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IMC 2015: Sessions

Session 613: New Approaches to Venantius Fortunatus, II

Tuesday 7 July 2015, 11.15-12.45

Organiser:Hope Williard, University of Leeds / School of History & Heritage, University of Lincoln
Moderator/Chair:Joseph Pucci, Department of Classics, Brown University
Respondent:Judith W. George, Open University in Scotland, Edinburgh
Paper 613-aPudore mota muliebri: Women and Pastoral Care in Venantius Fortunatus's Prose Hagiography
(Language: English)
Kent E. Navalesi, Department of History, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Hagiography, Lay Piety, Women's Studies
Paper 613-bEpiscopal Building Projects in Early Medieval Gaul
(Language: English)
Hope Williard, University of Leeds / School of History & Heritage, University of Lincoln
Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Language and Literature - Latin
Paper 613-cContinuity and Discontinuity of Space in Venantius Fortunatus
(Language: Français)
Sylvie Labarre, Laboratoire d’Etudes sur les Monothéismes, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris / Faculté des Lettres, Université du Maine
Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Language and Literature - Latin
Abstract

This is one of two sessions devoted to the Merovingian poet, hagiographer, and bishop Venantius Fortunatus. As a poet in 6th-century Gaul, Fortunatus operated in a variety of physical and cultural spaces. Kent Navalesi addresses the interpretation of miracles, considering how Fortunatus’ description of miracles involving laywomen speaks to questions about female participation in contemporary religious experiences. Hope Williard's paper discusses Fortunatus' wrote poems in honour of the churches built and rebuilt by Merovingian bishops and how this reflects contemporary ideas about wealth. Sylvie Labarre's paper discusses how culture and faith unified the spheres of action of Fortunatus' own career and the careers of his ecclesiastical colleagues.