Venantius Fortunatus and Gallic Christianity - Theology in the Writings of an Italian Émigré in Merovingian Gaul

A wandering "Orpheus among the barbarians," a lively flatterer of the powerful and an appreciator of good food and pleasant company: the sixth-century poet Venantius Fortunatus is known to us today for being all these things. Yet in the Middle Ages people knew and loved "Fortunatus the priest: " a man of the Church and a teacher of Christian dogma.

This book for the first time looks at this other side of Fortunatus' character through the lens of what he wrote when he was bishop of Poitiers at the end of his life: two sermons and a hymn to the Virgin Mary. Here you will encounter something unexpected: Bishop Fortunatus the stern yet skillful preacher of Augustinian grace and Chalcedonian orthodoxy.

About the author

Benjamin Wheaton, Ph.D. (2018), University of Toronto, specializes in theology and society in Late Antiquity. He has published articles on Gregory of Tours, Nicetius of Trier and Venantius Fortunatus.

Product details

• Authors: Benjamin Wheaton
• Publisher: Brill
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 15.09.2022
• EAN: 9789004521940
• ISBN: 978-90-04-52194-0
• No. of pages: 304
• Dimensions: 155 mm x 235 mm x 18 mm
• Weight: 633 g
• Series: Brill's the Early Middle Ages
• Subject: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies