Like Paulinus of Nola, Venantius Fortunatus was a bishop and saint who was noted for his poetry The standard cathiolic sources do NOT tell you that this included some which celebrates male love, and may be read in the Penguin Book of Homosexual verse.
Medieval ecclesiastic, whose religious poems and hymns reflects the classical Latin poetry.
In fulfillment of his vow to St. Martin of Tours, Fortunatus travelled across the European continent, forming friendships with churchmen and officials. In 567 he reached Poitiers, where the former queen consort of Chlotar I, Radegunda, had founded a monastery. He was deeply impressed by her holiness and that of Agnes, the abbess, and decided to install himself in the city, becoming a priest. Subsequently Fortunatus was made bishop of Poitiers.
His extant works include:
- Vita S. Martini (“Life of St. Martin”), written at the prompting of his friend Gregory of Tours;
- prose biographies of saints (including the Vita Radegundis);
- 11 books of poems (with an appendix of 34 poems).
Theare are six poems on the subject of the Cross, among which the splendid hymns Pange lingua (“Sing My Tongue the Glorious Battle”) and Vexilla regis (“The Royal Banners Forward Go”), were translated into English by John Mason Neale.
Fortunatus is venerated as a saint in some Italian and French dioceses (feast day December 14).
An example of his poetry:
“Written on an Island off the Breton Coast”
You at God’s altar stand, His minister
And Paris lies about you and the Seine:
Around this Breton isle the Ocean swells,
Deep water and one love between us twain.
Wild is the wind, but still thy name is spoken;
Rough is the sea: it sweeps not o’er they face.
Still runs my lover for shelter to its dwelling,
Hither, O heart, to thine abiding place.
Swift as the waves beneath an east wind breaking
Dark as beneath a winter sky the sea,
So to my heart crowd memories awaking,
So dark, O love, my spirit without thee.
[trans. Helen Waddell, in Penguin Book of Homosexual Verse]
Select bibliography
Coote, Stephen, ed., The Penguin Book of Homosexual Verse, (Harmondsworth: Allen Lane, Penguin, 1983), 112
Select bibliography
Coote, Stephen, ed., The Penguin Book of Homosexual Verse, (Harmondsworth: Allen Lane, Penguin, 1983), 112
