Martin of Tours: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Saint Martin of Tours, (died November 11, 397) a native of Pannonia, served in the Roman army and was stationed in Gaul, then became a monk in the region of Poitiers.

Martin worked for the conversion to Christianity of the populace, making many preaching trips through western and central France. In the course of this work he became extremely popular, and in 371 became bishop of Tours; he refused to live in the city and instead founded a monastery for his residence a short distance outside the walls. The monastery, known in Latin as the 'Larger Monastery' or Maius monasterium became known as Marmoutier in later French.

The Legend of the Cloak

While Martin was still a soldier he experienced the vision that became the most-repeated story about his life. He was at the gates of the city of Amiens when he met a beggar. He impulsively cut his own military cloak in half and shared it with the beggar. That night he dreamed that Jesus Christ came to him and returned the half cloak Martin had shared with him - when Martin woke his cloak was restored. The miraculous cloak was preserved as a relic, and entered the relic-collection of the Merovingian kings of the Franks. The Latin word for "short cloak", cappella in Latin, was extended to the people charged with preserving the cloak of St. Martin, the cappellani or "chaplains" and from them was applied to the royal oratory that was not a regular church, a "chapel".

On November 11, Saint Martin's saint's day, children in the Catholic areas of Germany are doing lantern processions, often a man dressed as Saint Martin is riding on a horse in front of the procession. The children are singing songs about Saint Martin and about their lantern.

Many churches in Europe are named after Saint Martinus also known as Saint Martin of Tours.

This is his story: In 316 or 317 Saint Martin (latin: Martinus) was born in Sabaria in Hungary. His father had reached the rank of an important officer in the Roman army. His son was named after the war god Mars. Martin, the brave, the courageous. The family moved to Pavia in Italy. When he was 15, as son of an officer, he had to join the Roman army.

He was sent to France and there the following happened.

On a cold and foggy day Martin and his soldiers rode to the city of Amiens. It was cold and Martin and his soldiers made haste. At the moment Martin rode through the gate, a scarcely dressed beggar stepped forward. While shivering, the man asked for money. Martin halted while the other soldiers went on. Martin dismounted but he had no money on him and he thought by himself about what he could do for such a poor man while he had no money.

He cut his soldier's robe into two pieces. The biggest piece he gave to the beggar, who went away in good spirits for he was clad. That night Martin had a dream. In that dream Jesus came to him, clad only in half a soldier's robe. But that he had given to the poor beggar. Than he heard Jesus say to the angels: "Here is Martin, the Roman soldier who is not baptised, he has clad me." The dream had such an impact on Saint Martin that he was baptised the next day and became a Christian. He decided to leave the army and became a monk near the city of Tours. He did a lot of good work so that he became famous in the area, and later even became bishop of Tours.