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Icons of St. Venantius
Fortunatus, Bishop of Poitiers
Feast: Dec. 14
Top Icon: an illustration showing St.
Venantius in the vestments of an archbishop.
Final Icon: St. Venantius is on the right,
between St. Euphronius (centre) and the deacon with censer. He wears a
blue chasuble and his right hand is held over his heart.
St. Venantius Fortunatus, the
hagiographer, hymnographer, and Bishop of Poitiers, was born to a pagan
family. He converted when young, and grew up in Aquileia, the region
around Milan in n. Italy. When a young student, he was going to lose
his eyesight, but was saved from blindness through an anointing with
oil from the lampada burning at Tours before the relics of St. Martin.
He made a pilgrimage to Tours, then settled at Poitiers. Already at
this time he was renowned for having the gifts of a great troubadour.
He was able to make up poetry and ballads on the spot, with pious
themes. From 567 AD onward, he was spiritual father to a community of
nuns. He was advisor and secretary to Queen St. Radegunda of Poitiers.
Some of the hymns he wrote are still sung in church services in the
Western rite; one of his most famous is the Vexilla Regis still sung in
Passiontide and for feasts of the Holy Cross. Towards the end of his
life, St. Venantius was made Bishop of Poitiers, and he died in peace
around 605 AD. Holy Father Venantius, pray to God for us!
The event depicted in the icon
is the reception of the Cross at Poitiers:
"Radegund soon began to petition the Byzantine
Emperor for relics from the Holy Land to sanctify her convent. The
first petition she sent him was for a relic of the Cappadocian martyr,
St. Mamas of Caesarea. The Patriarch of Jerusalem eventually authorised
the transfer of the little finger of the saint's right hand from
Jerusalem to Poitiers. The second petition was for a fragment of the
True Cross, i.e. the cross on which Christ was crucified. In response,
the Emperor sent not only a large piece of wood from the cross, but
also some gospels studded with gold and gems. Euphronius, Bishop of
Tours, deposited these relics in the convent in the year 569. Following
the acquisition of these relics, Radegund had the convent renamed the
Abbey of the Holy Cross, and it became the destination of pilgrimages
from throughout the Frankish lands and beyond. In her last years,
Radegund took her habitual practice of asceticism still further. She
shut herself off from the day-to-day life of the convent, and isolated
herself in a walled-up cell, where she devoted her hours to prayer and
meditation. She died on 13th August 587 and her funeral was conducted
by her friend Gregory of Tours." - Alex Perkins, web site of
Jesus College, Cambridge.
Icon: from the Monastery of
St. Anthony the Great, France.
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