VENANZIO FORTUNATO, saint. — Born ca. 530 near Treviso, died at Poitiers shortly after 600.
He studied at Ravenna and made a pilgrimage to the tomb of s. Martino (565) at Tours, where he remained for some time. During a journey to Poitiers he became acquainted in a convent with s. Radegonda, daughter of the king of Thuringia, and with her adopted daughter Agnese, both of whom exerted a great influence upon him. Thus he became a priest and later bishop of Poitiers. Owing to his amiable character, he had many friends, not least Gregorio di Tours. A collection of Carmina miscellanea in 11 books survives from him, containing, without any precise order, hymns, elegies, epigrams, epitaphs, etc. Book II contains his famous hymns in honor of the Holy Cross, written on the occasion of Justin II’s gift of a fragment of the Cross to Radegonda. They are the hymns of the Roman Breviary: Pange lingua and Vexilla Regis (II, 2 and II, 6). Book X contains an Expositio orationis dominicae and his famous poem: De navigio suo (10, a), which describes a trip on the Moselle. Book XI contains his Expositio Symboli, that is, an extract from Rufino’s Commentarius on the Symbolum Apostolorum. Outside the collection of Carmina miscellanea, a poem is transmitted: De excidio Thoringiae, in which the end of the royal house of Thuringia is described. A hymn in praise of Mary, “Quem terra, pontus, sidera,” and another, “In laudem S. Mariae,” together with the hymns “Tibi laus perennis auctor” and “Agnoscat omne saeculum,” have been claimed for V., against F. Leo, by G. M. Dreves. V. also wrote an epic poem: De vita s. Martini, and seven prose lives of saints, among them: Vita di s. Flavio di Poitiers; Vita di s. Germano di Parigi (died in 576), and the Vita di s. Radegonda (died in 587). Feast day: 14 December in some French and Italian dioceses.