Saint Venustian

Venustiano was a governor of the Tuscany region in Italy who, during the Diocletianic Persecutions (303–313) and before Galerius’s edict of toleration (311), arrested and imprisoned many clergy, including two deacons and the Bishop of Assisi, Saint Sabinus of Spoleto. Venustiano later converted and became a 4th-century Christian martyr. Shortly after the arrest of the Christians, Venustiano suffered from a terrible eye ailment that left him unable to see, sleep, or perform his daily activities, and for which physicians could find no way to relieve his pain. He turned to the man he had imprisoned, Saint Sabinus, sending his wife and children to beg for his compassion. Upon seeing him, Venustiano asked for forgiveness for the cruelty with which he had treated them. Venustiano expressed a desire to be baptized. Sabinus instructed him to destroy his idol, break it into pieces, and throw them into the river. He then asked if he believed in God the Father Almighty, in his Son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Spirit; that Jesus Christ ascended into heaven and will come to judge the living and the dead; in the forgiveness of sins and the resurrection of the flesh. Sabinus then baptized him, and Venustiano was instantly cured; he threw himself at the bishop's feet once more to ask for forgiveness. When Maximian learned that Venustiano had been baptized, he sent Lucius to Assisi, who, without a trial, had Venustiano, his wife, and his children beheaded, and had Sabinus beaten to death. Their bodies were collected by Christians and their remains were hidden. In the acts of these martyrs published by Baluze, we see that the people of Rome repeatedly asked Maximian to put an end to the Christians. The emperor gathered the people at the Capitol in April of the year 303, praised their love for the religion of their ancestors, and told them he would order the prefect of Rome and all ministers to seek out and arrest the Christians and force them to offer sacrifice.