Martin of Tours

Saint Martin of Tours (Latin: Martinus), (b. 316 or 317 – Candes, November 11, 397) was a bishop of Tours whose shrine became a famous stopping-point for pilgrims on the road to Santiago de Compostela. Around his name much legendary material accrued and he has become one of the most familiar and recognizable Roman Catholic saints. Some of the accounts of his travels may have been interpolated into his vita to give credence to early sites of his cult. His life was recorded by a contemprary, the hagiographer Sulpitius Severus.

Countering the Arians

The dream confirmed Martin in his piety and he was baptized, but served another two years before he declared his vocation and left his legion at Worms and made his way to the city of Tours, where he became a disciple of Hilary of Poitiers, a chief proponent of Trinitarian Christianity, opposing the Arianism of the Visigothic nobility. When Hilary was forced into exile from Poitiers, Martin returned to Italy, converting an Alpine brigand on the way, according to his biographer Sulpicius Severus, and confronting the Devil himself. Returning from Illyria, he was confronted by the Arian archbishop of Milan Auxentius, who expelled him from the city. According to the early sources, he decided to seek shelter on tbe island then called Gallinaria, now Isola d'Albenga, in the Tyrrhenian Sea, where he lived the solitary life of a hermit.

Related Topics:
Worms - Tours - Hilary of Poitiers - Trinitarian - Arianism - Visigoth - Nobility - Poitiers - Alpine - Sulpicius Severus - Devil - Illyria - Archbishop of Milan - Auxentius - Isola d'Albenga - Tyrrhenian Sea - Hermit

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With the return of Hilary to his see in 361, Martin joined him and established a monastery nearby, at the site that developed into the Benedictine Abbey of Ligugé. He travelled and preached through Western Gaul: "The memory of these apostolic journeyings survives to our day in the numerous local legends of which Martin is the hero and which indicate roughly the routes that he followed." (Catholic Encyclopedia).

Related Topics:
See - 361 - Benedictine - Ligugé - Gaul

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In 371 Martin was acclaimed bishop of Tours, where he impressed the city with his demeanor, and by the enthusiasm with which he had temples demolished or burnt, altars smashed and sculpture defaced. It is an indication of the depth of the Druidic folk religion compared to the veneer of Roman culture in the area, that "when in a certain village he had demolished a very ancient temple, and had set about cutting down a pine-tree, which stood close to the temple, the chief priest of that place, and a crowd of other heathens began to oppose him; and these people, though, under the influence of the Lord, they had been quiet while the temple was being overthrown, could not patiently allow the tree to be cut down (Sulpicius, Vita ch. xiii). Sulpicius affirms that he withdrew from the press of attention in the city to live in Marmoutier (Majus Monasterium), the monastery he founded, which faces Tours from the opposite shore of the Loire.

Related Topics:
371 - Bishop of Tours - Druid - Marmoutier - Monastery - Loire

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