Sylvie Labarre

Associate Professor of Latin literature Université du Maine (Le Mans, France)

Laboratoire d’Études sur les Monothéismes Website : http://lem.vjf.cnrs.fr

Continuity and Discontinuity of Space in Venantius Fortunatus

Venantius Fortunatus is known as the travelling poet of the sixth century, born
and educated in Northern Italy, who went to Gaul in 565, without ever returning.
Neither the reasons for this exile, nor the literary representations of travel in his
poetry are my concern here, because other scholars have examined these questions in
detail1.
The idea for this lecture was inspired by the wealth of research carried out on
space in the Middle Ages, published in France over the last few decades2. But none of
it deals especially with Fortunatus. His works however seem to be an interesting
field to study the conception of space, for 3 reasons. First he has a rich and varied
œuvre: 11 books of poems, a verse life of Saint Martin and six lives in prose3. Second,
he describes space both in terms of his experience and in symbolic terms. He evokes
macro-structures (world, Heaven, Earth, East and West) and micro-structures
(churches, villas, roads, fields). In addition, Fortunatus inherits the Roman poetic
tradition while voicing the ideology of his time, which is that of Gregory of Tours in
his Books of Miracles.
In order to set out the characteristics of Fortunatus’s topology, I shall
distinguish between those elements which introduce a rupture and those which
establish continuity within this space. First, I shall see how his experience of travel
forced him to confront the limits of the world to which he belonged and how he
managed to recreate a sense of continuity. Second, I shall describe how he draws a

1 M. PAVAN, “Venanzio Fortunato tra Venetia, Danubio e Gallia Merovingica”, in Venanzio Fortunato
tra Italia e Francia. Atti del Convegno internazionale di studi (Valdobbiadene 17 mai – Trévise 18-19
mai 1990), Trévise 1993, pp. 11-23 ; F. D ELLA CORTE, “Venanzio Fortunato, il poeta dei fiumi”, in
Venanzio Fortunato tra Italia e Francia, Treviso, 1993, pp. 137-147 ; M. ROBERTS, “Venantius Fortunatus
and the Uses of Travel in Late Latin Poetry”, in Lateinische Poesie der Spätantike, Internationale Tagung
in Castelen bei Augst, 11-13 Oktober 2007, H. Harich-Schwarbauer, P. Schierl (ed.), Bâle 2009, pp. 293-
306 ; B. JUDIC, “L'itinéraire martinien de Venance Fortunat”, colloque de Zagreb, Sur les chemins du
patrimoine immatériel, saint Martin symbole du partage, 4. 10. 2013 ; E. F. ARNOLD, “Fluid Identities:
Poetry and the Navigation of Mixed Ethnicities in Late Antique Gaul”, Ecozon@, vol. 5 n°2, Autumn
2014, pp. 88-106.
2 P. GAUTIER DALCHÉ, “La représentation de l’espace dans les Libri miraculorum de Grégoire de Tours”,
Le Moyen Âge 98 (1982), pp. 397-420 ; F. CARDOT, L'espace et le pouvoir. Étude sur l'Austrasie
mérovingienne, Paris 1987 ; M. BOURIN avec la collaboration de É. ZADORA-RIO, “Analyses de l’espace”,
in J.-C. S CHMITT et O. G. OEXLE (dir.), Les tendances actuelles de l’histoire du Moyen Âge en France et en
Allemagne, Paris 2002, pp. 493-510 ; Th. LIENHARD (ed.), Construction de l'espace au Moyen Âge : pratiques
et représentations, Paris 2007 ; M. LAUWERS - L. RIPART, “Représentation et gestion de l’espace dans
l’Occident médiéval (Ve-XIIIe siècle)”, in J.-P. Genet (dir.), Rome et l’État moderne européen, Rome 2007,
pp. 115-171 ; P. GAUTIER DALCHÉ, L’espace géographique au Moyen Âge, Florence 2013.
3 VENANCE F ORTUNAT, Poèmes, éd. et trad. de M. REYDELLET, 3 vol., Paris 1994-2004 ; Vie de saint
Martin, éd. et trad. de S. QUESNEL, Paris 1996 ; Opera pedestria, ed. B. KRUSCH, MGH AA, 4, 2, Berlin
1885.
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topography of saints, in order to create a consistent network within an increasingly

fractured world. Finally, I shall study the sacred places in terms of homogeneity and
fluidity.

I. Travel Experience and Symbolic Representation of Space

A. His own journey to Gaul

Fortunatus left two versions of his own journey, one in the Preface (4, p. 4) of
his Poems, dedicated to Gregory of Tours, the other at the end of his Life of Saint
Martin (4, 630-680). The first brings him from Ravenna just beyond the Pyrenees,
before settling in Poitiers. The second follows the same route in reverse order, as he
addresses his book and asks it to find the friends he left in his native country. The
unity and continuity of the journey are guaranteed in the first version by the strong
presence of rivers4, of which Francesco Della Corte has shown the symbolic value of
purification5. In the second version, the theme of pilgrimage dominates and the
literary model of propempticon ad libellum6. The book visits shrines of various saints :
Saint Martin in Tours, Saint Dionysius in Paris, saint Remigius in Reims…
The poet pays little attention to sensory diversity. The places visited are not
precisely described, but imagined through symbols and literary motives. The
horizontality of the plains, familiar to an inhabitant of Venetia, is opposed to the
verticality of the mountains7. The cities’ walls (moenia) stand proudly according to
the Virgilian tradition8.

B. Experience of otherness and separation

The peoples he met on his journey are not precisely identified. All are called
barbarians. For Fortunatus, a barbarian is someone who doesn’t sing the same songs
or play the same instruments as a Roman. While the lyre is associated with the
Roman, the harp is the attribute of the barbarian: “Often, a single humming harp
would cause barbarian songs to ring out9.”

4 FORT., Poems, Praef. 4: “de Rauenna progrediens Padum Atesim Brintam Plauem Liquentiam
Teliamentumque tranans … Drauum Norico, Oenum Breonis, Liccam Baiuaria, Danuuium Alamannia,
Rhenum Germania transiens ac post Mosellam, Mosam, Axonam et Sequanam, Ligerem et Garonnam,
Aquitaniae maxima fluenta transmittens…”
5 See also G. ROSADA, “Il “viaggio» di Venanzio Fortunato ad Turones : il tratto da Ravenna ai
Breonum Loca e la strada per Submontana Castella”, in Venanzio Fortunato tra Italia e Francia, pp. 25-57.
6 HORACE, Ep., 1, 20 ; OVID , Tr., 1, 1 ; SIDONIUS APOLLINARIS, Poems, 24, 1-4.
7 FORT., VM, 4, 656: “campestria perge per arua”.
8 VIRGIL, Aen., 1, 7 (Rome) ; FORT., VM, 1, 366 (Trèves) ; 4, 630 (Tours) ; Poems, 10, 9, 1 (Metz).
9 FORT., Poems, Praef. 5: “Sola saepe bombicans barbaros leudos (h)arpa relidens” ; 7, 8, 63-64 (éloge du
duc Loup) : “Romanusque lyra, plaudat tibi barbarus harpa, Graecus Achilliaca, crotta Britanna
canat”.
 3

As for himself, Fortunatus remains all his life “a portion of Italian language10”,
that is the Latin he learnt in Italy during his literary education. This feeling of being a
foreigner and of belonging to another culture persists, even once he has been
perfectly integrated and settled in Poitiers11. However this culture that he embodies
is to be transmitted and shared. It is a ‘ferment’ of unity. Someone born a barbarian
can be considered a Roman because he loves Roman culture, like a woman such as
Vilithuta12.
Moreover, affection abolishes the geographical distance between friends. He
opposes friendship to the distance that separates him from his friends. He addresses
these lines to a friend : « The ocean swells around me, friend : /while Paris holds
you, huddling the Seine, /Breton waves harass me, dear,/yet one love binds our
separation13 » (J. Pucci). Culture and friendship give unity to terrestrial and
horizontal space through which people are moving.

C. The Earth-Heaven axis

A vertical Heaven-Earth axis structures the space of Fortunatus. While Heaven
is very often evoked as the abode of the saints, it nevertheless remains more abstract
and imprecise than terrestrial space. In some epitaphs, the saint is sub astra “under
the stars” or super astra “above the stars” 14. He is able “to open the doors of Heaven”
(aperire polos, 1, 5, 4), “to stretch his head as far as the stars” (2, 12, 4), “to dwell in the
stars” (1, 9, 6). This Vision of Heaven with sparkling stars which symbolises salvation
was represented by the mosaists of Ravenna, in the cupola of the Mausoleum of
Galla Placidia (photo).
Saints and bishops are, during their earthly existence, foreigners on Earth,
before reaching Heaven. As for Martin, on the other hand, he is in the same time
present on Earth and in Heaven : “owner of Heaven on Earth15”. Consequently, the
exile condition of the poet which could distinguish him from other people is in fact

10 FORT., VM, 1, 26: “Ast ego sensus inops, Italae quota portio linguae”.
11 FORT., Poems, 6, 8, 6 (hospes) ; 7, 9, 7 (exul) ; 7, 21, 10 (peregrinus) ; 8, 1, 12-13: “Italiae genitum gallica
rura tenent/ Pictavis residens”.
12 FORT., Poems, 4, 26, 13-14 (Vilithuta) : “Sanguine nobilium generata Parisius urbe/ Romana studio,
barbara prole fuit”.
13 FORT., Poems, 3, 26, 5-6 (to deacon Ruccon): “Sequana te retinet, nos unda britannica cingit: /diuisos
terris alligat unus amor” ; V ENANTIUS FORTUNATUS, Poems to friends, translated, with introduction and
commentary by J. PUCCI, Indianapolis, Ind. – Cambridge, Mass. 2010, p. 19 : “The ocean swells around
me, friend : /while Paris holds you, huddling the Seine, /Breton waves harass me, dear,/yet one love
binds our separation”.
14 FORT., Poems, 2, 14, 11 (martyrs of Agaune) ; 4, 10, 6 (Leontius II) : sub astra ; FORT., VM, 1, 422 ; 2,
457 ; 4, 240 ; 4, 709 ; Poems, 2, 16, 11 ; 3, 9, 35 ; 4, 2, 6 ; 7, 12, 48 ; 8, 1, 52 ; 8, 3, 204 ; 8, 5, 4 ; 11, 9, 16 : super
astra.
15 FORT., VM, 2, 398: “caeli possessor in aruis” ; 2, 437: “stabat adhuc terris, caelestibus intimus
haerens”. See M. ROBERTS, The Humblest Sparrow, “Situating the Saints: Between Heaven and Earth”,
pp. 171-175, “the Path to Heaven”, pp. 231-243.
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shared by all who will only reach their true homeland, the kingdom of Heaven, upon
their death : “We will thus all go take our places in another place, we will go to our
homeland, we who are delayed in a foreign land16.”
The representation of space is founded to a greater degree on literary models
and ideological concepts than on the personal experience of the traveller.

II. Mapping sanctity

The names of places and peoples abound in Fortunatus’ poetry17. In the
religious pieces, they constitute elements of a geography of the sacred.

A. Saints sent through the world as new Apostles

Their spiritual mission goes to the very limits of the known world. Thus, in a
poem addressed to the king Childebert and the queen Brunhild, on the feast day of
saint Martin, the saint, in a hyperbolic panegyrical formulation, goes around the
world: circuit orbis iter (10, 7, 12). He shines as far away as Indies18. He is present at
the 4 cardinal points : Oriens, Occasus, Africa, Arctus19. In this way, the poet seeks to
promote the universal vocation of christianity.
The poem 8, 3, probably written to celebrate Agnes’ installation as abbess of
the Convent of the Holy Cross, a poem of 400 lines, the longest in elegiac meter,
draws a topography of saints20. Apostles, saints and martyrs, but also angels,
patriarchs, prophets and virgins come to celebrate the wedding of the consecrated
virgin with her bridegroom, Christ. This catalogue of saints, which may be inspired
by Paulinus of Nola or Prudentius, partakes of the Homeric tradition of the
catalogue21. The motif of the procession recalls also the mosaics of the nave of Sant’
Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna22 (photo). But the most interesting aspect for our

16 FORT., Poems, 9, 2, 69-70: “Ibimus ergo omnes alia regione locandi, / ibimus ad patriam quos
peregrina tenent”. See S. LABARRE, “Le poète latin Venance Fortunat (VIe s.) et l’affirmation d’une
identité culturelle romaine et chrétienne au royaume des Francs”, in Facteurs d’identité / Faktoren der
Identität, éd./Hrsg. J. LANGENBACHER-LIEBGOTT et D. AVON, coll. DCIE “Dynamiques Citoyennes en
Europe”, n°1, Berne 2012, pp. 89-106, especially p. 104.
17 Cf. ed. M. REYDELLET, 3, index pp. 209-214.
18 FORT., Poems, 10, 7, 7 ; VM, 1, 49.
19 FORT., Poems, 10, 7, 9: “Hunc Oriens, Occasus habet, hunc Africa et Arctus”.
20 M. I. CAMPANALE, “Il De virginitate di Venanzio Fortunato (carm. 8, 3 Leo), un epitalamio mistico”,
InvLuc 2 II (1980), p. 75-128 ; B. BRENNAN, “Deathless marriage and spiritual fecundity in Venantius
Fortunatus’s De virginitate”, Traditio 51 (1996), p. 73-97 ; F. PIZZIMENTI, “Est mihi cura tui, sit tibi cura
mei : un’eco ovidiana in Venanzio Fortunato “De virginitate” : (carm. VIII, 3, 248), Maia 55/3 (2003), p.
545-548 ; M. ROBERTS, The Humblest Sparrow : The Poetry of Venantius Fortunatus, Ann Arbor 2009, pp.
173-175.
21 R. FICARRA, “Nota al De virginitate (VIII, 3, 129-176) di Venanzio Fortunato. Confronto con Paul.
Nol. c. XIX e Prud. per. IV”, BStudLat 8, 1978, p. 273-275 ; HOMER, Iliad, 2, 484-780 ; VIRGIL, Aen., 10,
118-214.
22 Fortunatus enumerates ten martyrs who are represented in Ravenna: Euphemia, Agatha, Agnes,
Eulalia, Cecilia, Justine, Paulina, Eugenia (Poems, 8, 3, 33-35, 171-172). Voir CUF, t. 2, p. 131, n. 16.
 5

purposes is to be found between the lines 141 and 174 : each personified city or
region is giving as a precious gift its saint, as we can see with the use of the verbs
mittit (142 et 150), dirigit (144), producens (146), fert (147), dat (153), profert (155)…
Achaia sends Saint Andrew, Africa Saint Cyprian, Brittany Saint Alban, Gaul Saint
Martin and Hilary… No less than 40 saints are sent by their cities or countries. The
ceremony results in a topography of christianization.
The distribution of countries, regions and cities evoked shows that no part of
the universe was forgotten by divine Providence. The geographical diversity has
been unified by the christian faith.

B. East and West

The poet seeks to prove that the West is not inferior to the East, the birth place
of Christianity. In two poems, he emphasizes that the cities of the West now house a
sanctuary dedicated to some Eastern martyrs: Stephen and George23. He elevates the
West by celebrating Rome, the city of Saint Peter, as caput orbis (head of the World)
(8, 3, 140), and by insisting upon its primacy, sub principe Roma (VM, 3, 499). The
forty-something saints, who form the procession of the poem 8, 3 are called children
of Rome: tua pignora Roma (l. 174).
The description of the rivers also is the occasion to compare rivers of the East
and West. In the poem about the river Gers, the Garonne becomes the equivalent of
the Euphrates or the Nile: “you’ll be, I think a Nile”, “you flow like the Euphrates of
Gaul”24, – of course with a humorous tone.
Gaul, which is his new homeland, occupies privileged position in the eyes of
Fortunatus.

C. Gallocentricity
As Gregory of Tours, in the Books of Miracles, Fortunatus valorises Gallic
hagiography. His works in prose and verse mirror the situation of the worship of
saints in Gaul in his time. It is devoted to martyrs from the early period of the church
in Gaul and fourth-fifth- or sixth-century bishops25.

23 FORT., Poems, 1, 3, 3-4 (sur la basilique de saint Étienne) : “Pertulit hic martyr pro Christo orientis in
axe : ecce sub occasu templa beatus habet” ; 2, 12, 5 (sur la basilique de saint Georges) : “Qui uirtute
potens orientis in axe sepultus/ ecce sub occiduo cardine praebet opem”. About this “géographie
cultuelle”, see L. P IETRI, “Loca sancta : la géographie de la sainteté dans l'hagiographie gauloise (IVe–
VIe s.)”, in S. BOESCH GAJANO and L. SCARAFFIA éd., Luoghi sacri e spazi della santità, Turin 1990, pp. 23-
35, especially p. 27.
24 FORT., Poems, 1, 21, 6 et 8 (On the river Gers, but here on the river Garonne) : “Hic ubi fit riuus, tu
puto, Nilus eris… Gallicus Eufratus tu fluis, iste latet”.
25 B. BEAUJARD, Le culte des saints en Gaule. Les premiers temps. D’Hilaire de Poitiers à la fin du VIe siècle,
Paris 2000, pp. 251-259.
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In the poem 10, 7, about the feast day of Martin, and in the Life of this saint,
Martin appears first as “the beacon of Gaul”, before casting his light over the whole
world26.
Gaul is a separate world. Therefore it has to find its own models. Rome is used
as a source of panegyrical comparison in the service of an entirely Gallocentric
perspective27. Thanks to Leontius, its bishop, Nantes becomes a new Rome. Felix of
Nantes allows Nantes to attain the level of Rome28. In the Life of Marcellus, Fortunatus
wishes that saint Marcellus, who fought a serpent-dragon, were admired in Gaul as
Silvester is in Rome for the same deed, and he insinuates that Martin wins out over
Silvester, because he imprinted the sign of the cross on the dragon, while Silvester
merely drove it away29. The topography of Fortunatus is heavily marked by a
religious or political ideology30.

III. Loca sancta

We know that the appropriation of space is an essential element of
Christianization31. In the 5th century, Paulinus of Périgueux uses the expression to
designate the holy places of Palestine32. In the 6th century, Gregory of Tours and
Fortunatus designate places in Gaul thus33. By celebrating religious edifices and the
bishops who built them, Fortunatus draws the topography of Christian Gaul.

A. Places made sacred

According to Fortunatus, the bishop himself procures the sacred places. The
poet addresses Leontius of Bordeaux in the following way: “None other than you
could give us this sacred place34”. The bishop‘s role is to build, but also to consecrate
the edifices.

26 FORT., Poems, 10, 7, 4 : “Qui modo de Gallis totum mire occupat orbem” ; VM, 1, 49 : “gallica celsa
pharus, fulgorem extendit ad Indos”.
27 FORT., Poems, 3, 4, 10 ; 3, 7, 17 ; 3, 8, 20 ; 3, 18, 8 ; 4, 5, 8 ; 4, 10, 8 ; 7, 7, 6.
28 FORT., Poems, 1, 15 ; 3, 8, 20 : “cuius in ingenium hic noua Roma uenit”. See M. Roberts, pp. 46-53,
espec. p. 51. In the poem 1, 15, the comparison with Rome is based on the virgilian intertextuality
(Eclogue 1).
29 FORT., Vita Marcelli, X, 49, éd. KRUSCH, MGH AA, 4, 2, p. 54 : “Si sanctorum uirorum ex factis merita
conferantur, miretur Marcellum Gallia dum Roma Silvestrum, nisi hoc distat in opere quod draconem
sigillauit ille iste iactauit”.
30 M. ROBERTS, The Humblest Sparrow : The Poetry of Venantius Fortunatus, Ann Arbor 2009, p. 50 : “This
simplified (and inaccurate) cartography aspires to present an ideological not topographical truth”.
31 R. MARKUS, The End of Ancient Christianity, Cambridge 1990, p. 142 et 153.
32 PAULINUS OF PÉRIGUEUX, Vita Martini, 5, 108-109.
33 L. PIETRI, “Loca sancta : la géographie de la sainteté dans l’hagiographie gauloise (IVe–VIe s.)”, dans
S. B. GAJANO and L. S CARAFFIA éd., Luoghi sacri e spazi della santità, Turin 1990, pp. 23-35.
34 FORT., Poems, 1, 12, 10 (Basilica of Saint Vivien bishop of Saintes, built by Leontius 2) : “Nec nisi tu
fueras qui loca sacra dares” (to Leontius). Voir aussi 1, 15, 55 (on Leontius) : “Ecce beata sacrae
fundasti templa Mariae”.
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The bishop can also make a place holy, by deposing relics35. But the place
where the saint lived and performed a charitable action becomes of itself a place
which encourages prayer, independently of the presence of a shrine or relics. The
sacrality of the saint is transfered to the place. Thus the sacristy where Martin gave
his tunic to a poor man teaches the visitor itself to stop and pray36.
By giving the believers places to pray, the bishop is guaranteeing their
salvation: “You who give to the people places to pray perpetually to Christ, you
become the path from where their salvation will come37”.

B. Basilica as the gate to Heaven

Basilica is a place where the past, the present and the future meet.The poem,
studied in depth by Judith George38, is addressed to the queen to console her, after
the death of her husband Childebert the 1rst. Fortunatus describes the garden the
king had planted beside the church of Saint Vincent (now Saint-Germain-des-Prés),
which he had built and where he was buried39. The poet recalls to life the memory of
the king and gives hope to the queen that they will be once again reunited for
eternity: “From here he made his way when he sought the holy portals where now he
dwells instead for his merits. For that beloved king previously from time to time
would frequent the holy place: now he continuously dwells in the blessed temple40”
(transl. J. George, Eranos 86 (1988), p. 64). Loca sacra refers to limina sancta very
probably to designate the church. But Fortunatus preserves a certain ambiguity,
because templa beata designates both the basilica and the world of the blessed,
Heaven.

35 FORT., Poems, 1, 2, 25-26: “Haec bonus antistes Vitale urguente Iohannes/Condidit egregio uiscera
sancta loco“.
36 FORT., Poems, 1, 5, 2: “hic locus orantem cautius ire docet”.
37 FORT., Poems, 1, 15, 61-62: “Qui loca das populis ubi Christum iugiter orent, unde salus ueniat te
facis esse uiam”.
38 J. W. GEORGE, “Variations on themes of consolation in the poetry of Venantius Fortunatus”, Eranos
86 (1988), p. 53-66.
39 GRÉGOIRE DE TOURS, Historiarum libri decem, 4, 20.
40 FORT., Poems, 6, 6, 19-23: “Hinc iter eius erat, cum limina sancta petebat, /Quae modo pro meritis
incolit ille magis./Antea nam uicibus loca sacra terebat amatus,/Nunc tamen assidue templa beata
tenet. / Possideas felix haec, Vltrogotho, per aeuum.”. Transl. J. George, Eranos 86 (1988), p. 64: “From
here he made his way when he sought the holy portals where now he dwells instead for his merits.
For that beloved king previously from time to time would frequent the holy place: now he
continuously dwells in the blessed temple”. See also V ENANTIUS FORTUNATUS, Poems to friends,
translated, with introduction and commentary by J. PUCCI, Indianapolis, Ind. – Cambridge, Mass.
2010, p. 47, l. 17-22: “May this tree bear blessed fruit forever/to remind us of a pious king/who once
made his way from here to the church/that better keeps him now because he was good/these holy
precincts that he sometimes trod/are forever held now by this beloved man.”
 8

C. The road to the saint

In Fortunatus’s work, the delicate sophistication of the occasional poetry, written in
elegiac meter, contrasts with the awkward naivety of the hagiographic prose
narrative. But the lives of bishops are relevant as well to our subject.
They reveal an opposition between a space where the saint’s influence is
greatest and which has its own mode of functioning, and a space external to this
influence. I will take my examples from the Life of Saint Albinus. The space pervaded
by the virtus of the saint is spared atmospheric phenomena. Thus the saint, during
his life, is himself sheltered from violent shower41. Deceased, he indicates himself
where and how to move his body, while others are unable to42.
During another episode, king Childebert rides off on horseback to meet the
saint. When, at a crossroads, he chooses the wrong way, his horse cannot proceed
any further, as if he had fallen in a hole. But, when he starts off down the right path,
the horse goes quickly43. Under the protection of the saint, movement is fluid and
space is homogeneous.

Conclusion
Finally, space as it is represented in the work of Fortunatus doesn’t allow any
room for discontinuity. The itinerary of the poet from Italy to Gaul is unified by the
symbolism of the rivers and the theme of the pilgrimage. Affection units separated
friends and the Heaven and Earth axis confronts all men with their exiled condition
on Earth. The topography of sanctity shows that saints are sent from all points of the
universe, that the West compares favorably with the East, and the Gaul occupies the
privileged position in Christendom. The loca sancta consecrated by the bishops
guarantees the salvation of the faithfuls, by giving them places to pray. The basilica
prefigures eternal life and the virtue of the saint provides a homogeneous secure
space, where movement is fluid.
Real or imagined space isn’t composed of separate elements, individually
worthy, but of a network of places interrelated by a symbolism, a culture, a faith. The
Christian moves there without rupture, taking a path which leads toward salvation.
Outside this world, we find pagans, demons, evil and the pitfalls of the road.

41 FORT., Vita Albini, VII, 19, éd. KRUSCH, MGH AA, p. 29.
42 FORT., Vita Albini, XIX, 54-56, éd. KRUSCH, MGH AA, p. 32.
43 FORT., Vita Albini, XIV, 38-39, éd. K RUSCH, MGH AA, p. 31.