of the city, & placed him in a dunghill. But he, praying, said: Look upon me & have mercy on me, because I am your only servant: hearken to my prayer, do not forsake me. All thought him to be dead: but he was praying, & an Angel strengthened him saying: Fear not from their face, because I am with you, & I offer your prayer, & I am your guardian always. Venantius said: O Lord Father, because in my wound I groan, be not angry with me: he is healed divinely, & the Governor dies. you know that I have delivered my soul to you, lest my sense be mingled with theirs. Saying these things he was made whole, & began to preach the name of the Lord & to baptize. But the Governor hearing marveled exceedingly, & made him come before him, & said: In whose power do you do these things? Venantius said: He who healed me of my languor, in His power I do these things, & who can subvert your tribunal. And when the servant of God had said these things, the Governor fell from his tribunal. Then his ministers gathered him up, & put him on a bed: & he said to the soldiers: Run, I burn: help me: for our gods are nothing, which we worshiped without cause: but the God of Venantius is great & eternal, who has done marvels upon his boy Venantius: & I command these things, that you destroy our gods & adore the God of Venantius: & when he had said this, he expired.

[8] But his ministers, seeing this which was done

was done, announced it to the Emperor. Then the Emperor ordered St. Venantius to be cast to the lions. The same one cast in vain to the lions And at once his ministers led him to the place where there were five lions, & put him in, & the place was closed, that there he might be killed by the lions. When the holy & just one had entered there, the lions rising up with all gentleness prostrated themselves at his feet. But the peoples, seeing, marveled saying, Truly there is no other God, except Him whom Venantius the servant of God confesses. And when the peoples had said these things, Blessed Venantius said to them: Hear, peoples, believe in the Father & the Son & the Holy Spirit, he persuades the people to the faith of Christ. married women & maidens & all dwelling in the city, that your souls may be saved: because all these things are transitory from the world: blessed shall you be, if you believe. But when the King had heard that the people had praised the God of the Christians, he commanded Venantius to be put into prison. There he prayed: Lord, do not forsake me, do not despise me, since I am your servant. My enemies, who surround me, are multiplied: but you, Lord, are my upholder, lifting up my head; hear me from your holy mount, I will not fear thousands of the people.

[9] Then King Antiochus, flourishing in the greatness of his power, resting in the palace on his couch, saw in a dream heralds running through the city & saying: Cleanse, cleanse the public places of the city, Antiochus terrified by a dream, & whiten the walls. After this he looked into heaven, & saw Venantius flying in the air in a white garment, & with him two companions, sprinkling waters, & making & dividing little streams through the whole city. Then men & women came, & washed their heads, & their bodies were whitened. Then four winds rushing from the four parts of the world upon his palace, were destroying it. He saw also a dark cloud coming over him, & the stars gave no light, but on every side they were dark. The King awoke from sleep, & began to think & knew that evil was upon him. The King began to weep & to say: O my god, most invincible Jove, one boy has overcome you, & your power has come to nothing. But when morning was come all came to the palace: the King when he saw the people, began to relate the dream.

[10] There was there a Christian man Porphyrius, who said: O Emperor, how praiseworthy is the dream which you have seen! The heralds running through the city, Porphyrius explaining it & crying out, & saying, Cleanse the public places of the city, & whiten the walls, is the holy preaching of Blessed Venantius. Cleanse, Cleanse, signifies the two Testaments, the new & the old: under the two Testaments we have the law, that no one worship idols nor adore them. Cleanse, that is, Cast out the god Jove & the King. Whiten the walls, & Jupiter shall be broken & the King cast out, & all shall believe in Christ. The four winds from the four parts of the world, are the four testaments of the Gospels. They were destroying your house, that is, that all the idols made by hand & all your works & your kingdom shall be no more; but the kingdom of the Christians, who serve God & make good fruit. The water, which Venantius was sprinkling in the air, & was making streams, & was running through the whole city, is the holy preaching & holy baptism. And that they were washing their heads & bodies & whitening them, that is that the people is cleansed from idols & from all defilements through the water of baptism.

[11] The King when he heard, was exceedingly angry, & commanded the ministers, to lead Porphyrius to the place of the condemned, which is at the gate of the city, he orders to be beheaded. & to cut off his head. But when Blessed Porphyrius had come to the place of the condemned, he fixed his knees on the ground, & prayed saying: Lord God, because there is none like you among the gods, & there is none according to your works: for you have made heaven & earth & whatever is contained within the compass of heaven. Of all things you are Lord, whom Angels & Archangels serve, & cease not to cry out saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth, full are the heavens & earth of your glory. To you I commend my soul, that you not deliver it into the hands of the impious spirits seeking it. Hear therefore men & women, set Christ before your eyes, & adore Him who made heaven & earth: because His is the power of mortifying & vivifying, of leading down to hell & leading back: His is the power to be feared, He is Lord forever and ever. Amen. When Blessed Porphyrius had completed the prayer, the executioners cut off his head, & cast it before the gate of the city: [& the Christians coming took his body] & buried him honorably.

[12] Blessed Venantius was shut up in prison, & there came to him the infirm, the blind, the lame, the paralytic, the deaf, Venantius again solicited, the dumb; & they besought him to baptize them & they were healed, which also he did. But when it had been announced in the presence of the Emperor about the miracles of Blessed Venantius, he was made exceedingly sad, & ordered him to come to him. When therefore he had come into the presence of the Emperor, he said to him: Hear me, Venantius, sacrifice to our gods, when he persuaded the faith to Antiochus himself, & you shall live: I give you a crown of gold or gems, & you shall have peace with me, because I fear you for this that you are sprung from a noble race. Blessed Venantius answered him & said: Hear me, King, turn from evil & do good, seek peace & follow it, & make peace with Christ; & if you serve Him, there shall be for you exultation & an everlasting crown. For after your souls have gone forth from your bodies, you leave your moneys in this world, & strangers seize them & devastate them: but you are going to go into eternal torment, where never shall there be refreshment, but mourning & clamor, & there is none who hears. If you wish to receive the crown, give all things to the poor, the orphans, the widows, the hungry, those suffering nakedness, or sustaining whatever necessity: & receive the wave of the holy baptism of the sacred font, believing in God, who shall render a hundredfold to you in eternal life, where there shall be no end, but you shall rejoice always in perpetual felicity.

[13] When the King heard he commanded the ministers to put ropes on his feet, he is grievously dragged: & to suspend him on the rack, thence to drag him through rough places. But when evening was now come Blessed Venantius began to say, Lord, receive my spirit, & do not destroy me. The ministers left him as if dead. A certain widow woman came & took him secretly into her house. But when morning was come he came to the city preaching the word of God. But the people when they saw Blessed Venantius preaching, marveling said: Because great is the God of the Christians, who does marvels & great signs in his servant Venantius: & they struck their breasts, & were converted, & were baptized in the faith of Christ. But King Antiochus, seeing that he could not overcome him, then he is cast headlong from the wall of the city: began to consider within himself, & to call him honorably into the palace, & commanded the ministers to bind his hands & feet, & cast him headlong outside the wall of the city. Then the ministers did just as the King had commanded them: but they thought that he was dead. And the King commanded his men, to drag him into the valleys, that the birds of heaven & the beasts of the earth might eat him. And when the ministers had gone, to do what the King had commanded, they found him with loosed hands & feet, praying & saying: Guard me, Lord, as the pupil of the eye, under the shadow of your wings protect me, from the face of the impious who have afflicted me: but you, Lord, are my upholder, abandoned for dead, my glory & lifting up my head: do not forsake me, Lord God of my salvation: deliver me from my enemies my God, & from those rising up against me free me. But the ministers, seeing that they were profiting nothing, began to beat him so long, until they thought him to be dead. But when they saw him alive, a rope being put on his neck, by his feet they dragged him about one mile, leaving him as if dead, each one saying to his neighbor, I suffer thirst.

[14] for his thirsting torturers he obtains water by a miracle, Blessed Venantius hearing these things, languishing arose, & fixed his knees on the ground, & raised his eyes to heaven, & prayed saying: Lord God almighty, who gavest water from the rock to Moses your servant before the children of Israel, on account of the hardness of their heart who were rebellious & unbelieving; show signs & do marvels, that these tyrants may see, & bring forth from this rock water, that these tyrants may see; & bring forth from this rock water, that they may be satisfied & feel, & know that you are the only God praiseworthy & glorious forever and ever, Amen. And he made the sign of the Cross in the rock, & divided it on each side, & there flowed water most clear. But the Ministers of the King, seeing, were astounded: & casting themselves at the feet of Blessed Venantius they said to him: Sanctify us, Father: pray for us that we perish not, having mercy on us. We have seen & we know, whence they being converted, that there is no other God except Him whom you affirm. Holy Father, show us the Lord living forever, that we may praise His name & glorify it, & serve Him alone, who is blessed. As you, holy Father, we wish to undergo sentence for His name, & we will not fear from the face of the Emperor. Preach & show us Christ, whose son He is. When Blessed Venantius heard, with a clear voice he said: Glory in the highest to God, & on earth peace to men of good will: you yourself have given them wisdom & knowledge, who begin to inquire about Christ. And he related to them about the nativity or about the passion, about the resurrection & ascension of Him, about the inflaming of the Holy Spirit & about the division of tongues, & something about the deeds of the Apostles or Martyrs.

[15] & having confessed the faith, One of these, when he received the word of Christ, reported to the Emperor saying: O King, thirty & two Roman men you have sent to Venantius, that they might make martyrdom for him: but they have been converted to the faith of Christ. The King when he heard about the Romans, exceedingly angry wept himself & all who stood before him, because they were illustrious Romans of royal race, & held power at Rome, & learned in every art of letters. The King made them come to him, & said to them: O my sons, you have abandoned fathers & mothers & parents

your rich & more noble parents, & you wish to believe one mad head, & to adore Christ whom the Jews crucified & mocked. Withdraw from this madness, & worship the immortal Lord Jove, & I will give you gold & silver & a marvelous garment, that you may be first in my kingdom. Hearing the words of the King, they answered & said: We believe in Christ crucified, because He Himself is the savior, doing signs & marvels in heaven & on earth, which He does daily in His servant Venantius. O King why are you not ashamed in your god? for your gods are nothing, which you worship. The King said, Whence do you know? But they said: We have always seen the Lord your god, yet neither signs nor marvels have we recognized of him, but he is a tribulation & a detriment of the souls of men.

who is the God of the Christians? Leontius said: We know that the God of heaven made heaven & earth, & all living things which are under heaven: He made man to His image & likeness, formed him of earth, & gave him Eve like to himself for a help. Then the devil came, & persuaded them to eat the forbidden fruit. After this transgression God cast them out of the glory of Paradise, & cursed them & said, In the sweat of your face you shall eat your bread, because you obeyed the voice of your wife more than mine. And Paradise was closed, & God placed the Cherubim & a flaming & turning sword to guard the way of the tree of life. From this the devil received the principality over men, & led them into ruin & into error, until God sent His Word into the lands, born of a Virgin, made under the Law, that those who were under the law He might redeem: He was offered at the temple, & was circumcised: baptized by John in the Jordan He had twelve disciples: one of these perished, took money, & betrayed the Lord & master. He was crucified, pierced with a lance: blood & water flowed thence: & explaining the Christian mysteries, He sent forth the spirit, lay in the sepulcher, despoiled hell & broke all its vessels: on the third day He rose, & showed to His disciples the wounds of His hands & side; & gave power to His disciples saying, Go into all the earth & preach saying, He who shall believe & shall be baptized, shall be saved; but he who shall not believe, shall be condemned: these signs shall follow those who believe in me, in my name they shall cast out demons, they shall lay hands upon the sick & they shall be well. After this He gave them power of binding & loosing in heaven & on earth: then He ascended into heaven, & sits at the right hand of God. Ten days having passed from His ascension into the heavens, He came to His disciples that He might give them the grace of the Holy Spirit: & He found them gathered into one, & there came suddenly from heaven a sound as of an oncoming vehement spirit, & filled the whole house where they were sitting, & there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, & there sat upon each of them the Holy Spirit: & there were there Jews, religious men of every nation which is under heaven. The Holy Spirit on that day, namely of Pentecost, descending upon the Apostles, gave them all kinds of tongues, & divided them into all the earth, that they might preach & baptize in the faith of the holy Trinity. But they having set out preached everywhere, the Lord cooperating & confirming the word with following signs. But we, who are reborn of water & the Holy Spirit, preach & testify, that He Himself is the Judge of the living & the dead.

[17] But the King when he heard, was exceedingly angry, & said: O Venantius, why have you perpetrated such things against me? who have taken away my kingdom from me. bound they are sent to Rome to their own people. Why have you taken away the more noble & more powerful & the warriors from me? These things the King said for this reason, because he had not dared to kill them: but he commanded golden collars & little silver chains to be brought, & put on their necks, & sent them back to Rome where their parents were. But the parents of these, seeing them with collars & little chains, exceedingly angry said: Let us complete an alliance among ourselves, that King Antiochus no longer rule over Rome. And they cast out all the King's Magnates, & Questioners, & Judges, & sent forth all the Nobles. Then he commanded the soldiers to behead him, Venantius beheaded & ten Roman men with him. When they had been led out thus, & Blessed Venantius had come to the place of the condemned, he prayed & said: Lord Jesus Christ, good Father, receive my spirit: do not permit us to perish, because we are your creatures: deliver us from the hand of the dragon who persecutes us: but lion of the tribe of Judah, root of David, who dost crush wars, receive our spirit. And saying these things he signed himself: & the other ten, who with him were to be beheaded, signed themselves: & they said, receive, O God, our spirit. And at once they were beheaded.

[18] In that very hour there were such thunders & lightnings in the city, & buried, that all thought themselves to be dead: & they cried out with trembling, Help us, Blessed Venantius. But the King, when he saw such things, was turned to flight that night toward the part of Rome. But there came Christians & gathered the bodies of the Saints, & buried them outside the city near one mile in a sarcophagus at night on the XV Kalends of June: where in the same place from the region of the Pagans just as many were baptized in the faith of Christ. Antiochus perishes badly. A messenger came to the Emperor from the parts of Rome, that the Nobles & Judges & Heralds had been expelled at Rome: he proceeded into the Alban country, & there tarried for some days. But the Roman men heard, & cast him out: & when he had been cast out, he proceeded into the woods, & there from heat & hunger died King Antiochus.

[19] When Leontius & Euprepius with their companions had heard about the King what had been done, they believed the more: but they considered, Leontius & companions send their explorers to Camerino: about Blessed Venantius what they should do. Then they sent searchers to inquire, what they should do about him or about his companions. Then they came into the part of the Camerine city, & hearing the signs & marvels rejoiced, & came to the tombs of the blessed Saints, & besought them: & in the same place there were more than a thousand souls of men. Then the men of the city saw them & questioned them & said, Whence are you? The searchers said, From the parts of Rome. The citizens said, And what do you seek? But they said, Venantius. Then the men of the city related all things which about these had been done: & questioned them about Antiochus what had been done. The Romans said, By a most shameful death he is extinguished. The men of the city said, Whose searchers are you? They said of Leontius & Euprepius & their companions. The peoples said, Perhaps of those, on whom the King put golden collars & little silver chains? They answered, Of those we are the messengers. The citizens said: to whom relating things seen & heard at Rome, Report back to your Lords that they receive the Pontificate from the Roman powers, & come into this city, & take the gold & silver & marvelous garments & precious gems, & judge what is to be done about the god Jove: but we fear to violate the face of the Emperor himself for that cause. The Romans hearing these things, rejoiced greatly: & the men of the city gave them money, & sent them back to Rome. Then they announced to their Lords the signs & marvels, which the Lord gave through His servant Venantius: but they hearing about the signs rejoiced, praised the Lord & blessed.

[20] At the same hour they proceeded to Blessed John the Pope, Pope John ordains the Bishop & Clergy of Camerino, & related all things which by the Saints had been done. But he, when he heard, fixed his knees on the ground, & raised his eyes to heaven, giving thanks to God, that he had heard such great things about his servants. Then Blessed Pope John consecrated Leontius Archbishop, & Euprepius Archdeacon, & all the others into the order of Clerics: & the blessing being received they returned rejoicing to their home. And they took at night the gold & silver, & came into the city of the Camerine city. Then the peoples received them honorably, & they came to the tombs of the Saints: where seeing the signs & marvels, which God showed through His servants, rejoicing & being glad they blessed the Lord. Afterwards they came to the house of Jove, a church is built, and broke it: & they founded an altar in honor of the blessed Virgin Mary of gold & silver & precious gems: but above the bodies of the blessed Saints they founded twelve altars, & built a house more ample & more marvelous. But from the treasures of Antiochus the Emperor, of gold & silver & precious gems, they adorned the tombs of the Saints.

[21] Leontius, Euprepius, Anthimus & Sixtus, Paternianus, Pastor, Geminianus, Leo, Constantinus nephew of Constantine, Hieronymus, Enesseus, Miniatus, Clarius, Elearanus, Ossi, Mero, Tiberius, Donatillus, Agarius, Metropon, were instituted Clerics, & led the life of Saints. Through them the Lord showed signs in their life. But also those who were killed by Antiochus, Anastasius the cornicularius & Theopista his wife, & four sons & two daughters, these are their names: Ebodis, Aradius, Calistus, Felix; of the daughters, Euphemia, Primitiva. The Martyrs are honored. But the companion of Blessed Venantius was Porphyrius the Priest, but he ended his life earlier by fifteen days. But the names of those, who with Blessed Venantius lost the present life, these are: Ammemona, Euphus, Julianus & Marius, Silanus & Orion, Dioscorus, Vientius, & Julianus, Triphon, & others whose names we know not, one thousand five hundred twenty-five, whom within the Camerine city [Antiochus caused to be killed. For] because that very Camerine city was the Chamber of the King, & the King tarried there, therefore more Saints there for the name of Christ were killed. Through the intercession of them & of all the Saints may our Lord Jesus Christ lead us to the kingdoms of the heavens: who with the Father & the Holy Spirit lives & reigns God through the immortal ages of ages. Amen.

CRITICAL ANNOTATION

[1] These Acts, at the urging of Henry Lindanus, a Priest of our Society & Penitentiary in the Lauretan shrine, From these Acts, received from an old MS. in the year MDCXLIX, from an old parchment codex of the Abbey of St. Eutitius, distant from Camerino XX m. p., from Norcia VI, the Most Illustrious & Most Reverend D. Jacobus Crescentius, a Noble Roman & perpetual Commendatary of the aforesaid Abbey, ordered to be copied out for us with public & notarial faith. The Codex itself, either

brought from Camerino, or copied from another older Camerine one, contains all the original knowledge, which about St. Venantius was had at Camerino, at that time when there were ordained the Mass & Office of this Saint; which we have from the old Missal & Breviary of the Church of St. Venantius of Camerino, as having been used in it from of old, until the sacred Congregation of Rites intervened, & ordered all things to be done from the common. The Congregation was moved no doubt by the evident fabulosity, which the wholly chimerical fiction about Antiochus, King & Emperor, Roman indeed, but having his palace at Camerino, contained; & accustomed to be read among the divine offices, & about the Pontificate of I know not what Blessed John the Pope, since with that name before the VI century no one presided over the Roman Church. There were not present indeed in the aforesaid Breviary, or rather Antiphonary, written with chant & notes, the Lessons themselves, inasmuch as it was the custom for them to be recited from the Passional or Legendary, especially written for this without chant & notes: but that in place of the Lessons there were those Acts which we have already given, is made certain by the Antiphons, Versicles & Responsories, all & each excerpted verbatim from the same, just as we have caused them to be printed in a special character.

[2] For the further confirmation of this assertion the Antiphon at the Benedictus makes, the remaining parts of the proper Office received. in the very order in which the Acts present it, comprising the torments ascribed to the Saint by those, under a synopsis of this kind: Bound & sent into prison, stripped & suspended in the air, scorched with lamps, placed on the rack above smoke, slaughtered on the back, beaten with rods, shorn of hair, cudgeled, sprinkled with live coals was the Martyr of Christ, his jaws & teeth crushed, given to the lions, cast in a dunghill, hurled headlong outside the wall, dragged through the valleys & rough places, finally beheaded by Antiochus, Blessed Venantius. Alleluia. From the same Acts was also taken the material of four Hymns for both Vespers, Matins & Lauds; & of others, perhaps composed for the Octave, similarly four, not inelegant for that age, which however because they can teach us nothing new I pass over. Yet I cannot pass over that beginning of the Sequence (as they call it) to be sung before the Gospel:

Venantius was begotten of an excellent lineage, In the royal city, formerly called Valeria, Now it is called Camerinum, And is called the Chamber of the King.

Do you see also the last clause of the Acts, expressed in the beginning of this sequence? Doubt not therefore but that those Acts, just as we have given them, are the very ones which the Camerine Church used as its own; & at the same time understand, that all things are of that most barbarous time, in which, the memory of legitimate antiquities being abolished, various Italian cities devised fabulous causes of their appellations from their own names, often quite ridiculously interpreted, as Milan (Mediolanum), from a sheep having wool only in the middle part of its body & born there; Ariano, as if from the Altar of Janus dug up again, & other similar things.

[3] These, faulty not by their antiquity, Cardinal Baronius, in his Annotations on the Roman Martyrology of XVIII May, at the name of St. Venantius, thus writes: We have seen the documents of the Church of Camerino (namely the Mass & proper Office) & also his Acts & those of his fellow Martyrs, which however on account of the too great antiquity of time having mistakes brought upon them, need censure & no small correction. Indeed a great antiquity of time, while one copy from another is repeatedly transcribed, by the hands either unskilled or careless of scribes, is wont even on the best monuments to bring a certain obscurity, by truncating or altering some words, & the forms of proper names or numerical notes; so that not without tedious labor & the collation of several MSS. among themselves can they be fully purged: but these being removed, the more ancient the Acts of the Saints are, the more they are nearly to be believed as sincere & more worthy of faith. but by their novelty can be called fabulous. But that certain things appear fabulous in almost the whole context, that for the most part is caused not by an excess, but by a defect of fitting antiquity. For what can be certainly believed about the most ancient matters, if it was not by the most ancient authors committed to writing? But when after the course of several centuries, in the middle & wholly barbarous age, some presumed to supply the defect or loss of ancient monuments by narrations adorned poetically rather than rhetorically, through men intent on this one thing, that they might stir up the admiration of readers (such altogether he seems to have been, who patched together the Passion of Venantius) what but insipid things & contrary to all antiquity would they give, partly from ill-digested traditions of the common people, partly from inventions of their own, while they strive to extend a knowledge of the true either none or slight into an ample Legend?

[4] Equilinus substituted the name of Decius for Antiochus, Peter de Natalibus, Bishop of Equilio, in his Catalog of Saints book 5, written about the year MCCCCLXXXII, wove a brief compendium from the Acts; & Antiochus King & Emperor being entirely expunged, preferred thus to begin: Venantius the Martyr suffered in the city of Camerino, in the time of Decius Caesar: who, held by the Governor, when he confessed Christ the Lord, first indeed beaten with cudgels, then sent into prison, but by an Angel was strengthened. Although Equilinus did this relying on no other ancient author, nor do the monuments of the Camerines exhibit a trace of the Decian persecution; yet it pleased Caesar Baronius, as singularly expedient for reducing Antiochus into order, & banishing him to the class of urban Governors. The other writers followed everywhere, namely the Author of the Italian Life, to whom others joined the Governor Antiochus; printed at the instance of Perbenedictus Marinus in the year MDCXI at Camerino, in which Antiochus is called Prefect of the Camerine city under Decius; Andreas Perbenedictus of Camerino, Bishop of Venosa, in the sacred Representation of the Life & Martyrdom of St. Venantius, a regular book brought on stage in Italian, & dedicated to the Senate & People of Camerino & printed in the year MDCXVII; Joannes Andreas Gilius in his Annals, also published in the vulgar tongue, book 2 treating of the Persecutions of the Church, & comprising in a brief epitome the whole series of the Venantian martyrdom; finally the Author of the new Lessons under Aemilius Alterius the Bishop, which we received from Rome in the year MDCXL, & now from the year MDCLXX, inserted into the Roman Breviary for the common use of the whole Clergy, we recite.

[5] Finally, about six or eight years before these, in Roman type, in a small volume in 12, (as Nicolaus Bartolini of the Congregation of the Presbyters of the Mother of God writes to us) there came forth the Life of the holy Martyr Venantius, & several new circumstances, by the author Joannes Philippus Bandini, in the Italian tongue, described in three books; but in a style so turgid, that he seems to have composed not a history of the Saint probable by truth for the ears of the pious, but a romance for the idle common rabble, nearly destroying the faith which he had previously built up for the Reader of the work excellently undertaken by him in seeking out the knowledge of the sacred Champion, through places often laid waste & burned by the barbarians, whose beginning is bound up in this synopsis. St. Venantius, of the country of Camerino, was begotten under Pope Fabian, the Emperor Maximinus, in the year CCXXXVIII, of his parents Soprinus & Benedicta, baptized by Porphyrius the Presbyter & piously nourished, from his tender years dwelt in caves: & under his guidance under Decius withdrawing to the valley of Amiternum in the Samnites, not far from the town commonly named Raiano, he was renowned by the fame of sanctity even in the little one of flattery, & by the prodigy of the very marble taking on his footprints with a facility more than waxen. Summoned to Corfinium, a city now destroyed, he pacified a civil sedition. Returning to Porphyrius, that both might leap forth into the open to confess the name of Christ, he prevailed by prayers: whence afterwards he was delated before Antiochus the Prefect. Thus far in a letter given to us in the year 1675 Nicolaus Bartolinus, bidding us note, that nothing of those things which here are so asseveratingly said, are said thus in the original Legend: which things therefore only I wished to adduce, that it may appear by what reason fables are amplified; while in the silence of the older ones someone presumes, that it is lawful indeed expedient, that a rude & undigested tradition be clothed with all the circumstances, required for a full history, although it be necessary to invent them.

[6] Meanwhile what I said remains true, that Peter de Natalibus is the first, who brought Decius into the history; nor is anything had from elsewhere, by which it is proved either that under him Venantius suffered, or that some Antiochus lived at Camerino. But it appears that this one cannot, not except by uncertain conjecture. from the summit of the supreme Royal power, be thrust down to the Prefecture of one city, unless those Acts be subverted from the foundations, from which alone however he became known; just as from those alone became known the kinds of torments inflicted on St. Venantius, & his tender age defined by only fifteen years; & the twin band of the Camerine Martyrs, one with Anastasius the Cornicularius on the day XI of May, the other with a whole millenary of citizens on the XXIX inscribed in today's Roman Martyrology. The fellow Martyrs are equally uncertain. The first on the said day we have given, not without scruple; the second to give we do not think necessary. Yet because it can scarcely be doubted, that in the time of the persecutions Camerino, equally as the other Italian cities, sent many Martyrs to heaven; & the memory of posterity could have preserved the names of some, confused indeed & obscure; we think also it could have come to pass, that the writer of the Acts of St. Venantius drew into his history some true & known-by-true-names Martyrs of Camerino; although perhaps they suffered long before or after, just as he drew into it St. Porphyrius the Presbyter, whom that he was by no means feigned the body still surviving in a most ancient marble chest proves.

[7] as also the age of Leontius the Bishop, In this very manner Leontius was drawn thither, if any such one really was ordained Bishop of Camerino by a certain Pope John: but he was by no means the first: since in the year CCCCLXV Gerontius of Camerino is named among XLVIII Bishops, who assembled in a Roman Synod under Pope Hilarus. To Gerontius could have succeeded Boniface of Camerino, named in the III Roman Synod under Symmachus in the year DI. From here until Projectus, who flourished a whole century & a half after, the name of no Bishop of Camerino became known: & again until St. Ansovinus, ordained in the year DCCCXXII (as we taught at his Life), only two Bishops are named: whence it appears, that all the monuments of that city were lost, & with them also the true time of the aforesaid Leontius. Under this one, to be referred perhaps to the VII or VIII century, could have been found the body of St. Venantius, hitherto unknown among the Camerines, under the indication of a name set on a small Tablet: whom a fifteen-year-old boy the slenderness of the bones could have made to be believed, but a Martyr indeed the dissected or divided skull: & the time & manner of death inflicted on St. Venantius. of which the upper part from the nostrils to the crown, exhibiting the form of a little dish, Joannes Andreas Gilius being witness, with several other Relics was found in the year MDLVIII on the XXII day of March. From which a new argument is added against the faith of the Acts, which assert the Saint to have been beheaded. The same Gillius says: That the Camerines refer it to St. Venantius, cast down from the walls of their city; which although it not rarely happens that some fall from the same, without graver harm

yet the fall is of a graver kind. But what if someone should wish to suspect, that the holy youth, in some, not so much persecution, as barbarian raid, under the Lombards or other heathens, was cast down from the walls, & the skull being shattered by the fall died a Martyr, outside all form of judgment, whose Passion then some fabulist, just as we have seen, adorned? I would not wish to affirm that. Yet I wished to propose it to the reader, that he may determine for himself, what & how far he wishes to believe the Acts & the compendia taken therefrom. We give to St. Venantius the first place on this day: because if it does not befit him here, as having suffered before the others; it befits at least, as one to be venerated before the others by mandate of the Apostolic See.

[8] Georgius Cardosus, in the Lusitanian Hagiology on this day, mentions another St. Venantius the Martyr, Another Venantius, a Roman Martyr at Lisbon. brought from the cemetery of Priscilla at Rome to Lisbon to the convent of the Fathers Theatines, surnamed of Divine Providence; with this authentication. We Antonius Barberinus, Bishop of Tusculum, called Cardinal Antonius, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church & great Almoner of the Kingdom of France, the within-written greater part of the relics of the Body of St. Venantius the Martyr, given to us, with the same faculties we give & grant to the Most Illustrious & Most Excellent Lord Knight, D. Franciscus de Sousa & Coutinho, Ambassador of the King of Lusitania, so that of them or part of them, by virtue of the said faculties, he may dispose in every better way &c. Given in the Palace of our usual residence, X January, MDCLIX. There are present in the same chest two canes of St. Hyacinth Martyr & St. Vincent Martyr. All which that they might lawfully be exposed to public veneration, were duly recognized by the Bishop of Targa, D. Franciscus de Sotomajor, as Provisor of the Chapter the See being vacant, XIV June MDCLX. But rightly Cardosus notes, that this day was chosen for his cult; not because he is now believed to have suffered (for the Birthday of that one & of all similar ones is unknown) but because now someone of his name occurs in the Roman Martyrology. Which why we approve less, we have already often said.

APPENDIX

How the Acts of St. Venantius are for a great part taken from the older Acts of St. Agapitus the boy, Martyr of Praeneste.

Venantius, Martyr at Camerino in Italy (St.)

BHL Number: 0125

[9] These things I had arranged, indeed I already long ago had them printed: when the printing of the fourth & fifth Volume being now almost finished, King Antiochus is similarly introduced, I hear from our Ribadeneira read at table the Passion of St. Agapitus the Martyr of Praeneste, for the XVIII day of August; & marveling at the complete similarity of the whole narration with those things which I remembered to be had here, I found among our MSS., laid up for that day, double Acts of his; of which the first & older began thus. Under King Antiochus the Pagan there was a certain boy by name Agapitus. Such things Rabanus Maurus also had & the author of the supposititious Bede, the day XV Kalends of September thus beginning The Birthday of St. Agapitus the Martyr, who under King Antiochus, when he was a boy of fifteen years, for Christ suffered &c. I saw then, not only the same things as to substance, but for a great part also as to words, inserted into the Legend of St. Venantius, so that almost this whole one until num. 9 (for the things which follow thereafter are superadded from elsewhere Col. 144B) appears to have been transumed thence, with a somewhat fuller phrase, with some transposition of things & a slight diversity of torments. Considering moreover how much among the common people prejudice has been born against truth, from the time when the epitome of the Passion of St. Venantius was received into the Roman Breviary; I judged this new conviction of the noted fiction not to be passed over, nor the month of August to be awaited in which the same things would be again treated. Read therefore here, how my predecessors received from our P. Beatillus at Naples, & found the same, in the MS. Codices of the Most Illustrious men Rebdorff, Du Puy, Ussher, Belfort; also in the most ancient Codices of San-Maximin, Fulda, Saint-Bertin & ours, & finally printed by Boninus Mombritius; with this tenor nearly everywhere; whose words when they are the same as in the Acts of St. Venantius, will be expressed in a different character.

[10] Under King Antiochus the Pagan there was a certain boy, by name Agapitus, fearing God: he renounced all the things of his parents, & offered himself to God a holocaust. & the man of God Porphyrius. Who when he was daily in the doctrine of Christ, & did not cease; said to the man of God by name Porphyrius: By your crown, & by this that we seem to be & are soldiers of Christ, I adjure you, that we hide ourselves not from the wickedness of the devil; but rather of our own accord let us offer ourselves, & say: Pagan King, why Col. 144C do you persecute the disciples of Christ, & why do you try to deliver them to death? & (just as blessed Paul the Apostle says; If your enemy hunger feed him, & if he thirst give him drink; for doing this you will heap coals of fire upon his head Rom. 12, 20.) let us preach to him the divine word. Forthwith this was announced to the King. Then the King ordered Agapitus to be brought forth, The Martyr having professed the faith before him who had spoken this, & said to him. I see you to be very mad & wordy, so that before you are questioned you seem to give yourself into judgment. Agapitus answered: I am not mad, but a Christian: & in my God I place my hope, because He Himself said, do not fear those who kill the body, but to the soul they can do nothing. King Antiochus said to him: whose son are you, or from what race have you descended, or in whom do you believe? Agapitus answered. From a boy I am a Christian, & born of a most noble race, & in the forum I learned law: then my parents gave me into a monastery, he says he was instructed in a monastery, & there I was instructed in the truth; & my God I worship, & Him alone I serve who created me. If anything in this you dare to speak against God, if you are His enemy, I answer you. King Antiochus said to him: I will not now speak much to you, for I hear that you are a boy; but of what merit you are I know not. But I say to you, Agapitus, Col. 144D you ought to obey. Approach therefore & sacrifice to the great God Jove the most invincible, lest you, as a Christian boy & noble by a generous family, I make to perish by various punishments. I know you to have said, I do not fear your torments; & that his wisdom was from Christ but advised sacrifice, lest you fall into death, & many say after your torments, that as a Christian & a boy under fifteen years, he is prepared to die. Agapitus answered: My Judge is my God, who knows the hearts of all. But you who dwell in this world, appear to be the son of your father the devil; & therefore through your malice you make me in your many arguments to be solicitous about Christ my Lord. King Antiochus said: I wish that you tell me whence is this wisdom to you? Agapitus answered: Christ my God is with me, & you say, Whence is this wisdom to you?

[11] Then the King ordered him to be strongly beaten with raw sinews. Agapitus answered: I am not beaten, but refreshed: he is said then delivered to the Governor, & beaten with sinews for in what manner boys beat themselves with their hands in a threshing-floor, so also I am mocked by your ministers. Then the King delivered him to the Governor & Col. 144E said: Unless Agapitus shall sacrifice, kill him with various punishments. Then the Governor said to his soldiers: O Jove! O Mercury! to whom should we attend, what should be done? because Agapitus of fifteen years says, I do not feel that your soldiers slaughter me? And the Governor, angry, said: Take him & put into prison, & let no one approach him, cast back into prison; & for four days let no water or any creature be given him, until he there fails. But Attalus the Cornicularius said to the Governor: Why do you bear solicitude for yourself? I go to him, & will make him sacrifice. Then the Governor said to him: By the state of this city, where Attalus the Apostate having vainly solicited him by his example, & by the power of great Jove & by the power of our Lords the most invincible Princes, that if you persuade him, I will make you what I am. But Attalus the Cornicularius went to Agapitus in prison, & said to him: Believe, Agapitus, & withdraw from your folly, & sacrifice to the gods. For what will it profit you to die in torments? & why do you lose the flower of your most pleasing youth? But I, just as you are, was a minister of Jove. Then Agapitus said to him: You see me a boy in age, but I am not so detained by boyish fatuity as you, mad son of the devil; who go & adore deaf & mute idols, which are made by men, which my God knows not; who are born of the devil your father, whose son you are, & his will you do; who say Jove, since he is my God, Col. 144F whose companion you are. Attalus the Cornicularius said: Agapitus, sacrifice to the gods: it is allowed me to say all things to you, because I sustain you. And when he was saying these things the Governor sent, & ordered Agapitus to be brought forth from prison. And while he was being led, the voice of the herald was sent before; Let Agapitus, blaspheming the gods, then live coals are said to have been placed on the head of the Martyr, by us with exquisite torments be tortured. Therefore Agapitus came to the Governor, & said to him: Agapitus, have you considered to be our friend? Agapitus answered: Do not tempt the Lord Christ my God, lest while you wish to tempt you be tempted by your father the devil. The Governor said: Take live coals, & on his head put. And when on his head the live coals had been placed, Agapitus said: Glory to you O God, who reignest forever, who hast made me to be proven: & he began to sing psalms, On account of my innocence you have received me, & confirmed me in your sight forever. And again the Governor ordered Agapitus to be beaten with scourges. Agapitus said: & scourges applied, a flame I saw first, & I was not tortured; then with scourges I am beaten, & so it is to me as if it defends from flies that I may be refreshed.

[12] And again the Governor ordered black smoke to be made, & naked with head turned downward to be suspended. likewise smoke set under him being suspended, But when he said to the Governor, Your wisdom & your vanity labors with smoke; again he is beaten with scourges by four succeeding one another in turn, Col. 144A & saying, Do not do injury to the Governor, & blaspheme the gods. But the ministers left him suspended. Then the Governor ordered that no one should approach him, until his body should be announced to have failed. But Anastasius the Cornicularius, after four days, went where he hung,

to see if he still lived: & he found him walking about upon the smoke, in a white garment, & singing psalms & saying; I shall not die, but I shall live, & shall tell the works of the Lord. And again: whence Anastasius finding him saved was converted: We have passed through fire & water, & you have brought us, O God, into refreshment: for an Angel of the Lord loosed him. Then Attalus the Cornicularius announced to the Governor, a great miracle, which he had seen. Then the Governor says: What shall we do with him? Anastasius said. I believe that his God is great, & there is no other God besides Him. The Governor said to him; As I see, you are seduced. Now I will intimate to the Emperor, that you are seduced. Anastasius said. Most willingly do I wish to undergo sentence, lest I see the holy & just one tortured. Agapitus hearing these things, that Anastasius had spoken thus, spread out his hands, & raised his eyes to Heaven, & prayed to the Lord Jesus Christ saying: Thanks to you, O God the only-begotten Savior, God from God, & true light from true light, the Martyr indeed insulting the tyrant, Word who art before all power, who reignest with the Father & the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Then the Governor was exceedingly angry, & tore his garments, saying: Col. 144B O immortal gods, who show not your powers against the sacrilegious one & the one blaspheming the gods, that you avenge not your injuries upon Agapitus. Saint Agapitus said: Why do you thus, Governor, grow angry, & do injury to your gods? Or know you not, that just as stones are laid in the streets to avoid mud, so also you their dust will diminish? But the Governor understood not what the man of God Agapitus said. And the Governor said to him: Man, you have not proven your age, whence to you this wisdom? Agapitus said: My God, who knows the hearts of all, knows also how I believe Him with a pure heart: & thanks I give to my God living & true, who deigned to bestow on me that wisdom of His riches. The Governor said: Tell me who is your God? Agapitus said: Great is my God, & admirable, & invincible in power, whom Angels & Archangels serve, who made heaven & earth, the sea & all things which are in them; to whom from earth to heaven sweetly psalms are sung, who you with all your people will make to come to nothing.

[13] Then the angry Governor said to his soldiers: strip him, & therefore having his belly drenched with boiling water, & boiling water into his belly put, & say to him; Do not be very wordy as a boy, & do injuries to the Governor. And while these things were done by the soldiers, the man of God Agapitus said: What is it Col. 144C that you put boiling water into my belly? I think that you put cold water on me, because my Lord, on account of whom I suffer all these things, has deigned to bestow refreshment on me. And he said to the Governor: Even so believe, that your torments are nothing. Then the Governor ordered his jaws to be broken, & his jaws crushed. & said to him. Know you not before whom you stand, & you speak undisciplinedly? The man of God Agapitus answered. Now I am ashamed to look upon your sacrilegious face. The Governor said: You speak truly, because still I make you to live. Agapitus said: all torments I do not fear, which are on the earth, if they be heaped together upon me: because I have a great patron, God, who strengthens me & will make me contend against a mad man. The Governor said to him: If I shall believe, shall I see your God? Agapitus answered: You shall not tempt the Lord God my God, because your father the devil also wished to tempt our Lord Jesus Christ, & He said to him, You shall not tempt the Lord your God, go behind, Satan: So also you shall not tempt the servant of God, lest while you wish to tempt you be tempted by your father the devil. And when the servant of God Agapitus had said these things, the Governor however having fallen from the tribunal & been killed, the Governor fell from his tribunal. Then his ministers gathered him up, & put him on a bed. Then the Governor said to his soldiers: Run, I burn: help me: for our gods are nothing, which without cause Col. 144D we worship; but the God of Agapitus is great & eternal: & what I did to the boy of God, this I receive. And when this the Governor had said, he expired at once.

[14] But the ministers, seeing this which was done about the Governor, announced it to the Emperor. By the Emperor's order cast to the Lions, Then the Emperor ordered Saint Agapitus to be subjected to the Lions. And at once his ministers led him into the Praenestine city, & prepared an amphitheater, & made a spectacle for the people, that there they might subject him to the Lions. But the lions, when they had been let loose, came to saint Agapitus, & with all gentleness humbled themselves at his feet. But the peoples, seeing, marveled, saying: Truly there is no other God, except Him whom Agapitus the servant of God confesses. And when the peoples had said these things, Agapitus said to them: Believe in Christ, fathers & brothers, that your souls may be saved, because all these things are transitory from the world, which are done on earth; Blessed shall you be if you believe in the living God. Then the ministers of the devil took saint Agapitus, & led him, that they might kill him with various punishments. And they came opposite the city, where there are two columns: & the knee being set in prayer there they struck him with a sword, & at once he sent forth the spirit, on the day XV Kal. of September. & finally diminished by the head, Then the Christians came through the night, & took his body, & put it from the city one mile, in a field, Col. 144E in a new sarcophagus which they found there, saying; That God chose this one a worthy Martyr for Himself, that through him there might God be blessed, where was the religion of the Pagans. & was buried by the Christians. And many of the Pagans believed in God through the servant of God Agapitus, & through Christ our Lord, who lives & reigns with God the Father & the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen.

[15] Only the fable about Agapitus is shorter: You see here not only King Antiochus, but also Porphyrius the man of God, & the education of the Martyr in a monastery, & the age of fifteen years, & the nobility of race; & the Anonymous Governor, to whom Agapitus was committed to be tortured, similarly fallen from the tribunal & killed: the Martyr besides scourged, cudgeled, with live coals placed on the head & smoke set under him vexed, & cast to the lions: then the vain attempts of Attalus the Apostate, & Anastasius the Cornicularius, & many of the people converted; finally the burial, & with nearly the same words all the things in which you had read the same about St. Venantius: nor any notable difference, except that where Agapitus is said to be drenched in the belly with boiling water this one is feigned dragged through precipices, & is said to have elicited a fountain of water for his draggers; so that one would have to be plainly blind or obstinate, who could not or would not see, that these Acts of St. Agapitus were proposed to him who patched together the Passion of St. Venantius; nor was anything else cared for, than that the fable might come out more prolix, Col. 144F with the Passions & Acts also of others added, as if connected with the Martyrdom of St. Venantius. In this however far more insipid the later one appears, that he wished the tragedy to have been enacted at Camerino, as if there the King or Roman Emperor had his seat & palace: while the other detains his Antiochus at Rome, & there says the torments were inflicted on the Saint, & only the capital punishment last taken at Praeneste.

[16] But now, just as the emenders of the Acts of St. Venantius judged that all would be safe for them, if Antiochus, whose other copies make Antiochus only a Governor cast down from the Royal & Imperial power, with the title of Governor they should subject to some Emperor, so already of old it was done with the aforesaid Acts of St. Agapitus, in some MSS. with this beginning: At that time, when the most impious Aurelian the Emperor was exercising a most savage persecution against the Christians in the whole Roman world; there held at Rome the Prefectorial dignity a Governor, by name Antiochus, worse in all things than his Lord. There was then in the same city a venerable boy by name Agapitus, fearing God, &c. But thereafter where here King Antiochus is named, there is the Emperor Aurelian; & the Governor here Anonymous, there is called Antiochus. under the Emperor Aurelian, Thus corrected the Acts had & followed Ado, Usuard, & others; except that in the supplements of Bede of Arras, Barberini & Dijon, instead of Aurelian is written Aurelius; from the same fountain certainly.