Saint Martin November 11

Saint Martin de Tours, aussi nommé Martin le Miséricordieux, ou encore saint Martin des Champs (qui a donné lieu à l’appellation de différents édifices religieux), né dans l’Empire romain, plus précisément à Savaria, dans la province romaine de Pannonie (actuelle Hongrie), en 316, et mort à Candes, en Gaul, THE November 8, 397.

Posted in Gaul, in Amiens, one evening in the winter of 334, the legionary Martin shared his coat (chlamys; military coat made of a rectangular piece of wool) with a disinherited man frozen with cold, because he already had no pay left. after having generously distributed his money. He cut off his coat or at least the lining of his pelisse: the coat belonged to the army, but each soldier could line it inside with fabric or fur, at his own expense.

The following night Christ appeared to him in a dream dressed in this same coat part. He was then 18 years old. The rest of his coat, called "cape" was later placed, for the veneration of the faithful, in a room whose name is the origin of the word chapel.

This is also the time when the great Germanic invasions are being prepared; the Barbarians are at the gates of the empire; for a long time now the auxiliary militias of the legions have been composed of mercenaries of original Germanic. In March 354, Martin took part in the campaign on the Rhine against the Alemanni; his religious beliefs forbid him from shedding blood and he refuses to fight. To prove that he is not a coward and that he believes in providence and divine protection, he offers to serve as a human shield. He is chained and exposed to the enemy but, for some unexplained reason, the barbarians sue for peace.

Martin became a major evangelist of Roman Gaul. He founded the prestigious Marmoutier Abbey after being appointed Bishop. But, at the residence made available to him by the city – whose diocese he directed for more than 25 years – it was in his cell dug into the cliff of Marmoutier that he preferred to find himself, although his monastery was the one of the most powerful in the West.

Il crée les premières églises rurales, rencontre les pauvres et les puissants. A sa mort, Tours devint la troisième ville de pèlerinage après Rome et Jérusalem.