Venantius Fortunatus, in his Miracles of Hilary (6), recounts how a blind man was cured when he entered the church of *Hilary (bishop of Poitiers, ob. 367, S00183) in Poitiers, during a journey to Tours (north-west Gaul) in search of a cure at the church of *Martin (ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397, S00050). Written in Latin in Poitiers (western Gaul), 567/569.
E05416
Literary - Hagiographical - Collections of miracles
Venantius Fortunatus
Venantius Fortunatus, Miracles of Hilary (Libri de virtutibus sancti Hilarii) 6 (17)
Nec illud quidem praeterire convenit, quod caeco felici post vita successit. Nam cum ad beati Martini limina pro recipiendo lumine properaret, in sancti Hilarii praeteriens templum ingressus est. Quo dum vigilias officio solito celebrarent, mane facto apertis oculis ipse diem coepit aliis nuntiare, qui semper egebat audire.
'Nor is it proper to omit this miracle that happened to a fortunate blind man after he prayed. For while he was hurrying to the threshold [of the church] of the blessed Martin in order to recover his sight, he entered the church of Saint Hilary as he was passing by. People were celebrating vigils there according to the usual liturgy. At daybreak his eyes were opened, and this man who [previously] always needed to hear about the coming of daylight [now] began to announce it to others.'
Text: Krusch 1885, 9.
Translation: Van Dam 1993, 158.
Cult building - independent (church)
Non Liturgical ActivityPrayer/supplication/invocation
Visiting graves and shrines
Vigils
MiraclesMiracle after death
Healing diseases and disabilities
Source
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; Pietri and Heijmans 2013, 801-22, 'Fortunatus'.Fortunatus' Miracles of Hilary (Liber de virtutibus sancti Hilarii) consists of thirteen very short chapters describing only nine miracles. The work is a complement to his Life of Hilary (see E06713). Both the Miracles and the Life are dedicated to Pascentius, bishop of Poitiers, which enables us to date their composition with some precision to 567/569, since Fortunatus almost certainly arrived in Poitiers in 567, while Pascentius died, and was succeeded as bishop by Meroveus, in 568/569. Gregory of Tours used the Life and Miracles, in Glory of the Confessors 2 (see E02452) and Histories 2.37 (see E02032).
Bibliography
Edition:Krusch, B., Venanti Honori Clementiani Fortunati presbyteri Italici Opera pedestria (Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Auctores Antiquissimi 4.2; Berolini: Apud Weidmannos, 1885).
Translation:
Van Dam, R., Saints and Their Miracles in Late Antique Gaul (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993).
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: Clarendon Press, 1992).
Pietri, L. and Heijmans, M., Prosopographie chrétienne du Bas-Empire, 4 Prosopographie de la Gaule chrétienne (314-614), 2 vols. (Paris 2013).
Roberts, M., The Humblest Sparrow: The Poetry of Venantius Fortunatus (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2009).
Katarzyna Wojtalik
13/05/2018
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00050 | Martin, ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397 | Martinus | Certain | S00183 | Hilarius/Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, ob. 367 | Hilarius | Certain |
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