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St. Martin of Tours: The Soldier Who Became a Saint
Saints come from all walks of life
It’s been almost six months since I wrote a “Three Minutes with the Saints” article, and that’s entirely too long. If you’ve followed my Mayberry Chronicles, you know I’ve spent much of that time in a Baptist church and may assume that I have both abandoned the Catholic Church and embraced the Baptists’ rejection of the saints. Nothing could be further from the truth; I will always be Catholic and the saints will always rock. My only regret is that I didn’t publish this one on the actual feast day of today’s saint. Last Monday was both Veterans Day and the feast day of the patron saint of soldiers. As both a former soldier and occasional hagiographer, there is no way I should have missed this one, but I did. I’m correcting that now with a brief look at St. Martin of Tours.
Martin was born in the Roman province of Pannonia (part of modern-day Hungary) in either 316 or 336, the son of a tribune in the Roman cavalry. When he was ten years old, his father was transferred to Italy, and around the same time Martin attended a Christian church for the first time, something his parents — both of whom were pagans — opposed. When he turned 15, he was required to enter the Roman military; he joined the Cavalry Corps like his father and served in Italy and Gaul, with some of this time…
