He who was nailed to the cross

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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 >

Text Information

First Line: He who was nailed to the cross
Latin Title: Salve, feste dies
Author: Venantius Honorius Clementianus Fortunatus
Source: Enlargeed Songs of Praise, 1931
Language: English
Refrain First Line: Hail thee, festival day
Publication Date: 1940
Copyright: This text may still be under copyright because it was published in 1940.

Tune

SALVE FESTA DIES (Vaughan Williams)

Ralph Vaughan Williams (PHH 316) composed SALVE FESTA DIES as a setting for Venantius H. Fortunatus's (PHH 400) famous text "Hail Thee, Festival Day." The tune, whose title comes from the opening words of that text, was published in The English Hymnal of 1906. Like SINE NOMINE (505), this tune is vi…

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Timeline

Instances

Instances (1 - 2 of 2)

Lutheran Worship #148

The Hymnal 1982 #216

Include 2 pre-1979 instances
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