Venantius Fortunatus, Saint

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Saint Venantius Fortunatus (Venantius Honorius Clementianus Fortunatus) (vēnăn´shəs fôr´tyōōnā´təs), d. c.600, Latin poet, b. near Treviso, Italy. A priest in Gaul and later bishop of Poitiers, he wrote a long poem on St. Martin of Tours and also the hymn Vexilla Regis prodeunt, sung on Good Friday in the Roman Catholic Church. Another of his hymns supplied the first line and the meter for the later Pange lingua. He was the last of the Gallic Latin poets.

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