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.

The shrine

The veneration of Martin was hugely popular in the Middle Ages. His body was taken to Tours and the simple shrine erected over his sarcophagus was increased to a great basilica, as the shrine of St. Martin of Tours became a major stopping-point on pilgrimages; the later bishop, Gregory of Tours, made it his business to write and see distributed an influential Life filled with miraculous events of the saint's career. The basilica was sacked by Huguenots during the Wars of Religion, in 1562, then utterly demolished during the French Revolution, when two streets were opened on the site, to ensure it would not be rebuilt. In 1860, excavations established its former site and recovered some fragments of architecture.

Related Topics:
Middle Ages - Sarcophagus - Basilica - Gregory of Tours - Huguenot - Wars of Religion - 1562 - French Revolution - 1860

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St. Martin is also the patron saint of Szombathely, with a church dedicated to him.

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