Martin was born around 330 of pagan parents. His father was a soldier, who enlisted Martin in 
the army at the age of fifteen. One winter day he saw an ill-clad beggar at the gate of the city of 
Amiens. Martin had no money to give, but he cut his cloak in half and gave half to the beggar. 
(Paintings of the scene, such as that by El Greco, show Martin, even without the cloak, more 
warmly clad than the beggar, which rather misses the point.) In a dream that night, Martin saw 
Christ wearing the half-cloak. He had for some time considered becoming a Christian, and this 
ended his wavering. He was promptly baptized. At the end of his next military campaign, he 
asked to be released from the army, saying: "Hitherto I have faithfully served Caesar. Let me 
now serve Christ." He was accused of cowardice, and offered to stand unarmed between the 
contending armies. He was imprisoned, but released when peace was signed. 

He became a disciple of Hilary of Poitiers, a chief opponent in the West of the Arians, who 
denied the full deity of Christ, and who had the favor of the emperor Constantius. Returning to 
his parents' home in Illyricum (Yugoslavia, approximately), he opposed the Arians with such 
effectiveness that he was publicly scourged and exiled. He was subsequently driven from Milan, 
and eventually returned to Gaul. There he founded the first monastary in Gaul, which lasted until 
the French Revolution. 

In 371 he was elected bishop of Tours. His was a mainly pagan diocese, but his instruction and 
personal manner of life prevailed. In one instance, the pagan priests agreed to fell their idol, a 
large fir tree, if Martin would stand directly in the path of its fall. He did so, and it missed him 
very narrowly. When an officer of the Imperial Guard arrived with a batch of prisoners who 
were to be tortured and executed the next day, Martin intervened and secured their release. 

In the year 384, the heretic (Gnostic) Priscillian and six companions had been condemned to 
death by the emperor Maximus. The bishops who had found them guilty in the ecclesiastical 
court pressed for their execution. Martin contended that the secular power had no authority to 
punish heresy, and that the excommunication by the bishops was an adequate sentence. In this 
he was upheld by Ambrose, Bishop of Milan. He refused to leave Treves until the emperor 
promised to reprieve them. No sooner was his back turned than the bishops persuaded the 
emperor to break his promise; Priscillian and his followers were executed. This was the first 
time that heresy was punished by death. 

Martin was furious, and excommunicated the bishops responsible. But afterwards, he took them 
back into communion in exchange for a pardon from Maximus for certain men condemned to 
death, and for the emperor's promise to end the persecution of the remaining Priscillianists. He
never felt easy in his mind about this concession, and thereafter avoided assmblies of bishops 
where he might encounter some of those concerned in this affair. He died on or about 11 
November 397 (my sources differ) and his shrine at Tours became a sanctuary for those 
seeking justice. 

The Feast of Martin, a soldier who fought bravely and faithfully in the service of an earthly 
sovereign, and then elisted in the service of Christ, is also the day of the Armistice which 
marked the end of the First World War. On it we remember those who have risked or lost their 
lives in what they perceived as the pursuit of justice and peace. 

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