St Martin of Tours

Martin was born in Pannonia to pagan parents and enrolled in the Roman cavalry as a boy. At Amiens, as a young soldier and still only a catechumen, he cut his military cloak in two with his sword to clothe a freezing beggar; that night he saw Christ wearing the half-cloak and saying, 'Martin has covered me with this garment.' Baptized, he eventually left the army, telling the emperor, 'I am a soldier of Christ; it is not lawful for me to fight.' He became a disciple of Hilary of Poitiers and founded at Ligugé the first monastery in Gaul. Acclaimed bishop of Tours by the people in 371, he continued to live as a monk at Marmoutier while tirelessly evangelizing the pagan countryside, destroying shrines, healing the sick, and even raising the dead, as his friend Sulpicius Severus records. He is one of the first non-martyrs venerated as a saint.