Venantius Fortunatus, in a poem (1.5) written for Gregory of Tours, describes three miracles of *Martin (ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397, S00050); the verses may well have been intended to be written on the walls of Martin's cell in Tours. Written in Latin, in Gaul, 573/576.
E05566
Literary - Poems
Venantius Fortunatus
Venantius Fortunatus, Poems 1.5 (In cellulam Sancti Martini ubi pauperum vestivit, rogante Gegorio episcopo, 'In the cell of Saint Martin, where he clothed a poor man, [written] at the request of bishop Gregory'), 11-22
In the first part of the poem the poet instructs the traveller to stop at the cell (cellula) of Martin where he clothed a poor man.
Qui tamen altaris sacra dum mysteria tractat,
signando calicem signa beata dedit:
namque viri sacro de vertice flamma refulsit,
ignis et innocui surgit ad astra globus,
ac brevibus manicis, fieret ne iniuria dextrae, 15
texerunt gemmae qua caro nuda fuit:
brachia nobilium lapidum fulgore coruscant
inque loco tunicae pulchra zmaragdus erat.
Quam bene mercatur cui, dum vestivit egenum.
tegmine pro tunicae brachia gemma tegit! 20
Tu quoque qui caelis habitas, Martine precator.
pro Fortunato fer pia verba deo.
Ad Gregorium
Imperiis parere tuis, pie care sacerdos,
quantum posse valet, plus mihi velle placet. 25
'Yet when at the altar he was performing the holy mass, in blessing the cup he revealed blessed miracles, for from
the man’s holy head a flame burst forth and a ball of harmless fire rose to the stars. His sleeves were short, but jewels clothed him where the flesh was bare, to prevent his hand being injured; (17) his arms glittered with the radiance of precious stones, and a beautiful emerald took the place of his tunic. What a happy exchange, for when he clothed the poor man, jewels covered the arms in exchange for the tunic’s covering! (21) So too you who dwell in the heavens, Martin, our intercessor, on behalf of Fortunatus convey to God holy words of prayer.
To Gregory
To obey your commands, holy and beloved bishop, whatever power I have falls short of my will to comply,'
Text: Leo 1881, 10.
Translation: Roberts 2017, 21 and 23.
Place associated with saint's life
Non Liturgical ActivityPrayer/supplication/invocation
MiraclesMiracle during lifetime
Miraculous sound, smell, light
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesThe socially marginal (beggars, prostitutes, thieves)
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
In this poem, Venantius Fortunatus amalgamates three stories that Sulpicius Severus included in his Dialogues on Martin, all set in, or close to, a church (almost certainly the cathedral of Tours): the story of Martin clothing a poor man, told in Dialogues 2.1; the incident of a ball of fire appearing above Martin's head as he celebrated mass, in Dialogues 2.2; and the jewels seen covering his hands and arms, again as he celebrated mass, in Dialogues 3.10 (for these, see E00845). In Sulpicius Severus' version, the first and second stories are closely associated, but the third is entirely separate.The poem's title, In cellulam sancti Martini, suggests that the poem, presumably without its closing personal and dedicatory lines (21-25), was intended to be inscribed or painted on the walls of this room, which, from the account of Sulpicius Severus in the story of the clothing of the naked man, is revealed to be a chamber (secretarium) to which Martin retired before celebrating mass. See Pietri 1983, 825-826, Pietri 1987, 29, and Reydellet 1994-2004, vol. i, 24, n. 21.
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., La ville de Tours du IVe au VIe siècle. Naissance d'une cité chrétienne (Rome: École Française de Rome, 1983).
Pietri, L., "Tours," in: N. Gauthier and J.-Ch. Picard (eds.), Topographie chrétienne des cités de la Gaule des origines au milieu du VIIIe siècle, vol. 5: Province ecclésiastique de Tours (Lugdunensis Tertia) (Paris, 1987), 19-39.
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
27/05/2018
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00050 | Martin, ascetic and bishop of Tours, ob. 397 | Martinus | Certain |
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