Venantius Fortunatus, Poems 1.4 (De basilica Sancti Martini, 'On the basilica of Saint Martin')
Emicat aula decens venerando in culmine ducta,
nomine Martini sanctificata deo;
cui vitae merito fiducia tanta coruscat,
ut populis tribuat quod pia vota rogant.
Extulit hanc Faustus devoto corde sacerdos,
reddidit et domino prospera dona suo.
'This beautiful church is aglow, raised to a venerable height, made sacred to God by the name of Martin. By the virtue of his life, so brilliant in his influence that he grants to the people what their holy prayers seek. The priest Faustus raised this church up in the devotion of his heart and rendered to his Lord these beneficent gifts.'
Text: Leo 1881, 9. Translation: Roberts 2017, 19, lightly modified.
Evidence ID
E05565Saint Name
Martin, ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397 : S00050Saint Name in Source
MartinusType of Evidence
Literary - PoemsEvidence not before
565Evidence not after
576Activity not before
545Activity not after
576Place of Evidence - Region
Italy north of Rome with Corsica and Sardinia
Gaul and Frankish kingdomsPlace of Evidence - City, village, etc
RavennaPlace of evidence - City name in other Language(s)
Ravenna
Sardinia
Sardinia
Sardegna
Sardinia
Tours
Tours
Toronica urbs
Prisciniacensim vicus
Pressigny
Turonorum civitas
Ceratensis vicus
CéréMajor author/Major anonymous work
Venantius FortunatusCult activities - Places
Cult building - independent (church)Cult activities - Non Liturgical Practices and Customs
Construction of cult buildingsCult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Ecclesiastics - bishopsSource
Venantius Fortunatus was born in northern Italy, near Treviso, and educated at Ravenna. In the early 560s he crossed the Alps into Merovingian Gaul, where he spent the rest of his life, making his living primarily through writing Latin poetry for the aristocracy of northern Gaul, both secular and ecclesiastical. His first datable commission in Gaul is a poem to celebrate the wedding in 566 of the Austrasian royal couple, Sigibert and Brunhild. His principal patrons were Radegund and Agnes, the royal founder and the first abbess of the monastery of the Holy Cross at Poitiers, as well as Gregory, the historian and bishop of Tours, Leontius, bishop of Bordeaux, and Felix, bishop of Nantes, but he also wrote poems for several kings and for many other members of the aristocracy. In addition to occasional poems for his patrons, Fortunatus wrote a four-book epic poem about Martin of Tours, and several works of prose and verse hagiography. The latter part of his life was spent in Poitiers, and in the 590s he became bishop of the city; he is presumed to have died early in the 7th century. For Fortunatus' life, see Brennan 1985; George 1992, 18-34; Reydellet 1994-2004, vol. 1, vii-xxviii; PCBE 4, 'Fortunatus', 801-822.
The eleven books of Poems (Carmina) by Fortunatus were almost certainly collected and published at three different times: Books 1 to 7, which are dedicated to Gregory of Tours, in 576; Books 8 and 9 after 584, probably in 590/591; and Books 10-11 only after their author's death. A further group of poems, outside the structure of the books, and known from only one manuscript, has been published in modern editions as an Appendix to the eleven books. For further discussion, see Reydellet 1994-2004, vol. 1, lxviii-lxxi; George 1992, 208-211.
Almost all of Fortunatus' poems are in elegiac couplets: one hexameter line followed by one pentameter line.
For the cult of saints, Fortunatus' poems are primarily interesting for the evidence they provide of the saints venerated in northern Gaul, since many were written to celebrate the completion of new churches and oratories, and some to celebrate collections of relics. For an overview of his treatment of the cult of saints, see Roberts 2009, 165-243.Discussion
Although sacerdos ('priest') does not have to refer to a bishop, Faustus is generally identified with Faustus, bishop of Auch, south-west Gaul (PCBE 4: 'Faustus 4', pp. 745-746; Roberts 2017, 842). He died shortly after the council of Mâcon in 585. Brennan, however, believes that Venantius wrote this poem during his studies in Ravenna (Brennan 1985, 54).Bibliography
Editions and translations:
Leo, F., Venanti Honori Clementiani Fortunati presbyteri Italici opera poetica (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Auctores Antiquissimi 4.1; Berlin: Apud Weidmannos, 1881).
Roberts, M., Poems: Venantius Fortunatus (Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 46; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017).
George, J., Venantius Fortunatus, Personal and Political Poems (Translated Texts for Historians 23; Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1995).
Reydellet, M., Venance Fortunat, Poèmes, 3 vols. (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1994-2004).
Further reading:
Brennan, B., "The Career of Venantius Fortunatus," Traditio 41 (1985), 49-78.
George, J., Venantius Fortunatus: A Latin Poet in Merovingian Gaul (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992).
Roberts, M., The Humblest Sparrow: The Poetry of Venantius Fortunatus (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2009).
