Martin of Tours

Martin of Tours (c. 316/336 – 8 November 397) served as the third bishop of Tours. He is the patron saint of numerous European communities and organizations, including the former French Third Republic. Born in Pannonia (modern-day Hungary), he embraced Christianity early in life. After serving in the Roman cavalry in Gaul, he left the military before 361 to follow Hilary of Poitiers and founded the monastery at Ligugé. He was made bishop of Caesarodunum (Tours) in 371. In that role, he worked to suppress the remaining Gallo-Roman religious practices. He is most famous for the story of cutting his cloak in half with his sword to share it with a ragged beggar in winter. His shrine at Tours became a popular stop for pilgrims traveling to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.

The contemporary writer Sulpicius Severus, who knew Martin personally, composed a hagiography of his early life. It recounts supernatural events, including encounters with the devil and miracles such as casting out demons, healing a paralytic, and raising the dead. Other reported miracles involve turning back flames from a house while Martin burned an adjoining Roman temple, deflecting the path of a felled sacred pine, and the healing power of a letter he wrote.

Martin was born in either 316 or 336 in Savaria, in the Diocese of Pannonia (now Szombathely, Hungary). His father was a senior officer (tribune) in the Roman army. After receiving veteran status, his father was granted land to retire at Ticinum (now Pavia) in northern Italy, where Martin grew up. At age ten, he began attending Christian church against his parents’ wishes and became a catechumen. Christianity had been legalized in the empire in 313, but it remained a minority faith, more common in the eastern empire and cities, spread by converted Jews and Greeks. It was not widely accepted among the upper classes, and Mithraic worship was stronger in the military.

As the son of a veteran officer, Martin was required to join a cavalry unit at age fifteen. Around age eighteen (c. 334 or 354), he was stationed at Ambianensium civitas or Samarobriva in Gaul (now Amiens, France). He likely joined the Equites catafractarii Ambianenses, a heavy cavalry unit listed in the Notitia Dignitatum. Since this unit was stationed at Milan and also recorded at Trier, it probably formed part of the emperor’s elite cavalry bodyguard, which traveled with him.

Sulpicius Severus gave no dates in his chronology, so although he noted Martin served in the military “for nearly two years after his baptism,” historians cannot pinpoint when he left service. Historian Andre Mertens concluded that Martin served under Emperor Constantine II (ruled 337–340) and later under Julian (ruled 361–363). Sulpicius reports that just before a battle at Borbetomagus (now Worms, Germany), Martin decided his allegiance had shifted from the pagan Julian to Christ. Unwilling to accept a salary from Julian as he prepared to retire, he told the emperor, “I am the soldier of Christ: it is not lawful for me to fight.” Charged with cowardice and jailed, he volunteered to go unarmed to the front lines. Before his superiors could act, the invaders sued for peace, the battle never happened, and Martin was released from service.

Martin then declared his vocation and went to Caesarodunum (Tours), becoming a disciple of Hilary of Poitiers and opposing the Arianism of the Imperial Court. When Hilary was exiled from Pictavium (now Poitiers), Martin returned to Italy. According to Sulpicius, he converted an Alpine brigand along the way and confronted the Devil. After a dream summoned him home, he crossed the Alps and traveled from Milan to Pannonia. There he converted his mother and others, but not his father. In Illyricum, his zealous opposition to the Arians led to a public whipping and expulsion. Returning from Illyria, he was expelled from Milan by the Arian Archbishop Auxentius. He then sought shelter on the island Gallinaria (now Isola d’Albenga) in the Ligurian Sea, living as a hermit. He was not entirely alone; chronicles mention a virtuous priest and, for a time, Hilary of Poitiers. Martin lived on herbs and wild roots.

When Hilary returned to his see in 361, Martin joined him and established a hermitage at what is now Ligugé, south of Poitiers. He soon attracted converts and followers. The crypt under the parish church (not the current Abbey Chapel) shows traces of a Roman villa, likely part of a bath complex.