Vexilla regis prodeunt (Ecclesiastical Latin: [vɛɡˈzilːa ˈrɛːd͡ʒis]; often known in English translation as The Royal Banner Forward Goes) is a Latin hymn in long metre by the Christian poet and saint Venantius Fortunatus, Bishop of Poitiers. It takes its title from its incipit.

In modern English usage, it is sung to a variety of tunes, although the original plainsong melody is the most common variant.

The hymn was first sung for the procession (on November 19, AD 569) of a relic of the True Cross, that was sent by Byzantine Emperor Justin II from the East at the request of St. Radegunda, and was carried in great pomp from Tours to her monastery of Saint-Croix at Poitiers.

Its original processional use is commemorated in the Roman Missal on Good Friday, when the Blessed Sacrament is carried in procession from the Repository to the High Altar. Its principal use is in the Divine Office, with the Roman Breviary assigning it to Vespers from the Saturday before Passion Sunday daily to Maundy Thursday, and to Vespers of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (September 14), and in the pre-Vatican II Breviary also for the Feast of the Finding of the True Cross (May 3rd), and of the Triumph of the Holy Cross (July 16th).

Originally the hymn comprised eight stanzas. In the tenth century, stanzas 7 and 8 were gradually replaced by new ones (O crux ave, spes unica, and the doxology, Te summa Deus trinitas), although they were still retained in some places.

In the seventeenth century the correctors of the Breviary under Urban VIII revised the whole hymn in the interest of classical prosody. The Commission on Plain Chant under Pius X restored the ancient form of the text. The Graduale Romanum (1908) gives only the ancient form of the hymn, while the Antiphonary (1912) gives only the revised form. The Processionale (1911) gives both forms.

There exist multiple variants of the common English translation, originally by John Mason Neale in 1851.

Original text (strophes 1, 6 & 7)