Saint Martin of Tours

Saint Martin of Tours was a soldier who became a monk and then a bishop, and he is among the most venerated saints of Europe. He is remembered above all as the man who gave a poor man half of his cloak. The Church commemorates him on November 11, the day of his burial.

He was born at Sabaria in Pannonia, today Szombathely in Hungary, to a pagan family. The year of his birth cannot be fixed exactly; 316 or 317 is most often given. His father was a military man and set his son on the same path. According to Sulpicius Severus, who visited Martin and wrote his life, the boy grew up in Pavia and, against his parents’ wishes, enrolled among the catechumens. As a young soldier he was sent to Gaul.

There, at the gates of Amiens, during a harsh winter, he met a beggar numb with cold. He cut his military cloak in two with his sword and gave half to the poor man. The following night, as Sulpicius relates, he saw Christ in a dream, wrapped in that half of the cloak and telling the angels that it was Martin, still a catechumen, who had clothed him. Soon afterward he was baptized. How long he remained in the army after that, the sources report differently.

After leaving the service he went to Poitiers, to Bishop Hilary, an opponent of Arianism, who received him among his clergy. When Hilary was sent into exile, Martin lived as a hermit, among other places on the island of Gallinara off the coast of Liguria. After the bishop’s return he settled at Ligugé near Poitiers, where around 361 disciples gathered around him. That community is regarded as the oldest known monastery in Europe.

In 371 the Christians of Tours acclaimed him their bishop, though he resisted. He remained a monk: he made his home at Marmoutier, a monastery he founded not far from the city. For more than a quarter of a century he preached the Gospel to the people of the Gallic countryside, founded monasteries and parishes, and trained and reconciled the clergy. The poor, the sick, and prisoners found a defender in him.

In 397 he went to Candes to reconcile the clergy there, who were at odds. When he had restored harmony, he came down with a fever. To the disciples who begged him not to leave them he answered with a prayer: if he was still needed by God’s people, he did not refuse the toil. He lay dying, as he himself wished, on sackcloth and ashes. He died on November 8, 397, and his body was taken to Tours and buried on November 11.

Martin has been venerated as a saint since antiquity, without a formal canonization. He is among the first saints of the West to be honored though they did not suffer martyrdom. His tomb in Tours drew pilgrims, and his veneration spread throughout Europe. Benedict XVI recalled him in the encyclical Deus caritas est as a model of the personal witness of charity. In 1996, to mark the sixteen hundredth anniversary of his death, John Paul II celebrated Mass in Tours and called him one of the founders of Western monasticism.