St. Martin of Tours, as he became known, was born in Sabaria, the capital fortress town in Pannonia (now Hungary) in the year 316. It was a period when the vast straggling Roman Empire stretched from the tip of northern Britain to Spain, from North Africa to the Middle East, to the southern banks of the Danube and Rhine rivers. The blood-letting of Christians under the despotic emperor of Rome, Diocletian, had ceased five years before Martin’s birth. His father had risen through the ranks of the Roman army to become a military tribune. Both of Martin’s parents were committed pagans, even selecting to name their son after Mars the Roman god.
But what appeared to be the impregnable strength of the Roman Empire was displaying signs of inward decay. Inflation was starting to undermine the economy; with the impending danger from the horde of Vandals massing on the eastern frontiers of the Rhine. Both intimated ominous threats to Roman power and stability.

With the succession of the Emperor Constantine, after his victory over Caesar Maxentius at the Pons Milvius to the north of Rome in October 313, came the toleration of the Christian faith. Under Constantine’s Edict of Toleration in that same year, the church had been granted the privilege of civil status and recognition. With Constantine’s becoming the sole ruler of the empire in 323, there developed a period of relative peace for both state and church. Even the Chi Rho symbol of the early persecuted church, newly displayed on the banners of Constantine’s army, signified the new respectability of Christianity. Meanwhile, in 319, Martin’s parents moved to Pavia, just 20 miles from Milan in northern Italy. After the age of 10, Martin expressed his attraction to the Christian faith, even requesting to become a catechumen.

The ever-increasing presence of barbarian forces massing along the Roman frontiers in the east, prompted the need to build up the strength of the armed forces. At fifteen years of age Martin was forcibly recruited for the Roman army, serving in his father’s corp. He soon found himself promoted to the rank of “circuitor,” equivalent to becoming a Cavalry officer. To all appearances soldiering had become the career of this new recruit. But God had other plans and different battles to be waged.

One frosty winter’s night in the town of Amiens, the youthful officer came across at the gate of the city, an aged beggar, shivering and poorly clad. Taking pity, Martin drew his sword cutting his “capella” into two pieces, giving one piece to the beggar for protection against the cold. This experience proved to be an about-face in Martin’s life. It eventually was to change a soldier of Rome into a soldier of the cross. How? In the face of the beggar, so it is claimed, Martin envisioned the person of Christ wearing that part of the cloak he shared with the poor beggar. The vision even motivated Martin to seek baptism, inducing him to approach the bishop of Amiens with the request to arrange the sacrament of grace. In 334 he was baptized. But tensions swiftly ensued. Failing to reconcile his military service with his growing Christian convictions, Martin sought a discharge from the army. It appears that his exemption from military service was not granted to anyone else for another twenty-two years.

To assimilate more of the apostolic faith, Martin journeyed to Poitiers, where Bishop Hilary had proved himself to be a champion of Nicene orthodoxy. Already in his fortieth year, Martin’s stay with the bishop proved to be decisive in animating and molding both his religious and spiritual convictions. In his fine study of “Martin of Tours,” Christopher Donaldson mentions that it was during his residence in the house of Bishop Hilary that the shared life of fasting, Scripture reading, and meditation with the presbyters and deacons, his wife and daughter, challenged Martin to “serve Christ and his church in new ways, and help direct him from a position of great spiritual authority.”¹

This schooling on the part of Martin proved to be short-lived. Bishop Hilary was soon to experience exile in Phrygia for his faithful convictions. Sulpitius Severus, a younger contemporary and biographer of St. Martin, notes: “From the time of quitting military service, Martin earnestly sought after the society of Hilarius, bishop of the city of Pictava (Poitiers), whose faith in the things of God was then regarded as of high renown, and universal esteem.”² In the interim, Hilary appointed Martin to the diaconate and as an exorcist. After this brief stay in Poitiers, according to Sulpitius Severus, Martin “set forth in accordance with the expressed wish of the holy Hilarius, and, after being adjured by him with many prayers and tears, that he would in due time return.”³ It proved to be fortuitous that at this period of history, Gallic Christianity continued faithful in its adherence to the doctrine of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Being readily equipped with documents of commendation, the soldier of Christ undertook a pilgrimage, via the Alps, to share with his parents his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The journey proved hazardous; inclusive of falling into the hands of thieves, with the added encounters with ruthless Arian bishops and their adherents, readily supported by the emperor Constantius. During this period when the Church was in serious crisis, the faithful were inspired by the “Life of St. Antony,” published in Egypt by the great bishop of Alexandria, St. Athanasius. Such a “Life” was to inspire the soul and imagination of Martin during his stay in Milan. While staying with his parents, Martin happily witnessed the conversion of his mother. His father, however, he could not persuade!

On the bishop’s return in 360, observing Martin’s desire to pursue a religious calling in solitude, Hilary presented his student with a small tract of land nearby Poitiers. There Martin lived a life of meditation with other hermits, thus forming the first monastic community in what is presently called Ligugé, in Gaul. It became apparent that while in Ligugé, people had sought out Martin for care and spiritual nurture. Ten years had passed when there occurred in Tours in 371 the death of Litorius, the bishop of Tours. At the decision of the bishops and congregation of Tours, Martin was elected to become their bishop.

Anointed in 371 as the bishop of Tours, Martin soon won the esteem of his people as from his austere life in cells in Marmoutier, situated on the banks of the River Loire, Martin caringly visited the churches under his pastoral care, travelling on foot, by donkey, or by boat. His episcopate was shortly to encompass Chartres, Paris, and Vienne. It soon proved self-evident that the new bishop appealed to the hearts of the Celtic peoples of Gaul and even Britain, whatever their place in society. They flocked to him to receive from their bishop spiritual and pastoral direction.

As an ex-soldier, Martin guided fellow presbyters to lead a disciplined life, following the instruction of the Apostle Paul, that “No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him” (II Timothy 2:4). Martin also obeyed the Apostolic instruction: “And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (II Timothy 2:2).
Sulpitius Severus relates how Martin’s monastery appealed to many of noble rank, observing that, “We have seen numbers of these afterwards made bishops. For what city or church would there be that would not desire to have its priests from among those in the monastery of Martin?”⁴

As Christ commissioned His apostles to heal and cleanse those suffering from unclean spirits and to proclaim the kingdom of God (Mark 6:7-12; Matthew 10:5-15; Luke 9:1-6), so Martin’s pastorate embraced not only the preaching of the Gospel and administration of Baptism and the Eucharist, but also the practice of exorcism.

Throughout the 26 years of his ministry as bishop of Tours, Martin programmed to visit his people whether in town our country, founding congregations where once pagan temples had stood. The Marmoutier community was no closed community. It became a mission centre renowned for preaching the Word of God, administering the sacraments, changing the lifestyle of converts, at the same time instructing them in the techniques of farming and general education.

Because of his faithfulness, it behoves some comfort for those witnessing for Christ within the consumer-ridden societies of the 21st century, to learn that Martin was sorely aware of satan’s presence, enduring times of severe testing: “As to the devil, Martin held him so visible and ever under the power of his eyes, that whether he kept himself in his proper form, or changed himself in different shapes of spiritual wickedness, he was perceived by Martin under whatever guise he appeared.”⁵

Though fervently orthodox in his beliefs, the Bishop of Tours refused to tolerate the persecution of those with whom he differed. Amply was this illustrated in the Priscillian sect and its followers, who were regarded as teaching heresy. In an effort to avoid bloodshed, Martin even travelled to Treves to plead for the lives of the Spanish Priscillianists, then under threat of death. Though Martin failed in this venture, the words of his beloved Bishop Hiliary of Poitiers had evidently imprinted themselves on his mind: “God will not have a forced homage; what need has he of a profession of faith produced by violence?”⁶

Martin of Tours died on November 11, 397, in his eighty-first year of life. His death occurred during a visit to Candes. Conscious of his approaching death he had prayed: “O Lord, if I am still necessary to thy people, I do not shrink from toil; thy will be done.”⁷ Bishop Martin was buried in Tours in the presence of two thousand people.

What can pastors and people who are members of “The Church of the Augsburg Confession” holding fast to the apostolic, evangelical, confessional and catholic faith, learn from the life and testimony of St. Martin of Tours, that ancient soldier of the cross, for whom our blessed Martin Luther was named?

First, it demands as a priority for Lutheran churches, to become centres of biblical teaching and reflection, with constant emphasis being given to catechesis, sacramental instruction, liturgical worship and practice.

Second, that pastors and people recover a yearning to share their faith with non-believers of every race and clime, within the context of always being a caring community to those plagued by illness, age, hunger, and depression.

Third, that churches, colleges, and communities of the faith nurture education and Christian discipline. It was Philip Melanchthon’s vision to see the monasteries restored to their original intention (Apology of the Augsburg Confession XXVII:269.5) as veritable schools of Christian learning and education.

Bruce Wilmot Adams is Pastor Emeritus of the Lutheran Church of Australia in Glengowrie, South Australia.

Notes
1. Christopher Donaldson, Martin of Tours: Parish Priest, Mystic and Exorcist (London: Routledge, 1980), 43-44.
2. Sulpitius Severus, “Life of Martin,” Works of Sulpitius Severus, A Select Library Of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, vol. 11 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1955), chapter v.6.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid., chapter x.9.
5. Ibid., chapter xxi.14.
6. Cited by Edwin Sprott Towill in The Saints of Scotland (Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press, 1978), 110.
7. Sulpitius Severus, letter iii.22.