ST. MARTIN OF TOURS
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2009
St. Martin of Tours was born at Sabaria (today Steinamanger in German, or Szombathely in Hungarian), Hungary around the year 316. In his early years, when his father, a military tribune, was transferred to Pavia in Italy, Martin accompanied him. When he reached adolescence he was, in accordance with the recruiting laws, enrolled in the Roman army. From the first, he was attracted towards Christianity, which had been in favor in the camps since the conversion of Emperor Constantine.
His regiment was soon sent to Amiens in Gaul which became the scene for the most famous story about Martin of Tours. At the gates of the city, one very cold day, Martin met a shivering and half-naked beggar. Moved with compassion, he divided his coat into two parts and gave one to the poor man. That night, Martin dreamt that Jesus returned the other half of his cloak. When he awoke, he cloak was whole again. Martin, immediately sought baptism and not much later was freed from military service at Worms on the Rhine.
As soon as he was free, he set out for Poitiers to become a disciple of St. Hilary, already famous as a theologian. Martin first desired to see his parents again so he returned to Lombardy. Since the area his parents lived in was under the influence of the Arians, Martin didn't receive a warm welcome. Hearing that St. Hilary had been exciled from Gaul by the same heretics, Martin laid low on the island of Gallinaria (now Isola d'Albenga) in the middle of the Tyrrhenian Sea.
As soon as Martin found out that the emperor had lifted Hilary's exile, Martin sought him out and then became a hermit for ten years in the area now known as Ligugé. His reputation for holiness attracted other monks, and they formed what would become the Benedictine abbey of Ligugé. Martin preached and evangelized all throughout the countryside of Gaul. Many locals refused to let go of their old beliefs, and tried to intimidate Martin by dressing as the old Roman gods, and appearing to him at night. Nevertheless, Martin continued to win converts. He destroyed old temples and built churches on the land.
When the bishop of Tours died in 371, Martin was the immediate choice to replace him. Martin declined, citing unworthiness. In a ruse, Rusticus, a wealthy citizen of Tours, claimed his wife was ill and said she had asked for Martin. When the saint arrived in the city, he was declared bishop by popular acclamation. He was consecrated on July 4, 372.
St Martin then moved to a hermit's cell near Tours. Other monks joined him, and a new house, Marmoutier, was soon formed. Martin rarely left his monastery or the city of which he was bishop, but he sometimes went to Trier to plead with the emperor for his city, his church, or his parishioners. Once when he went to ask for lenience for a condemned prisoner, an angel woke the emperor to tell him that Martin was waiting to see him. The prisoner was reprieved.
Martin himself was given to visions, but even his contemporaries sometimes ascribed them to his habit of lengthy fasts. Martin died at Candes, Touraine around 397 and was the first non-martyr to receive the cultus of a saint.
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