St. Venantius Fortunatus

St. Venantius Fortunatus was born about 530 near Treviso in northern Italy and educated at Ravenna in the classical letters of the age. About 565 he journeyed to Gaul, where he settled and won fame as the leading Latin poet of his time, attaching himself especially to the convent at Poitiers founded by the former queen St. Radegund, for whom and for whose community he wrote much of his verse. Late in life he was made bishop of Poitiers.

He is remembered above all for two majestic hymns in honor of the Holy Cross, composed about 569 on the occasion of the arrival of a relic of the True Cross at Poitiers: the Vexilla Regis, "The royal banners forward go," and the Pange Lingua Gloriosi, "Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle," which remain treasures of the Church's liturgy, sung especially in Passiontide and on the feasts of the Cross. His graceful poems and hymns bridge the classical and the medieval worlds. He died about 600 or 609, and is venerated as a saint, his memory kept on 14 December.