Via Sancti Martin

St Martin was born in 316 or 336 in Savaria, Pannonia, in what is now Szombathely. The son of a military tribune, he himself became a soldier at the age of fifteen. He distinguished himself among the soldiers of the Roman Empire by his kindness and compassion for the sick and the poor. At the age of eighteen, he was baptised in Amiens, the town where he gave half his cloak to a beggar who was suffering. In a dream Jesus told him that he was the beggar he had done good to. The vision made him a Christian, and he left the military and went on a conversion journey.

 
In Worms he left the army to devote himself to his apostolic mission. He went to Poitiers and became a disciple of St Hilary, who ordained him a priest. On his return to Savaria, he also baptised his mother. Later, in Poitiers, France, he founded the Ligugé monastery on the banks of the Clain. Surrounded by disciples, his fame spread throughout Gaul. On 4 July 371, the Christian community of Tours elected him bishop. He tried to hide from the office in a henhouse, but the geese betrayed him by gagging. Hence the symbol of the goose. His humanity, goodness and excellent oratory skills made Bishop Martin very popular. He died in Candes, on the outskirts of his diocese, in 397. To escape from the Poitiers people, who were after his body, he was transported by night on an ark to Tours. His tomb soon became a famous pilgrimage site. Martin became the patron saint of the Frankish kings and of Gaul, and his veneration spread throughout the Christian world. Thousands of towns and churches in Europe bear his name.