St. Martin of Tours (Nov 11)
by the Revd Dr Robert Wilson PhD (Cantab), Old Roman Apostolate UK
Today we celebrate the feast of St. Martin of Tours. He was a native of Sabaria in Pannonia. His father was a pagan army officer, who later moved to Pavia in Italy. Since St. Martin was from a military family he was forced to join the army at the age of fifteen. Although he was as yet unbaptised he already discerned a religious vocation. On one occasion at Amiens during winter he saw a poor man begging alms at the gate of the city. St. Martin cut his own cloak in half, giving one part to the beggar and retaining the other half for himself. That night he saw Christ appear to him in his sleep, dressed in the half of the garment that he had given away and heard him say, “Martin, yet a catechumen, has covered me with this garment”. This finally led him to be baptised, although he continued to remain in the army. When St. Martin was around twenty there was a barbarian invasion of Gaul. He appeared before Julian Caesar to receive a war bounty, but he refused to accept it. “Hitherto, I have served you as a soldier, now let me serve Christ. Give the bounty to these others who are going to fight, but I am a soldier of Christ and it is not lawful for me to fight.” Julian accused St. Martin of cowardice, but he replied that he was prepared to stand in the battle line unarmed. He was imprisoned, but an armistice was soon declared and he was subsequently discharged from the army.
It was now finally possible for St. Martin to pursue his religious vocation. He initially went to see St. Hilary of Poitiers and became one of his disciples. He later returned to his parents home in Pannonia, where he converted his mother, although his father remained a pagan. His opposition to the then dominant Arian heresy led him to be forced to leave Illyricum. Hearing that St. Hilary had himself now been exiled by the Arians he decided to remain at Milan, but was later banished by the Arian bishop Auxentius. He lived for a time as a hermit on the island of Gallinaria off the coast of Genoa. In 360 St. Hilary was finally allowed to return from exile and St. Martin returned to Poitiers. He settled at Liguge for ten years. He initially lived as a hermit, but was eventually joined by others, forming what is usually regarded as the first monastic community in Gaul.
St. Martin’s reputation as a holy man and miracle worker led the people of Tours in 371 to demand that he become their bishop. St. Martin was initially reluctant to accept this offer. There was also opposition from neighbouring bishops who believed that St. Martin’s monastic lifestyle and indifference to appearance, wealth and status rendered him unsuitable for episcopal office. The objections were overcome by the support of the local clergy and people. St. Martin continued to lead an essentially monastic life, living at Marmoutier, which soon became a community of around eighty monks. He continued to evangelise against the dominant paganism that still persisted in the area around him and many miracles are attributed to him.
St. Martin became embroiled in a bitter controversy involving Priscillian, who had been accused of heresy and held gnostic or Manichean views. Priscillian had appealed to the emperor Maximus from a synod at Bordeaux in 384, but Ithacius, Bishop of Osonova had urged that he be put to death. Along with St. Ambrose, St. Martin opposed the desire to punish heresy with death. He believed that Priscillian should be excommunicated for his heresy, but argued that putting heretics to death was ethically wrong as well as involving unnecessary interference by the secular power in ecclesiastical affairs. The emperor had initially agreed to St. Martin’s request, but later changed his mind and put Priscillian to death. St. Martin found himself in a difficult position, in which he continued to defend the orthodox side, but opposed their desire to persecute the Priscillianists. He died on 8th November, 397 and was buried on this day (11th November) at Tours.
St. Martin came to be regarded as one of the great saints of the fourth century Church. He lived at a time when the faith had only fairly recently been granted toleration and, even after the Empire came to accept Christianity, the Emperors often supported Arianism rather than orthodoxy. Early Christianity was a predominantly urban religion, and much of the countryside in Gaul continued to remain pagan. It was this that St. Martin’s evangelisation sought to address. He was so successful in this role that he was able to overcome the prevailing belief that it was only martyrs who could be venerated as saints. St. Martin’s reputation as a holy man, evangelist and miracle worker led him to become the first confessor in the West to be recognised as a saint. From that time onwards it was no longer necessary to be a martyr to be a saint, it also could include those who had led lives of exceptional sanctity and had shown their faithfulness to Christ in their lives as well as in their deaths.
St. Martin was also the first Western bishop to live a monastic lifestyle. Whereas today we tend to think of monasteries as an accepted part of the life of the Church the situation was more ambiguous in the fourth century. In the earliest ages of the Church the faithful had been trained for Christian dying, but after Christianity finally gained toleration it was necessary to set examples of Christian living. This was provided by those who withdrew to the deserts of Egypt and Syria in pursuit of the life of holiness apart from worldly distractions. Some, like St. Anthony, lived as hermits, others, like St. Pachomius, formed monastic communities. It was this lifestyle that St. Martin desired to emulate. He initially had intended to live as a hermit, but he had attracted, both at Liguge and at Marmoutier, other followers which laid the foundations of religious communities. They were not at this stage as rigidly organised as later monasteries and it would appear that St. Martin’s monasteries combined elements of an eremetical as well as communal lifestyle.
It was also far from clear how this type of monastic life could be related to the more conventional institutional Church. The opposition from other bishops in Gaul to St. Martin’s appointment to the see of Tours, was based on a belief that a bishop should be a respectable pillar of society. This was deemed necessary to ensure the stability of the progress of the Church. St. Martin’s great achievement was to prove his detractors wrong. It was precisely because he was so unworldly and continued to live a monastic lifestyle that his fame spread far and wide and he was a successful evangelist among the dominantly pagan countryside of Gaul. From that time on it gradually came to be recognised that the religious life was no obstacle to someone becoming a bishop and the monastic movement became more integrated in the life of the Church.
There is much that we can learn from the life and example of St. Martin today. Much contemporary Western Christianity emphasises the importance of appearing respectable in the eyes of the world. In this it is not unlike the bishops in Gaul in the time of St. Martin who opposed his appointment because he did not conform to their desire to be pillars of the established order. But the life of St. Martin showed that what mattered was not respectability, but holiness. It was his life and example as a holy man, evangelist and miracle worker that actually proved effective in combating the prevailing paganism of the countryside.
Let us pray for grace to follow the example of St. Martin today, that we may strive for holiness and not simply respectability.
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