Venantius of Salona

Saint Venantius, hieromartyr, was bishop of Salona in Dalmatia in the second half of the third century and died a martyr in 259, perhaps at Delminium. He is commemorated on 1 April.

It is said that he was either the first bishop of Salona or succeeded Saint Domnius. He was buried first in Dalmatia, and in 640 his body was carried to Rome by Pope John IV. His relics, together with those of three other local saints, Domnius, Maurus and Anastasius, were placed in the baptistery of the Lateran basilica, in the chapel of San Venanzio, which also has a mosaic of them.

Unlike other saints, his name does not appear in the early martyrologies, but first in a twelfth-⁠century Hungarian liturgical calendar. He is venerated at Rome and in Dalmatia, and at Toledo he was a popular saint.

He lived before the separation of the Churches, and so he is venerated as a saint of the undivided Church.