St Martin of Tours Feast Day (November 11th). One of the great Saints.

No other belief system or 'faith' can point to proven miracles, intercessions and supernatural occurrences which permeates Catholicism.  An example is St Martin of Tours, the great Christian miracle worker and prophet who converted huge tracts of Gaul in the 4th century.  This great Saint's feast day is November 11. 

The Abbey at Tours, dedicated to St. Martin, became of the most important points of pilgrimmage in the middle ages, famed for its miracles and cures, become extraordinarily wealthy which attracted the Musulman Jihad and its attempts to capture and plunder the wealth, defeated by Charles Martel in 732 near Tours.

Saint Martin was conscripted against his will into the Roman army at age 15 (under an edict that the sons of Roman soldiers also had to serve). He took the oath seriously and served as an officer in a unit whose duties were largely ceremonial, but several years later, after his baptism, Martin concluded on the eve of battle that he could not take part in the bloodshed, telling Caesar Julian (“the Apostate”): “I am a soldier of Christ. It is not lawful for me to fight.”

St. Martin is certainly best known for having cut in two pieces his lambswool-lined cavalryman’s cloak to give half to a nearly naked beggar outside the gates of Amiens where Martin was stationed. He would probably have given the man his whole cloak but for the fact that Martin, too, was nearly naked, having already given away much of his own clothing to those in need.

From his friend, disciple and biographer, Sulpicius Severus, we know a great many details of Martin’s life (316 – 397) – his birth in what is now Hungary, his pagan parents, his childhood in Pavia, Italy (where his soldier, later tribune, father was stationed), his desire from at least the age of ten to become a Christian, his founding of the oldest monastery in Europe, his unparalleled humility and charity, his conversion of thousands of pagans, and astonishing miracles which earned him the reputation of being a saint even during his life. These details can be found on many websites.

Less well known, perhaps, are some of the more spectacular miracles that God worked through the intercession of Saint Martin of Tours – raising three people from the dead, for example. Also remarkable was Martin’s success in bringing about the reconciliation of feuding groups, both bishops and monks.

First, to the miracles. According to Sulpicius’ account (portions of which are included in translation in “Medieval Saints: A Reader,” edited by Mary-Ann Stouck [1999]), not long after St. Martin established a monastery in Ligugé (five miles south of Poitiers), a catechumen joined the monks in Ligugé for instruction in the faith. While St. Martin was away traveling for three days, the unbaptised catechumen came down with a high fever and died. His body lay lifeless in one of the cells, awaiting burial. Martin, Sulpicius reports,

stretched himself at full length on the dead limbs of his departed brother. After he had stayed lying there some time in prayer and had become aware through the Spirit that the power of God was present, he rose up for a short time, and fixing his gaze on the dead man’s face he waited with confidence for the result of his prayer and the mercy of the Lord. And after scarcely two hours had passed he saw the dead man begin to move all his limbs little by little, and his eyes trembling and blinking as he recovered his sight.

The other monks were naturally astounded, perhaps even more so when the catechumen (who’d been baptized immediately after his return to life) recounted what had occurred after his death:

when he left the body, he was brought before the tribunal of the Judge [God], and had a dismal sentenced pronounced on him which relegated him to the dark places among the crowd of common men. Then, however, he added, it was suggested by two angels of the Judge that he was the man for whom Martin was praying; and so the same angels were ordered to lead him back and to give him to Martin, and restore him to his former life.

The second restoration of a deceased person to life occurred not long afterward. When Martin was passing by the estate of a wealthy and highly respected man named Lupicinus, he heard a crowd shouting and wailing. It turned out that one of the family’s slaves had hanged himself. Again, Martin asked the crowd to wait outside,

stretched himself upon the body and prayed for a short time. Before long the dead man began to revive, his face grew animated and his drooping eyes were fixed on Martin’s face; he made a slow effort to rise, and then he took hold of the saintly man’s hand and stood up. In this way, while the whole crowd looked on, he walked along with Martin to the porch of the house.

The third miracle of bringing a dead person back to life was even more stupendous. A huge throng of pagans approached St. Martin, now a bishop, on the road when he was traveling one day. The crowd was surrounding a woman whose child lay dead in her arms. They had heard of Martin’s miracles and were determined to accompany her in search.  The child was resurrected and hundreds if not thousands more converted.

To the end of his life, he sought reconciliation and brotherhood among Catholics during a period of doctrinal confusion and heresy. serving God in joy is a fitting summation of Saint Martin’s life. After his death, his successor BIshop Gregory of Tours filled four volumes with accounts of Martin’s posthumous miracles.

Saint Martin and the raising of the dead