Hail Thee, Festival Day

Author: Venantius Honorius Clementianus Fortunatus

Venantius Honorius Clematianus Fortunatus (b. Cenada, near Treviso, Italy, c. 530; d. Poitiers, France, 609) was educated at Ravenna and Milan and was converted to the Christian faith at an early age. Legend has it that while a student at Ravenna he contracted a disease of the eye and became nearly blind. But he was miraculously healed after anointing his eyes with oil from a lamp burning before the altar of St. Martin of Tours. In gratitude Fortunatus made a pilgrimage to that saint's shrine in Tours and spent the rest of his life in Gaul (France), at first traveling and composing love songs. He developed a platonic affection for Queen Rhadegonda, joined her Abbey of St. Croix in Poitiers, and became its bishop in 599. His Hymns far all th… Go to person page >

Translator: Gabriel Gillett

Gillett, George Gabriel Scott, B.A., son of the Rev. E. A. Gillett, was b. Dec. 1, 1873, at Hawley, Hants, where his father was then curate. He was educated at Westminster School and at Keble College, Oxford, B.A. 1896 and ordained D. 1898, P. 1899. While domestic chaplain to Earl Beauchamp at Madresfield he contributed to The English Hymnal, 1906, three translations (58, 172, 030) and "It is finished! Christ hath known" (Good Friday). [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)  Go to person page >