Saint Martin of Tours

Bishop

Feast Day

November 11

Life

316–397

Order

Founder of Western monasticism in Gaul

Born

Sabaria, Pannonia (modern Szombathely, Hungary)

Martin was born around 316 at Sabaria in Roman Pannonia, the son of a tribune in the imperial army. As the son of a soldier he was conscripted into the cavalry around age fifteen and stationed in Gaul. While still a catechumen serving at Amiens he encountered a poorly clad beggar at the city gate in winter, cut his military cloak in two with his sword, and gave half to the beggar; in a dream that night he saw Christ wearing the half-cloak. He was baptized soon after and, finding military service incompatible with his Christian conscience, sought discharge - reportedly telling Caesar Julian: I am a soldier of Christ; I am not allowed to fight.

After his discharge Martin became a disciple of Saint Hilary of Poitiers and around 360 founded at Liguge what is regarded as the first monastery in Gaul. In 371 he was acclaimed Bishop of Tours by popular demand, despite his own resistance, and accepted the office on condition that he could continue his monastic life; he founded the monastery of Marmoutier outside the city as his episcopal residence. As bishop he evangelized the still largely pagan rural districts of Gaul, intervened with the imperial court to spare the Priscillianist heretics from execution (an early Christian witness against the death penalty for heresy), and conducted his see by extensive pastoral visitation. He died at Candes on November 8, 397, and was buried at Tours on November 11. His near-contemporary biography by Sulpicius Severus made him the most widely venerated saint of the Western Middle Ages outside the apostles.