Venantius Fortunatus

Venantius Fortunatus was a Latin poet and hymn writer at the Merovingian courts and later Bishop of Poitiers, venerated as a saint. Born between 530 and 540 near Treviso in Italy and educated in Ravenna, he came to Metz in 566 and performed a poem at the wedding of King Sigibert and Queen Brunhild. At Poitiers he became a close friend of Queen Radegund, writing poems in her honour, and enjoyed the patronage of Gregory of Tours. His eleven surviving books of poetry include panegyrics and epitaphs, and his hymns Pange lingua gloriosi proelium certaminis and Vexilla Regis prodeunt entered the Catholic liturgy. He became Bishop of Poitiers around 599–600 and died early in the 7th century.