The Flaming Banners of Our King

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: John Webster Grant

Grant, John Webster. (Truro, Nova Scotia, June 27, 1919- ). United Church. Dalhousie University (Halifax), B.A., 1938, M.A., 1941; Keble College, Oxford, D.Phil., 1948. Served as a Navy chaplain during World War II; acted as editor-in-chief of Ryerson Press (Toronto), 1959-1963; taught church history at Pine Hill Divinity School (Halifax), 1948-1949; Union College (Vancouver), 1949-1957; in South India, 1958-1959; and at Emmanuel College (Toronto), 1963-?. He published many books and articles in his field of specialty, notably The church in the Canadian era (1972). His hymn-writing began with translations and paraphrases, but even they reveal his unusual range of talent and expertise. --Hugh D. McKellar, DNAH Archives Go to person page >