Venantius Fortunatus, Saint

VENANTIUS FORTUNATUS, Saint. - B. c. 530 near Treviso, d. at Poitiers shortly after 600.

He studied at Ravenna, made a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Martin (565) at Tours, where he remained for quite some time. During a journey to Poitiers he became acquainted in a convent with St. Radegund, daughter of the king of Thuringia, and with her adopted daughter Agnes, who had great influence on him. Thus he became a priest and later bishop of Poitiers. Because of his likable character he had many friendships, not least that of Gregory of Tours. There survives from him a collection of Carmina miscellanea in 11 books, containing, without any precise order, hymns, elegies, epigrams, epitaphs, etc. In book II are his famous hymns in honor of the Holy Cross, written on the occasion of the gift of a particle of the Cross by Justin II to Radegund. They are the hymns of the Roman Breviary: the Pange lingua and the Vexilla Regis (II, 2 and II, 6). In book XI there is an Expositio orationis dominicae and his famous poem: De navigio suo (10, a), which describes an excursion on the Moselle. In book XI is his Expositio Symboli, that is, an extract from the Commentarius in Symbolum Apostolorum of Rufinus. Outside the collection of Carmina miscellanea a poem is transmitted: De excidio Thoringiae, where 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. Furthermore V. wrote an epic poem: De vita s. Martini, and seven lives of saints in prose, among which: Vita di s. Flavio di Poitiers; Vita di s. Germano di Parigi (d. 576) and the Vita di s. Radegonda (d. 587). Feast on 14 Dec. in certain French and Italian dioceses.

Erik Peterson