Bishop Martin

Saint Martin of Tours is the bishop most commonly intended by the name Bishop Martin in Western hagiography. He was born in the fourth century at Savaria in the Roman province of Pannonia, on the site of present-day Szombathely in Hungary. Traditional reconstructions of his age at death place the birth around 316, though some modern scholars prefer a later date; the year is not independently attested. His father was a tribune in the imperial army, and the family later lived at Ticinum (Pavia) in Italy. As the son of a veteran, Martin was enrolled in military service. While still a catechumen stationed at Amiens, he met a shivering beggar at the city gate. According to the near-contemporary Life by Sulpicius Severus, who knew Martin and wrote within a few years of his death, Martin cut his cloak in two with his sword and gave half to the poor man. He later reported a vision of Christ wearing the portion he had given away. He was baptized not long afterward, while still a young man, and after a further period of service obtained his discharge from the army.

Martin then attached himself to Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, and took up an ascetic life. He spent a time as a hermit on the island of Gallinaria off the Ligurian coast. After Hilary’s return from exile he established, in the mid-fourth century, a monastic community at Ligugé near Poitiers, commonly regarded as the earliest monastery in Gaul. In 371 the clergy and people of Tours constrained him to accept election as bishop, over his own reluctance and over the objections of some who thought a poorly dressed monk unfit for the see. As bishop he refused to abandon monastic discipline. He founded a second community at Marmoutier on the Loire, which served as a base for episcopal work and for the training of clergy.

His episcopate is associated with the Christianization of the countryside of Touraine and neighboring districts, the suppression of remaining pagan shrines, and the foundation of rural churches. Sulpicius portrayed him as a wonder-worker and as a bishop willing to confront both civil officials and fellow prelates. Martin opposed the use of the imperial death penalty against the Spanish bishop Priscillian, holding that doctrinal error was not a matter for the civil sword; that stance brought him into conflict with other Gallic bishops and with the court. He died on 8 November 397 at Candes, where he had gone to restore peace among local clergy. His body was carried back to Tours and buried there. A basilica later rose over the tomb and became one of the great pilgrimage churches of medieval Europe.

Martin was among the first Christians who were not martyrs to receive a widespread cult in the Latin West. His feast on 11 November, Martinmas, entered the agricultural and liturgical calendar of much of Europe and was long linked with the end of the harvest, the slaughter of livestock, and the tasting of new wine. He is invoked as a patron of France and of Tours, of soldiers and horsemen, of the poor and of beggars, of innkeepers and winegrowers, and of tailors, among other groups. His usual iconography shows the division of the cloak at Amiens.