Saint Martin of Tours
His feast is celebrated on November 11.
Saint Martin was born in Pannonia, Hungary, in the year 316. His parents were pagans. He studies in Pavia, where he knows Christianity. His father, who was a military tribune, to divert him from Christianity, forces him to join the army. Martin reconciles his military duties with his Christian aspirations. He exemplary life of monk and soldier: bravery and holy and charitable life.
Being a military man, the event so treated in the iconography happened. It was winter, and entering Amiens, he finds an almost frozen beggar, without clothes. He divides his cloak into two parts and gives one to the poor man. That night he had a vision in which he saw Christ with his half cloak on, saying to the angels: “Look, this is the cloak that Martin the catechumen gave me!”
He is soon baptized and two years later, he leaves the military to follow Christ. Saint Hilary of Poitiers instructed him in theology, philosophy, the Bible and the Holy Fathers, with a view to ordaining him as a deacon, seeing his capacity for learning and his growing faith. However, Martin did not want to hear about it and went to Sabaria, with his parents. On the way he was robbed by a thief, whom he forgave and spoke so highly of Christ that the man repented in time and became a good Christian. And he himself related the fact to Sulpice. Already Martin in his house, he managed to convert his mother to the Catholic faith. Furthermore, he preached against the Arians, who were increasing in number in Pannonia, and for this he was flogged and expelled from the city. Back in Poitiers, he founded Ligugé, an authentic missionary monastery. There he spends eleven years, happy in his environment. Asked later what professions he had exercised, he replied: “I was a soldier out of obligation and duty, and a monk out of inclination and to save my soul.” That is why there are those who summarize Martin’s life as follows: “a soldier on the outside, a bishop by force, a monk by choice.”
Sulpicius Severus wrote Letters and Dialogues and above all the Life of Saint Martin. Few books have been more widely read than this one, which has served as a source to carry everywhere through songs and poems, theatrical performances, painting and sculpture the image of this Saint “the most popular and well-known in all of Europe”.
A historian has counted in France 3,667 parishes dedicated to him and 487 villages named after him. A good number are also in Germany, Italy and Spain. The paragraph in which Don Quixote shows Sancho the image of San Martín and explains the case of the cape is nice.
Martín lived happily in Ligugé. But Tours had been left without a bishop. One day in the year 371, he was invited to Tours under the pretext that a seriously ill patient needed him, but the people wanted to elect him bishop. As soon as he was in the cathedral, the whole crowd acclaimed him as bishop of Tours, and even though he declared himself unworthy of receiving that position, they forced him to accept. He establishes near him, for his humble residence, the monastery of Marmoutiers, a missionary center from which Saint Patrick and Saint Paulinus of Nola will come. From there he departs for his grueling apostolic forays, for 35 years, throughout Gaul. Nothing holds you back. He accuses emperors, represses heretics, defends the weak and those condemned to death, performs countless miracles, and among them he is credited with raising several dead. His fame is indescribable. He is called “the apostle of Gaul” nobody did as much as him for Catholic France and Saint Gregory of Tours invokes him as “Special Patron of the whole world”.
So intense apostolic trips, so much work of charity, to the point of being totally emptied, exhausted his physical strength. He saw himself dying. His disciples ask him not to leave them orphans. Martin replied: “Lord, if I am still needed, I do not refuse the job. I just want your will.” The liturgy comments: “O happy man, who neither feared to die nor refused life.”
The disciples wanted to make him more comfortable. “Leave me like this, he said to them, looking at the sky, to direct my soul in the direction of God”. The demon kept pestering him. “What are you doing there, shouted Martín, bloodthirsty beast? There is nothing in me that belongs to you, damn you. The bosom of Abraham awaits me.” And he gave his soul to God. It was November 8, 397.
Martin was an ascetic, an apostle, a man of prayer, highly influential throughout medieval spirituality. The main facet of him, charity. The gesture of Amiens, giving half a cape, was overcome, when as a bishop, he gave his entire robe to a lesser-known beggar gesture. His very miracles, like those of Christ, were miracles of charity. He spent doing good.
Author of the text: Father Rafael María López-Melús.
Anecdotes of Saint Martin of Tours
* Saint Martin of Tours is the Patron Saint of the city of Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina.
According to tradition, it is said that on October 20, 1580, when the Spanish mayors had to choose which saint would be the patron saint of Buenos Aires, they put pieces of paper with the names of various saints in a hat. The first to come out was Saint Martin of Tours and it was decided to carry out the draw again because that saint was French and they preferred that the patron saint be a Spanish saint. It is not known why, the piece of paper returned to the hat. When the draw was made again, San Martín de Tours came out two more consecutive times, so they decided to name him as Patron.
* The half mantle of Saint Martin (the one that he cut with the sword to give it to the poor) was kept in an urn and a small sanctuary was built for him to keep that relic. As in Latin to say “half mantle” you say “chapel”, people said: “Let’s pray where the chapel is”. And from there comes the name of chapel, which is given to the small rooms that are made to pray.
* Saint Martin of Tours is one of the most popular saints. For example, in France, he has 3,667 churches dedicated to him. In addition, 487 towns also bear his name.
Prayer to Saint Martin of Tours
Oh God, you know that by our strength we cannot survive; grant us benign that, through the intercession of your confessor and pontiff Saint Martin, we may be strengthened against all the evils that surround us. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Patronages of San Martin de Tours
Saint Martin of Tours is the patron saint of Hungary and of the cities of Buenos Aires, Orense, Utrecht and Bucaramanga.
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