November 12, 2023 - "Saint Martin of Tours"

On March 11, the church celebrated the memorial of St. Martin of Tours (316?-397). Two parishes in the Archdiocese of Washington are named after him:  St. Martin’s on North Capitol Street N.W. in Washington, D.C. and St. Martin’s in Gaithersburg.  St. Martin was born of pagan parents in modern-day Hungary.  His father was in the Roman army and at fifteen Martin followed in the footsteps of his father by joining the army.  He became a catechumen a short time later and was baptized when he was eighteen.  When he was twenty-three, he refused a bounty from the emperor Julian and said at the time, “I have served you as a soldier; now let me serve Christ. Give the bounty to those who are going to fight. But I am a soldier of Christ, and it is not lawful for me to fight.” For a while he was imprisoned but eventually discharged and went to be a disciple of St. Hilary of Poitiers.
 
Martin was ordained an exorcist and, following the lead of Bishop Hilary of Poitiers, zealously worked against the Arian heresy.  He entered monastic life, first living in Milan and then on a small island.  When Hilary was restored as the Bishop of Poitiers, Martin also went to France and established with some companions what may have been the first monastery in France.  Martin lived there for ten years, preaching in the countryside and forming the monks who were his disciples in their monastic way of life.
 
The people of Tours wanted Martin to be their new bishop when the Bishop of Tours had died.  Martin was told that there was a sick person who was in need of prayer.  That was the ruse that the people of Tours used to get Martin to come to their city.  He was brought to the church where he was ordained a bishop with reluctance.  Some of the bishops who were there to be ordaining prelates thought that Martin was not a suitable candidate for the episcopacy because of his rumpled appearance and unkempt hair.
 
But Martin was duly ordained and served as Bishop of Tours for twenty-five years until his death in 397.  As a bishop Martin was committed to peacemaking and, along with St. Ambrose of Milan, rejected the policy of Bishop Ithacius of putting heretics to death.  Martin begged the emperor to spare the life of the heretic Priscillian. For his efforts in this appeal, Martin was accused of the same heresy, and in the end Priscillian was executed.  Martin then pleaded for an end to the persecution of Priscillian’s followers in Spain.
 
There is a famous legend about Martin as a young soldier.  On a bitterly cold night, Martin met a poor man who was almost naked who was begging at the city gate.  Martin had only his weapons and his military cloak.  Since he saw that the beggar was shivering in the cold, he took his sword and cut his cloak in half.  He gave half to the beggar and kept the other half.  Some of the bystanders laughed at Martin’s odd appearance.  Others were ashamed that they had done nothing to help the poor man in his misery.  That night in a dream Martin saw Christ dressed in the half of the garment he had given away.  He heard Christ say, “Martin, still a catechumen, has covered me with this garment.”
 
Until next week,
Fr. John