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The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity


from its origins to circa AD 700, across the entire Christian world


Venantius Fortunatus writes a poem (1.3), On the basilica of the lord *Stephen (the First Martyr (S00030), built by a certain Palladius, possibly Palladius, bishop of Saintes (western Gaul). Written in Latin, probably in Gaul, 565/576, but perhaps earlier.

Evidence ID

E05564

Type of Evidence

Literary - Poems

Major author/Major anonymous work

Venantius Fortunatus

Venantius Fortunatus, Poems 1.3 (De basilica domni Stephani, 'On the church of lord Stephen'), 3-4, 11-12

Extracts:

Pertulit hic martyr pro Christo orientis in axe:          3
   ecce sub occasu templa beatus habet.

'This martyr [Stephen] suffered for Christ in eastern climes; but, see, the blessed man has churches in the West.'

After some verses describing Stephen's martyrdom, the poet claims that Palladius earned an eternal home by founding a church for him:

Haec sacra Palladius Levitae templa locavit,             11
   unde sibi fiat non peritura domus.

'Palladius established this holy church for the deacon [Stephen] so he could win for himself a house that will not perish.'


Text and translation: Roberts 2017, 17 and 19, lightly modified.

Cult Places

Cult building - independent (church)

Non Liturgical Activity

Construction of cult buildings

Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Ecclesiastics - bishops

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'.

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 western Gaul (where most of his patrons were based), 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

The Palladius mentioned in this chapter could be Palladius of Saintes, who is first documented as bishop of Saintes in 573 and was still living in 596 (Roberts 2017, 842; Pietri and Heijmans 2013); if so the church was presumably in Saintes, though no early church of Stephen is documented there.

Brennan, however, believes that Fortunatus 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).

Pietri, L. and Heijmans, M.,
Prosopographie chrétienne du Bas-Empire, 4 Prosopographie de la Gaule chrétienne (314-614), 2 vols. (Paris 2013), vol. 2, 1404-1408, 'Palladius 10'.

Roberts, M.,
The Humblest Sparrow: The Poetry of Venantius Fortunatus (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2009).


Record Created By

Katarzyna Wojtalik

Date of Entry

27/05/2018

Related Saint Records
IDNameName in SourceIdentity
S00030Stephen, the First MartyrStephanusCertain


Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
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