From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.
THE martyr of to-day carries us back to the persecutions under the Roman Emperors. It was at Camerino, in Italy, that he bore his testimony to the true faith; and the devotion wherewith he is honoured by the people of those parts has caused his feast to be kept throughout the Church. Let us, therefore, joyfully welcome this new champion, who fought so bravely for our Emmanuel. Let us congratulate him upon his having the privilege of suffering martyrdom during the Paschal season, all radiant as it is with the grand victory won by life over death.
The account given by the Liturgy of St Venantius is a tissue of miracles. The omnipotence of God seemed, on this and many other like occasions, to resist the cruelty of the executioners in order to glorify the martyr.It served also as a means of converting the bystanders, who, on witnessing these almost lavish miracles, were frequently heard to exclaim, that they too wished to be Christians, and embrace a religion which was not only honoured by the superhuman patience of its martyrs, but was so visibly protected and favoured by heaven.
Venantius Camers, quindecim annos natus quum Christianae religionis accusaretur apud Antiochum, qui sub Decio Imperatore Camerino praeerat, in porta civitatis prœsidi se obtulit, quem ille pollicitationibus ac terroribus diu tentatum flagris caedi et vinculis adstringi jussit. Sed iis mirabiliter ab angelo solutus lampadibus postea aduritur, atque inverso ore fumo supposito suspenditur. Ejus constantiam in tormentis demiratus Anastasius cornicularius, et quod eum ab angelo iterum solutum candida veste supra fumum ambulantem vidisset, in Christum credidit, et a beato Porphyrio presbytero cum familia baptizatus, paulo post martyrii palmam cum eodem promeruit.
At Venantius præsidi sistitur, et ab eo iterum frustra tentatus ut Christi fidem desereret, in carcerem conjicitur, quo Attalus prœco mittitur, qui ei dicat se quoque Christianum fuisse, et ei nomini propterea renuntiasse, quod cognovisset inane esse fidei commentum, quo Christiani praesentibus se abdicant ob vanam futurorum spem. Verum nobilis Christi athleta callidi hostis insidias non ignorans, diaboli ministrum a se penitus rejecit: quare ad Præsidem iterum adducto omnes contusi sunt dentes, maxillaeque confractae, atque ita caesus in sterquilinium dejicitur. Sed inde ab angelo quoque ereptus rursus stetit ante judicem, qui Venantio adhuc loquente, e tribunali cecidit, et in ea voce: Verus est Venantii Deus, nostros deos destruite, exclamans exspiravit.
Quod quum præsidi nuntiatum esset, extemplo Venantium leonibus objici jussit, qui naturali feritate omissa, ad ejus se pedes abjecerunt; interim ille populum Christi fidem edocebat: quare inde amotus iterum in carcerem truditur. Quumque postridie præsidi referret Porphyrius, se per visum noctu populos quos Venantius aqua tingebat clarissima luce fulgentes, ipsum vero præsidem obscurissima caligine opertum vidisset, præses ira incensus eum illico capite plecti imperat; deinde Venantium per loca vepribus et carduis consita trahi usque ad vesperam. Is cum semianimis relictus esset, mane se iterum præsidi præsentavit, cujus jussu statim e rupe praecipitatur; sed inde etiam divinitus ereptus, denuo per loca aspera ad mille passus trahitur, ubi militibus siti aestuantibus, in proxima convalle ex lapide, in quo et genuum formam reliquit, sicut etiam nunc in ejus ecclesia videre licet, crucis signo a Venantio facto, aquæ manarunt. Eo miraculo plures permoti in Christum crediderunt, quos omnes praeses eo loco una cum Venantio capite feriri jussit. Fulgura et terrœaemotus eo tempore ita magni fuere, ut præses aufugeret; qui paucis tamen post diebus divinam haud valens effugere justitiam, turpissimam mortem oppetiit. Christiani interim Venantii et aliorum corpora honorifico loco sepelierunt, quæ Camerini in ecclesia Venantio dicata condita adhuc sunt.
Venantius, who was born at Camerino, was but fifteen years of age when he was accused of being a Christian, and arraigned before Antiochus, the governor of the city, in the reign of the Emperor Decius. He presented himself to the governor at the city gate, where, after being long and uselessly coaxed and threatened, he was scourged and condemned to be chained. But he was miraculously released by an angel, and was then burned with torches, and hung, with his head downwards, over a fire, that he might be suffocated by the smoke. One of the officials, Anastasius by name, having noticed the courage wherewith he suffered his torments, and having also seen an angel in a white robe walking above the smoke, and again liberating Venantius, believed in Christ, and together with his family was baptized by the priest Porphyrius, with whom he afterwards merited to receive the palm of martyrdom.
Venantius was again brought before the governor; and being solicited, though to no purpose, to give up his faith, was thrown into prison. A herald named Attalus was sent hither, to tell him that he also had once been a Christian, but had renounced his religion on discovering that it was false, and that Christians were duped into giving up the good things of the present by the vain hope of what was to follow in the next life. But the high-minded soldier of Christ, knowing well the snares of our crafty enemy the devil, utterly spurned his minister from his presence. Whereupon he was again led before the governor, and all his teeth were beaten out and his jaws broken; after which, he was thrown into a dung-pit. But, being delivered thence also by an angel, he again stood before the judge, who, whilst Venantius was addressing him, fell from the judgementseat, and died exclaiming: ‘The God of Venantius is the true one! destroy our gods!'
When this was made known to the governor, he immediately ordered Venantius to be exposed to the lions: but those animals, forgetting their own savage nature, threw themselves at his feet. The Saint, meanwhile, instructed the people in the Christian faith, and was therefore removed and again thrown into prison. On the following day Porphyrius told the governor that he had had a vision during the night, and that he saw that those who were bathed with water by Venantius were brilliant with a splendid light, but that the governor was covered with a thick darkness. This so irritated the governor, that he immediately ordered Porphyrius to be beheaded, and Venantius to be dragged, until evening, over land covered with thorns and thistles. He was left there half dead; but he again presented himself in the morning to the governor, who at once condemned him to be cast headlong from a rock. Again, however, he was miraculously preserved in his fall, and was once more dragged for a mile over rough places. Seeing that the soldiers were tormented with thirst, Venantius made the sign of the cross, and water flowed from a rock in a neighbouring dell; on which rock Venantius left the impress of his knees, as may still be seen in the church which is dedicated to him. Many were moved by that miracle to believe in Christ, and were all beheaded, together with Venantius, on that very spot, by the governor’s orders. So awful were the lightnings and earthquakes which followed the execution, that the governor took to flight. But he was not able to escape divine justice; and, a few days after, met with a most humiliating death. Meanwhile the Christians gave honourable burial to the bodies of all these martyrs, and they now repose in the church which was dedicated to Venantius in the town of Camerino.
Dear youthful martyr, loved of the angels, and aided by them in thy combat! pray for us. Like thyself, we too are soldiers of the Risen Jesus, and must give testimony before the world to the divinity and the rights of our King. The world has not always in its hands those material instruments of torture, such as it made thee feel; but it is always fearful in its power of seducing souls. It would rob us also of that new life which Jesus has imparted to us and to all them that are his members: holy martyr, protect us under these attacks! Thou hadst partaken, during the days of thy last Easter, of the divine Flesh of the Paschal Lamb, and thy courage in martyrdom redounded to the glory of this heavenly nourishment. We also have been guests at the same holy Table; we also have partaken of the Paschal banquet. Like thee, we have known of our Lord in the breaking of bread:[1] obtain for us the appreciation of the divine mystery, of which we received the first fruits at Bethlehem, and which has been gradually developed within our souls, as well as before our eyes, by the merits of the Passion and Resurrection of our Emmanuel. We are now, at this very time, preparing to receive the plenitude of the divine gift of the Incarnation. Pray for us, O holy martyr, that our hearts may more than ever fervently welcome and faithfully preserve the rich treasures which are about to be offered us by the sublime mysteries of the Ascension and Pentecost.
[1] St Luke xxiv 35.