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Venance Fortunat hagiographe

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Abstract

In this paper, I study the multifaceted nature of Venantius Fortunatus’s hagiographic production, through macro-structures and micro-structures, prose and poetry, poems of circumstance as much as epic or panegyric. I am looking into the literary processes by which he was able to show his contemporaries how to walk a path of light (lucis iter), teaching them the exploits of the saints of old times (sanctorum gesta priorum), to use Paulus Diaconus’ terms. I’m interested in the manufacture of images and the transformation of narrative into metaphor; in the complementarity between the prose of Gregory of Tours and the poetry of Fortunatus (some elements of a four-handed opus geminatum: Glory of the Martyrs 41; Poems 9.14), to the writing of a hagiography in the present tense as circumstances dictate (10.7).


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Submitted: June 19, 2025 | Accepted: July 16, 2025 | Published Jan. 21, 2026 | Language: fr

Keywords Anchor • Winter • Images • Saint Lawrence • Saint Martin • Gregory of Tours • Poetry • Venantius Fortunatus • Hagiography • Miracle • Asceticism

Copyright © 2026 Sylvie Labarre. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.


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