Martin of Tours
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| Martin of Tours | |
|---|---|
 Statue of Saint Martin cutting his cloak in two. Chateau "Höchster Stadtschloß", Frankfurt. |
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| Saint, "the Merciful" | |
| Born | c. 316, Hungary |
| Died | November 11, 397, Candes, France |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Church |
| Canonized | pre-congegation |
| Feast | 11 November |
 Saints Portal |
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Saint Martin of Tours (Latin: Martinus), (316/317 – November 11, 397 in Candes) was a bishop of Tours whose shrine became a famous stopping-point for pilgrims on the road to Santiago de Compostela. Around his name much legendary material accrued and he has become one of the most familiar and recognizable Roman Catholic saints. Some of the accounts of his travels may have been interpolated into his vita to give credence to early sites of his cult. His life was recorded by a contemporary, the hagiographer Sulpicius Severus. He is the patron saint of soldiers.
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[edit] Early life
Martin was named after Mars, the god of war, which Sulpicius Severus interpreted as "the brave, the courageous". He was born at Sabaria, Pannonia (modern Szombathely, Hungary). His father was a senior officer (tribune) in the Imperial Horse Guard, a unit of the Roman army, and was later stationed at Ticinum, Cisalpine Gaul (modern Pavia, Italy), where Martin grew up.
At the age of ten, he went to the church against the wishes of his parents and became a catechumen or candidate for baptism. At this time, Christianity had been made a legal religion (in 316), but it was by no means the dominant religion of the Roman Empire. It had many more adherents in the Eastern Empire, whence it had sprung, and was concentrated in cities, brought along the trade routes by converted Jews and Greeks (the term 'pagan' literally means 'country-dweller'). Christianity was still far from accepted amongst the higher echelons of society, and in the army the cult of Mithras would have been stronger. Although the conversion of the Emperor Constantine, and the subsequent programme of church-building, gave a greater impetus to the spread of the religion, it was still a minority faith. When Martin was fifteen, as the son of a veteran officer, he was required to join a cavalry ala himself and thus, around 334 was stationed at Ambianensium civitas or Samarobriva in Gaul (modern Amiens, France). It is therefore likely that he joined the equites catafractarii Ambianenses, a unit of cataphracti listed in the Notitia Dignitatum.
[edit] The Legend of the Cloak
While Martin was still a soldier at Amiens he experienced the vision that became the most-repeated story about his life. He was at the gates of the city of Amiens with his soldiers when he met a scantily dressed beggar. He impulsively cut his own military cloak in half and shared it with the beggar. That night he dreamed of Jesus wearing the half-cloak Martin had given away. He heard Jesus say to the angels: "Here is Martin, the Roman soldier who is not baptised; he has clad me." (Sulpicius, ch 2). In a later embellishment, when Martin woke his cloak was restored, and the miraculous cloak was preserved among the relic collection of the Merovingian kings of the Franks.
[edit] Countering the Arians
The dream confirmed Martin in his piety and he was baptized at the age of 18.[1] He served in the military for another two years until, just before a battle with the Gauls at Worms in 336, Martin determined that his faith prohibited him from fighting, saying, "I am a soldier of Christ. I cannot fight." He was charged with cowardice and jailed, but in response to the charge, he volunteered to go unarmed to the front of the troops. His superiors planned to take him up on the offer, but before they could, the invaders sued for peace, the battle never occurred, and Martin was released from military service.[2]
Martin declared his vocation and made his way to the city of Tours, where he became a disciple of Hilary of Poitiers, a chief proponent of Trinitarian Christianity, opposing the Arianism of the Visigothic nobility. When Hilary was forced into exile from Poitiers, Martin returned to Italy, converting an Alpine brigand on the way, according to his biographer Sulpicius Severus, and confronting the Devil himself. Returning from Illyria, he was confronted by the Arian archbishop of Milan Auxentius, who expelled him from the city. According to the early sources, he decided to seek shelter on the island then called Gallinaria, now Isola d'Albenga, in the Tyrrhenian Sea, where he lived the solitary life of a hermit.
With the return of Hilary to his see in 361, Martin joined him and established a monastery nearby, at the site that developed into the Benedictine Ligugé Abbey. He traveled and preached through Western Gaul: "The memory of these apostolic journeyings survives to our day in the numerous local legends of which Martin is the hero and which indicate roughly the routes that he followed." (Catholic Encyclopedia).
In 371 Martin was acclaimed bishop of Tours, where he impressed the city with his demeanor, and by the enthusiasm with which he had temples demolished or burnt, altars smashed and sculpture defaced. It is an indication of the depth of the Druidic folk religion compared to the veneer of Roman culture in the area, that "when in a certain village he had demolished a very ancient temple, and had set about cutting down a pine-tree, which stood close to the temple, the chief priest of that place, and a crowd of other heathens began to oppose him; and these people, though, under the influence of the Lord, they had been quiet while the temple was being overthrown, could not patiently allow the tree to be cut down" (Sulpicius, Vita ch. xiii). Sulpicius affirms that he withdrew from the press of attention in the city to live in Marmoutier (Majus Monasterium), the monastery he founded, which faces Tours from the opposite shore of the Loire.
[edit] Martin's order at Marmoutier
Sulpicius Severus described the severe restrictions of the life of Martin among the cave-dwelling cenobites who gathered around him, a rare view of a monastic community that preceded the Benedictine rule:
- Many also of the brethren had, in the same manner, fashioned retreats for themselves, but most of them had formed these out of the rock of the overhanging mountain, hollowed into caves. There were altogether eighty disciples, who were being disciplined after the example of the saintly master. No one there had anything which was called his own; all things were possessed in common. It was not allowed either to buy or to sell anything, as is the custom among most monks. No art was practiced there, except that of transcribers, and even this was assigned to the brethren of younger years, while the elders spent their time in prayer. Rarely did any one of them go beyond the cell, unless when they assembled at the place of prayer. They all took their food together, after the hour of fasting was past. No one used wine, except when illness compelled them to do so. Most of them were clothed in garments of camels' hair. Any dress approaching to softness was there deemed criminal, and this must be thought the more remarkable, because many among them were such as are deemed of noble rank. (Sulpicius, Vita, X)
[edit] Defender of the Priscillianists
His role in the matter of the followers of Priscillian was especially remarkable. Priscillian and his partisans, who had been condemned by the First Council of Saragossa, had fled; furious charges were brought before Emperor Magnus Maximus by some bishops of Hispania, led by Bishop Ithacius. Although greatly opposed to the heretics, Martin hurried to the Imperial court of Trier on an errand of mercy to remove them from the secular jurisdiction of the emperor. Maximus at first acceded to his entreaty, but, when Martin had departed, yielded to the solicitations of Ithacius and ordered Priscillian and his followers to be beheaded (385), the first Christians executed for heresy. Deeply grieved, Martin refused to communicate with Ithacius, until pressured by the Emperor.
[edit] The shrine and the cult
St Martin's popularity can be partially attributed to his adoption by successive royal houses of France. Clovis (Cholodovech), King of the Salian Franks, one of many warring tribes in sixth century France, promised his Christian wife Clotilda that he would be baptised if he was victorious over the Alemanni; he credited the intervention of St Martin with his success, and with several following triumphs, including the defeat of Alaric II. As a result, Clovis was able to move his capital to Paris, and he is considered to be the 'Founder of France'. The cult of St Martin continued to be closely identified with the Merovingian monarchy, and survived the passage of power to their successors, the Carolinginian dynasty.
The Abbey of St Martin at Tours was one of the most prominent and influential establishments in Dark Age and Medieval France. Charlemagne awarded the position of Abbot to his friend and adviser, the great English scholar and educator Alcuin. At this time the Abbot was able to Travel between Tours and the court at Trier in Germany and always stay overnight at one of his own properties. It was at Tours that Alcuin's scriptorum developed Caroline miniscule, the clear round hand which made manuscripts far more legible.
The veneration of Martin was hugely popular in the Middle Ages. His body was taken from his hermitage at Candes St Martin to Tours and the simple shrine erected over his sarcophagus was increased to a great basilica, as the shrine of St. Martin of Tours became a major stopping-point on pilgrimages; the later bishop, Gregory of Tours, made it his business to write and see distributed an influential Life filled with miraculous events of the saint's career. The basilica was sacked by Huguenots during the Wars of Religion, in 1562, then utterly demolished during the French Revolution, when two streets were opened on the site, to ensure it would not be rebuilt. In 1860, excavations established its former site and recovered some fragments of architecture.
[edit] Hagiography
The early life of Saint Martin that was written by Sulpicius Severus who knew him personally [1], while it expresses the intimate closeness the 4th century Christian felt with the Devil in all his disguises, is at the same time filled with accounts of miracles so extravagant as apparently to challenge disbelief. Some follow familiar conventions— casting out devils, raising the paralytic and the dead— others are more unusual: turning back the flames from a house while Martin was burning down the Roman temple it adjoined; deflecting the path of a felled sacred pine; the healing power of a letter written from Martin, indeed "threads from Martin's garment, or such as had been plucked from the sackcloth which he wore, wrought frequent miracles upon those who were sick."
The first occasion on which Martin restored the dead to life was that of the catechumen who lived with him in his cell near Poitiers. He returned from a three-day absence to find
- The body being laid out in public was being honored by the last sad offices on the part of the mourning brethren, when Martin hurries up to them with tears and lamentations. But then laying hold; as it were, of the Holy Spirit, with the whole powers of his mind, he orders the others to quit the cell in which the body was lying; and bolting the door, he stretches himself at full length on the dead limbs of the departed brother. Having given himself for some time to earnest prayer, and perceiving by means of the Spirit of God that power was present, he then rose up for a little, and gazing on the countenance of the deceased, he waited without misgiving for the result of his prayer and of the mercy of the Lord. And scarcely had the space of two hours elapsed, when he saw the dead man begin to move a little in all his members, and to tremble with his eyes opened for the practice of sight. Then indeed, turning to the Lord with a loud voice and giving thanks, he filled the cell with his ejaculations (Sulpicius Severus, Vita).
In one instance, the druids agreed to fell their sacred fir tree, if Martin would stand directly in the path of its fall. He did so, and it miraculously missed him very narrowly. Sulpicius, a classically educated aristocrat, related this anecdote with dramatic details, as a set piece. Sulpicius could not have failed to know the incident the Roman poet Horace recalls in several Odes, of his narrow escape from a falling tree (Odes ii.13 and .17 and iii.4) — a tree that Horace says, addressing it, was "reared with a sacrilegious hand for the destruction of posterity" (sacrilega manu produxit, arbos, in nepotum perniciem).
William M. Branham (a 20th century Bible minister) made the claim that Saint Martin played a key role in church history.
[edit] Folklore
From the late 4th century to the late Middle Ages, much of Western Europe, including Great Britain, engaged in a period of fasting beginning on the day after St. Martin's Day, November 11. This fast period lasted 40 days, and was, therefore, called "Quadragesima Sancti Martini," which means in Latin "the forty days of St. Martin." At St. Martin's eve and on the feast day, people ate and drank very heartily for a last time before they started to fast. This fasting time was later called "Advent" by the Church.
On St. Martin's Day, children in Flanders, the southern and north-western parts of the Netherlands, the Catholic areas of Germany and Austria participate in paper lantern processions. Often, a man dressed as St. Martin rides on a horse in front of the procession. The children sing songs about St. Martin and about their lanterns. The food traditionally eaten on the day is goose. According to legend, Martin was reluctant to become bishop, which is why he hid in a stable filled with geese. The noise made by the geese betrayed his location to the people who were looking for him.
In Malta, children are sometimes given a bag full of nuts, hazelnuts, oranges and tangerines. In old days, nuts were then used by the children in their games. The parish of Baħrija is dedicated to Saint Martin and on his feast a fair with agricultural produce and annimals is organized.
Also, in the east part of the Belgian province of East-Flanders and the west part of West Flanders, children receive presents from St. Martin on November 11, instead of from Saint Nicholas on December 6 or Santa Claus on December 25.
In recent years, the lantern processions have become widespread, even in Protestant areas of Germany and the Netherlands, despite the fact that most Protestant churches do not recognize Saints as a distinct class of believers from the laity.
Many churches in Europe are named after Saint Martinus, also known as Saint Martin of Tours. St. Martin is the patron saint of Szombathely, with a church dedicated to him, and also the patron saint of Buenos Aires.
In Latin America, he has a strong popular following and is frequently referred to as San Martín Caballero, in reference to his common depiction on horseback.
Though no mention of St. Martin's connection with viticulture is made by by Gregory of Tours or other early hagiographers, he is now credited with a prominent role in spreading wine-making throughout the Touraine region and facilitated the planting of many vines. The Greek myth that Aristaeus first discovered the concept of pruning the vines after watching a goat eat some of the foliage has been applied to Martin.[3] He is also credited with introducing the Chenin Blanc grape varietal, from which most of the white wine of western Touraine and Anjou is made.
In Germany a social organisation, helping in building hospitals, houses for handicapped people, and monasteries is named the Order of St.Martin (Sankt Martin Orden). This organisation has projects in different European states. Its most active members could be decorated with the most honourable Order of St.Martin, which is divided into five classes.
Martin Luther was purportedly named after St. Martin, as he was baptized on November 11 (St. Martin's Day), 1483.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Patron Saints Index: Saint Martin of Tours
- ^ Kurlansky, Mark (2006). Nonviolence: twenty-five lessons from the history of a dangerous idea. Pp 26-27.
- ^ For instance in Hugh Johnson, Vintage: The Story of Wine 1989, p 97.
[edit] References
- Sulpicius Severus On the Life of St. Martin. Translation and Notes by Alexander Roberts. In A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, New York, 1894, available online
- Lörincz, Zoltán (2000) Szent Márton, Savaria szülötte (Saint Martin, the Son of Savaria). Szombathely, B.K.L. Kiadó - Pannon Lapok Társasága. This book (written in Hungarian) contains an essay on St Martin and his cult in Hungary and Europe, with a discussion of artworks depicting his life.
- Mark Kurlansky (2006). Nonviolence: twenty-five lessons from the history of a dangerous idea. Modern Library chronicles book, Random House, Inc., New York. ISBN 0-679-64335-4.
[edit] External links
- Catholic Encyclopedia Saint Martin of Tours
| Preceded by Lidorius |
Archbishop of Tours 371–397 |
Succeeded by Bricius |
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Martin of Tours |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Martin the Merciful, Saint Martin |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Christian saint and bishop |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 316 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Hungary |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 11, 397 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Candes, France |
