Saint Martin

“ With a thousand wily arts did the treacherous devil
strive in some way to deceive the holy man,
and he showed himself visible in divers phantasms
to the saint, in the appearance of the gods of the heathen;
sometimes in Jove's form, who is called Thor,
sometimes in Mercury's who is called Odin,
sometimes in that of Venus, the foul goddess,
whom men call Fricg; and into many other shapes
the devil transformed himself in the bishop's sight.
Against this Martin always marked himself
with the sign of the cross, and sang his office,
remaining undismayed, and ever trusting in God. ”

“ Martin raised his hand to his brow, for a faintness was coming over him. "God help me to be so careful in my daily conduct, to keep my lips and my life so pure, that my wife must own, however unwillingly, that in trying to be a better Christian, I am also a better husband, father, and friend. When she taunts me with being a saint, may I have grace to become one indeed, that, at least, she may never think me a hypocrite, saying one thing and doing another." ”

“ XXXIII. The holy man was once travelling with his company,
when there came to him suddenly a great crowd of men,
and filled the field through which Martin was passing
as if for wonder at the holy man;
they were all heathen, and no man of the town
to which they belonged knew the Saviour.
Then Martin perceived that he ought to work a miracle,
and preached the Lord's word to the foolish heathen,
and with frequent sighings sorely bemoaned
that so great a multitude should not know the Almighty God. ”

“ XXVIII. Martin came once at the time of midwinter
to a priest's house, and so they made his bed
in the monastery parlour, and a great fire was there lighted.
Then the priests desired to bed him worthily,
and bare much straw for his bedding,
and took no heed of the fire which was on the floor.
Afterward when the holy man came, then he threw all the straw
out of the bedding, because he oftenest lay
upon a hair-cloth on the bare floor. ”

“ So Martin's coming was made known to the priests
through the devil's roaring, though they knew it not before.
As often as he desired to cast out devils from the insane,
he prostrated himself on the church-floor,
clothed with hair-cloth and bestrewed with ashes,
lying in his prayers with locked doors,
and the devils afterward were immediately driven
from the afflicted men with wonderful gesticulations;
that the saying might be fulfilled in Martin,
that holy men shall judge angels. ”

“ He was soon perfectly at ease, and complimented Madame Martin on the elegance of her travelling attire.
"Excuse me, ladies," he added, "I was afraid I should be late. I went to six o'clock mass at Saint Severin, my parish, in the Virgin Chapel, under those pretty, but absurd columns that point toward heaven though frail as reeds-like us, poor sinners that we are."
"Ah," said Madame Martin, "you are pious to-day." ”

“ One night, a night like this in the woods where holiness dwelt, something stirred within him—a voice clear, beautiful, said wonderful things which gave his soul wings.”
“Yes! that happens sometimes, a voice from within,” said Martin.
“He left the band, made his way to the church and begged to be taken in. He was rarely gifted; the monks saw in him the white fervor of the saint. The Lord had changed the murderous rage of the robber into the divine madness of the fanatic. He went to Einsiedeln and there, it was said, heard the voice of God, who commanded him to become a monk. ”

“ Then the holy man was not ruffled by his words,
but bade him wait for him there outside some while,
desiring that he should not know that he was naked;
then he clothed himself with the same garment,
and went to church and at once said mass.
At the very same mass three of the monks,
and one of the priests, and one of the nuns saw
above Martin's head as it were a burning globe,
so that the flame drew the hair far up,
and no more men might see this miracle. ”

“ You will remember how Our Lord specially promised that His faithful followers, in the years to come, should do miracles like He had done, and even greater ones. Well, St. Martin was one of the men who showed that Our Lord's promise was fulfilled. All the men to whom the Church has given the title "Saint" have done wonderful miracles, that God's name might be glorified and people see that "with God all things are possible." ”

“ Then Martin went to the aforesaid idol,
and with the succour of the angels, while men were looking on,
utterly destroyed the temple and the altar to dust,
and all the images of their venerated gods.
Then the heathen could not resist Martin,
but were greatly terrified by the divine might,
and believed in God, crying with faith
that that God was to be worshipped Whom the holy man preached,
and their gods were to be forsaken who could not profit them.
XIII. Once, on a certain occasion, even as the story telleth us,
the holy bishop was overthrowing a vast idol ”

“ He prevented that battle, that Martin's eyes
might in no way be stained by other men's death.
What other victory could our Lord
have given for His champion's sake better than that,
that no man should die, but that they should come to peace?
IV. Then Martin quitted, as he had long ago intended,
worldly warfare and went to the holy man
Hilary, the bishop, in the town
which is called Poitiers, because he was experienced
in God's faith and in good doctrine,
and abode thereafter with the man some while. ”

“ Then cried out the heathen with extreme astonishment,
and the monks wept for the wonderful joy;
and they all called upon the name of Christ with praise,
and all the people inclined to the faith.
So greatly were they converted by that miracle,
that through all that land they reared with faith
churches and monasteries; and Martin always,
wheresoever he overthrew idolatry, built churches.
XI. At one time also the holy man overthrew an idol,
and straightway he set fire to the devil's temple
so that it fell crackling with broad flame. ”

“ That constant pacing to and fro, that never-ending restlessness, that incessant tread of feet wearing the rough stones smooth and glossy—is it not a wonder how the dwellers in narrows ways can bear to hear it! Think of a sick man in such a place as Saint Martin’s Court, listening to the footsteps, and in the midst of pain and weariness obliged, despite himself (as though it were a task he must perform) ”

“ So Martin ordered them to bring the man to him,
but no man durst go to the possessed one,
because he wondrously foamed at the mouth,
and attempted to tear every one who went in to him.
Then Tetradius himself came and sought the saint,
praying him humbly that he would go to the poor man.
Then said the holy man that he would not go to his house,
as he was a heathen man, and of evil life.
Then the heathen noble promised the holy man
that he would be a Christian if the boy became whole. ”

“ They were astonished at his words and deeds,
and learned after a while that the venerable Martin
had departed on that day on which Ambrose said
that he had been at the holy man's laying out.
Behold! blessed is the man for whom at his departing
the company of the saints sang on high,
and the host of angels rejoiced, and all the heavenly citizens
came to meet him, and the foul devil
in his presumption was by the Lord confounded. ”

“ Then said the holy man;
'I command thee in God's name, that thou turn back.'
And the evil worm instantly, according to his word,
returned to the other bank, and they all wondered thereat;
and then Martin said with great sadness;
'Adders hear me, but men will not hear me.'
XLIX. On Easter-days he would eat fish if he had it.
Then, on a certain Easter-day, he asked the steward
whether he had fish for the festival;
and he said in answer that they all could not,
neither the fishermen nor himself, catch even one sprat.
Then said the holy man ”

“ Martin is seen in the distance advancing towards them at a miraculously quick pace, and as he comes nearer the storm-cloud is just seen passing away, while the sun breaks forth again. The cry of “The sorcerer!” is raised, but Buffalo cries out, “He is no sorcerer, but a holy man,” and, breathless, they all watch the saint.
Here the author again draws on Sulpicius Severus for a signal miracle—nothing short of a raising from the dead. St. Martin commands the dead Hermanric to arise and live; the youth starts up and clings to the saint’s mantle, while the bystanders are dumb with fear and awe. ”

“ He finally became a priest and held a small benefice at Thuir, but he never lost sight of the chapel of St. Martin—a saint to whom he had special devotion—and he would have become a hermit here had it not been for the opposition of his superiors. On the 12th of January, 1637, during a visit at his brother’s in Camelas, while saying the rosary in the evening, he felt suddenly inspired to take immediate measures for the restoration of the chapel. But there were many obstacles. He was himself very poor, as he tells us, and the people around were equally so. ”

“ Then sprang up over all the world the Arian heresy,
and Martin with faith strongly contended against it
until he was tortured with cruel torments,
and openly scourged and driven out of the city.
Then he went back again to the Italian land,
and reared for himself a monastery in Milan,
because the aforesaid Hilary was gone into exile
by reason of the same heresy which then erroneously sprang up;
but the heretics soon drave him thence,
and so he departed thence to an island
called Gallinaria, with a holy mass-priest
who had lived long in the desert on roots of vegetables. ”

“ When he was ten winters old, he was anointed with chrism (as a catechumen)
against the will of his parents, and in wondrous measure
he was at once wholly turned to God's service;
and when he was twelve winters he desired (to retire) to the desert,
and he would likewise have accomplished it, if he had been old enough. ”

“ XXVI. On one occasion came the devil with horrible roaring
to the holy man, having an ox-horn in his hand,
and said to Martin, ' Where is now thy might?
I have now slain a man of thy household.'
And his right hand was as if blood-stained.
Then Martin called his monks to him,
and told what the devil had revealed to him,
and bade seek diligently who was there slain.
There was a servant gone at that time to the wood,
who lay wounded by the way half alive ”

“ How will it be with us sinful ones, since the guileful devil
thought to hurt so illustrious a priest?'
Then the archdeacon sent forthwith to Tours,
to Martin's episcopal see, and bade enquire concerning him;
then it was truly told him that he had given up his soul
at the same hour in which they had heard the song.
LIV. On the very same day Ambrose the bishop,
in the city of Milan, when he was standing at mass,
fell asleep, even as God willed,
and no man durst readily awake him ”

“ Martin dividing his cloak with the beggar second only, in Mediæval art, to the Gospel records of the Lord’s own acts of tender grace and Divine self-emptying. As we trace, step by step, the unceasing service of Henry Martyn to men for love of his Master, we shall find a succession of modern parallels to the act of St. Martin, who, when a lad of eighteen with his regiment at Amiens, himself moneyless, answered the appeal of a beggar, shivering at the city gates in a cruel winter, by drawing his dagger, dividing his military cloak, and giving half of it to the naked man. ”

“ Then Martin said to him that he could not go
so soon to church before the poor man was clothed,
and the archdeacon did not perceive that he within his chasuble
there sat naked; and said that he did not know
where the poor man was. And thereupon Martin said,
'Let the garment be brought quickly hither to me;
it will be no trouble to us to clothe a poor man.'
Then the archdeacon being angry went
and brought a garment impatiently to him,
mean and little, bought with little cost,
and with great ire laid it at his feet and said ”

“ Then spake the holy man to his companions thus;
'These birds have a likeness to fiends
who ever lay snares about the unwary,
and greedily take them, and destroy them when taken,
and are not filled with the prey that they take.'
Then Martin bade the greedy divers
desist from fishing and journey to the wilderness ”

“ It might seem a small thing that heavenly might
should serve the holy man invisibly,
unless human eyes should also perceive
that heavenly might did service to the holy Martin.
XL VII. A certain woman was grievously afflicted with an issue
of blood ”

“ The Saint goes still further, and declares in a letter to Desiderus, that "a man thought himself only half a Christian until he had worshipped his Lord upon the soil which His divine feet had trod." Still, numberless as were the pilgrims who undertook annually the painful and oftentimes dangerous expedition to the Holy Land, there were nevertheless many thousands who sighed devoutly for the privileges which their circumstances did not allow them to enjoy. ”

“ Likewise many sick men were often healed
by the borders of his garment which many men pulled off,
and bound on the sick, and they were instantly better.
In like manner men bound some of his bedstraw on a lunatic,
when the devil went from him and he received his reason.
XIX. There was a certain great noble called Arborius in that land,
a man of great faith, and his daughter lay in a fever,
sorely afflicted. Then one day they brought
a message in a letter to the same noble
from bishop Martin, and he laid it on her breast
where she was hottest, and she immediately becarae whole. ”