Martin of Tours

Martin of Tours, who lived in the fourth century, served as the third bishop of Tours and is now 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, founding a monastery at Ligugé. In 371, he was consecrated bishop of Caesarodunum (Tours). In that role, he worked to stamp out the last traces of Gallo-Roman religion.

Hagiography

The contemporary writer Sulpicius Severus, who knew Martin personally, composed a biography of him. Martin is most famous for the story in which he cut his cloak in half with his sword to share it with a beggar shivering in rags during winter. His tomb in Tours became a popular stop for pilgrims traveling to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.

Sulpicius Severus’s hagiography recounts Martin’s early life and includes many supernatural events: encounters with the devil, exorcisms, healing a paralyzed man, and raising the dead. Other miracles involve turning back flames from a house while he burned down an adjoining Roman temple, deflecting the path of a felled sacred pine, and the healing power of a letter he wrote.

Soldier

Martin was born in either 316 or 336 in Savaria, Pannonia (now Szombathely, Hungary). His father, a senior officer (tribune) in the Roman army, later retired as a veteran on land at Ticinum (modern Pavia, Italy), where Martin grew up. At age ten, Martin began attending Christian church against his parents’ wishes and became a catechumen. Christianity had been legalized in 313 but remained a minority faith, especially among the elite and the military, where Mithraic worship was stronger.

As the son of a veteran officer, Martin was required to join a cavalry unit at age fifteen. Around age eighteen (either 334 or 354), he was stationed at Ambianensium civitas (now Amiens, France), likely in the elite heavy cavalry unit Equites catafractarii Ambianenses, which accompanied the emperor on his travels. Sulpicius Severus gave no exact dates, but Martin served in the military for nearly two years after his baptism. Historian Andre Mertens concluded that Martin served under Constantine II (ruled 337–340) and later under Julian (ruled 361–363).

Before a battle at Borbetomagus (now Worms, Germany), Martin declared his allegiance had shifted from the pagan Julian to Christ. He refused to accept a salary from Julian or continue obeying his commands, saying, “I am the soldier of Christ: it is not lawful for me to fight.” Accused of cowardice and jailed, he volunteered to go unarmed to the front lines. His superiors planned to accept, but the invaders sued for peace before the battle occurred, and Martin was released from service.

Monk and hermit

Martin then declared his vocation and went to Tours, becoming a disciple of Hilary of Poitiers, whose orthodox Christianity he championed against the Arianism of the imperial court. When Hilary was exiled from Poitiers, Martin returned to Italy. According to Sulpicius, he converted an Alpine brigand along the way and confronted the Devil. After a dream told him to revisit his home, he crossed the Alps and went to Pannonia, where he converted his mother and others, though not his father.

In Illyricum, his opposition to the Arians led to a public whipping and expulsion. Returning from Illyria, the Arian Archbishop of Milan, Auxentius, expelled him from that city. Martin then lived as a hermit on the island of Gallinaria (now Isola d’Albenga) in the Ligurian Sea, surviving on herbs and wild roots, sometimes in the company of a virtuous priest and, for a period, Hilary of Poitiers.

When Hilary returned to his see in 361, Martin joined him and established a hermitage at what is now Ligugé, south of Poitiers, attracting converts and followers. The crypt beneath that site remains.