TODAY'S SAINT (Martin of Tours)
MARTIN OF TOURS
(ca. 316-ca. 397)
Bishop and pioneer of Western monasticism
Martin of Tours was born around 316 in Sabaria, Pannonia (now Hungary), to pagan parents. His father was a miltary tribune. The family was transferred to Pavia, Italy, when Martin was a child. At age 10, he went to church and begged to become a catechumen. Aat age 12, he would have retired to live as a hermit had he been old enough to do so. When he was 15, however, he was drafted in to the Roman army. Though not formally a Christian, Martin was attracted to Christian ways and lived more as a monk than a soldier.
The most famous incident of his early life occurred in 337. Martin was in Amiens, Gaul, with his unit. One extremely cold day, he met a half-naked beggarman shivering and begging for alms at the city gates. Moved, Martin took off his cloak, cut it in half with his sword, and gave one piece to the man. That night he had a dream in which Jesus appeared with a multitude of angels and said, "Martin, yet a catechumen, clothed me with this robe." (Martin's half of the cloak became a relic after his death.) After this, Martin was inspired to be baptized. At the entereaties of his tribune, he remained in the army for nearly two more years.
When barbarians invaded Gaul and Julian Caesar needed an army, Martin declined the soldier's bounty and asked to be released to the service of Christ. Julian Caesar had him imprissoned, but soon released him.
Marrtin went to Poitiers, where he was taken in by the bishop, St. Hilary (later a Doctor of the Church), who ordained him an exorcist. Not long thereafter, Martin was urged in a dream to return home and attend to his parents. He conveted his mother but failed with his father. His opposition to the Arians resulted in his public scourging and banishment. Hilary, meanwhile, was suffering his problems and had been forced from Poitiers. Martin retired with a priest to the island of Gallinaria in the Gulf of Genoa until 360, when Hilary returned to Poitiers.
Hilary gave Martin some land about two miles outside the city, now called Liguge, where Martin became a hermit in a wooden hut. He soon attracted other hermits, thus creating the first monastic community in Gaul. He probably would have stayed there indefinitely had not the bishop of Tour died around 371-372. Asked to take the office, Martin declined. His supporters tricked him into coming to Tours, where he was persuaded to stay as bishop. The mastic community of Liguge grew to a great monastery that continued until 1607 and was revived in 1859 by the Solesmes Benedictines.
As bishop, Martin was loathe to give up his hermit ways. He live first in a cell near the church and then moved to Marmoutier, in a desert-like location enclosed by a steep cliff and a tributary of the Loire. He founded an abbey and was joined by about 80 hermites. Many lived in caves carved out of the cliff. They wore camelhair shirts and spint their time in prayer. Martin preached abbout the countryside, and many miracles were attributed to him. He is credited with converting many persons throughout a wide area surrounding the abbey, and even as far as Chartres and Paris.
One of his most difficult situations occured around 384, when a Gnnnostic-Manichaean sect known as the Priscillianists, in Spain and Gaul, were condemned as heretics and excommunicated. Martin initially persuaded Emperor Maximus not to execute them, but the emperor reneged and had the heretics beheaded. Martin interceded on behalf fo the Spanish Priscillianists, who were threatened with persecution.
Martin went to Rome and then to Candes, where he established a religious center. He fell ill and died theeere on November 9, 397 (some accounts give 400 as the year). His successor, St. Britius, built a chapel over his grave. A basilica was later built, and remains one of the most important pilgrimage sites in Europe.
Martin's chief biographer was his friend Sulpitius Severus, who wrote his biograpphy about one year before Martin's death. Sulpitius compared Martin to the Apostles and attribbuted numerous miraculous feats to him, including healing, exorcisms, visions of angels and temptations by devils. He is said to have raised the dead on three occasions; a monk who was about to be buried: a slave who had hanged himself: and a child brought to Martin by his moother. Most of these events are dismissed by many historians as fiction or greatly embroidered fact. However, it is lidely that he performed healings and exorcisms, and these skills would have been expected from a religious of his repute. He likely had visionary experiences as well.
PRAYER
God, Your Bishop St. Martin glorified You by both his life and his death.
Renew in us Your grace, so that neither death nor life can sparate us from
Your love. Amen.
Feast: November 11
Patronage: horsemen; the impoverished; soldiers; tailors
FURTHERR READING
Sulpitius Severus on the Life of St. Martin.
posted by US Catholic @ 12:37 AM
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