Fortunatus con­vert­ed to Chris­ti­an­i­ty at an ear­ly age, at Aqui­le­ia. While a stu­dent at Ra­ven­na, he be­came al­most blind, but re­cov­ered his sight, as he be­lieved mi­ra­cu­lous­ly, by anoint­ing his eyes with oil tak­en from a lamp that burned be­fore the al­tar of St. Mar­tin of Tours. His re­cov­ery in­duced him to make a pil­grim­age to the shrine of St. Martin at Tours, in 565. He re­mained in Gaul the rest of his life.

At Poitiers, he formed a ro­man­tic, though pure­ly pla­ton­ic, at­tach­ment for Queen Rha­de­gun­da, daugh­ter of Bertharius, king of Neu­stria. As a re­sult of her in­flu­ence, For­tu­na­tus was event­u­al­ly or­dained and, af­ter Rha­de­gun­da’s death, be­came bishop of Poi­tiers shor­tly be­fore his own death in 609.

Sources

Hymns

1. Pan­ge lin­g­ua glor­i­o­si proe­li­um cer­tam­in­is
   • Praise the Sav­ior, Now and Ev­er
   • Sing, My Tongue, the Glor­i­ous Bat­tle
2. Quem ter­ra, pon­tus, ae­the­ra
   • The God Whom Earth, and Sea, and Sky
3. Sal­ve fes­ta di­es toto ven­er­a­bi­lis ae­vo
   • Hail Thee, Fes­ti­val Day
   • Welcome, Happy Morn­ing
4. See the Des­tined Day Arise
5. Vexilla Regis
   • Royal Ban­ners For­ward Go, The