Saint Who?
Saints Who Were Poets
Saint Venantius Fortunatus
Bishop († c. 605)Feast: December 14
“Come to the end, small aid is there in the songs of the Muses…./ Sweetness comes from the grave where a good man lies dead.” Venantius Fortunatus started to go blind in his late twenties, but was healed through the intercession of Saint Martin of Tours. He set out on pilgrimage to Saint Martin’s tomb in Gaul (modern France). En route he became a popular guest with nobles and churchmen, whose hospitality he repaid with poetry.
In Gaul, Fortunatus met the former queen and future saint Radegund. After a difficult life at court, Radegund had become a religious along with her adopted daughter, Agnes. The two holy women inspired Fortunatus; he settled down near their abbey and was ordained a priest. For two decades he served the convent as advisor and chaplain.
He continued to write, including a number of little poems of appreciation for gifts from the convent, for the nuns liked to send their chaplain treats. But he also wrote spiritual verse. The abbey possessed a relic of the True Cross, and Fortunatus wrote several hymns in its honor, most notably Vexilla Regis Prodeunt, known in English as “The Royal Banner Forward Goes.” Fortunatus was encouraged to publish by the historian-bishop Gregory of Tours. He wrote several saints’ biographies in verse. He became Bishop of Poitiers around the year 600, but died shortly thereafter.
Heavenly Father, through the intercession of
Saint Venantius, grant your faithful ones hearts
that treasure every one of your gifts.
