A letter from Fortunatus (after 567)

Translated letter:

[To the same about flowers on the altar] The world is constrained by the ice of winter cold and all the light of the field perishes lacking flower(s). In the spring, by which the lord conquers Tartarus, the grass rises happier for its hair. There men decorate posts (postes) and pulpits with flowers, here the woman fills her breast with the scent of roses. But you bear the scents not to yourselves but to Christ, you give these first fruits to the pious temple. You have woven the festal altar with various crowns, painted as an altar with new flower threads. 10 Here the golden order with saffron[crocus], the purple goes out with violets, here scarlet reddens, there milk white makes snowy. There is blue with green: colors fight with the flower and in that place of peace you think herbal wars. Here it pleases with white, there it vibrates with red beauty. Thus various sprouts of flowers battle with each other in beauty, so that color conquers jewels, scent conquers incense. You who have constructed this, Agnes and Radegund, may your scent breath forth eternal flowers. 20

Original letter:

Ad eandem de floribus super altare Frigoris hiberni glacie constringitur orbis totaque lux agri flore carente perit. Tempore vernali, dominus quo Tartara vicit, surgit aperta suis laetior herba comis. Inde viri postes et pulpita floribus ornant, hinc mulier roseo conplet odore sinum. At vos non vobis, sed Christo fertis odores, has quoque primitias ad pia templa datis. Texistis variis altaria festa coronis, pingitur ut filis floribus ara novis. 10 Aureus ordo crocis, violis hinc blatteus exit, coccinus hinc rubricat, lacteus inde nivet. Stat prasino venetus: pugnant et flore colores, inque loco pacis herbida bella putas. Haec candore placet, rutilo micat illa decore; suavius haec redolet, pulchrius illa rubet. Sic specie varia florum sibi germina certant, ut color hic gemmas, tura revincat odor. Vos quoque quae struitis haec, Agnes cum Radegunde, floribus aeternis vester anhelet odor. 20

Historical context:

Bishop Venantius Fortunatus met Radegund and Agnes, whom Radegund had had installed as her abbess, when he visited Poitiers. They became good friends and exchanged epistolary poems and small gifts until the women died. After her death, Fortunatus wrote a life of Radegund emphasizing her ascetic qualities.

Printed source:

Venanti Fortunati Opera Poetica, ed. Fridericus Leo (Berlin: Weidmann, 1881), 194, Librum VIII, vii.

Date:

after 567