November 11 2022 - St. Martin of Tours - "Wherever Christ is known, Martin is honored"

 

Most of us are familiar with the famous scene of the St. Martin, the roman soldier, cutting his cloak in two in order to give half his cloak to the cold beggar. Not often depicted is what happened shortly after. That evening, Martin is said to have been visited by the Christ Child, dressed in the cloak Martin had given to the beggar. The Christ Child said, “Martin, still a catechumen, has covered me with his garment.”

This recalls the passage from the Gospels in which the Lord teaches, that which we do for the least we do for him. In clothing the beggar, Martin clothed Christ.

After being released from military service, the soldier, Martin traveled to a city called Caesarodunum, now called Tours, in western France, and there, Martin became the student of a saintly bishop named St. Hilary of Poitiers, whose feast is celebrated on January 20. 

Martin learned from St. Hilary the bishops duty of defending and spreading the Catholic faith. Martin witnessed St. Hilary’s apostolic courage in this matter. For the two men lived at a time when the Arian heresy was spreading rapidly through Europe. Many bishops fell to Arianism, and St. Hilary was exiled from France to Turkey by the emperor for preaching the truth.  Yet, even from exile, Bishop Hilary worked strenuously to bring the heretics back to the truth.  

During Hilary’s exile, Martin returned home to Italy, where he sought to convert his family. He was successful in bringing his mother to Christ, but not his father. After being kicked out of Milan by the Arian Archbishop for seeking to convert the heretics, Martin became a hermit on the Isola d’Albegna, a small island off the coast of northern Italy, where he lived on a diet of herbs and wild roots. 

In 361, St. Hilary returned to France and so did St. Martin, where he established a hermitage, which soon attracted converts and followers to the hermitical way of life. 

After the death of Hilary, in 371, Martin was made bishop of tours. As bishop, Martin set to enthusiastically ordering the destruction of pagan temples, altars and sculptures. He died in 397. A small chapel was built over his grave, and within a hundred years, the chapel of insufficient to house the vast number of pilgrims coming to pray at the grave of St. Martin, and so a basilica was built. By the sixth century, Martin was so venerated by the Church, that the latin poet Venantius Fortunatus wrote, "Wherever Christ is known, Martin is honored."

St. Martin has been honored ever since. And how fitting, that on the feast of St. Martin, the soldier who laid down his arms to devote himself entirely to Christ, on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 major hostilities of the Great War, World War I, came to an end. And that today in our nation, our veterans are remembered and honored.

May St. Martin, the veteran turned monk and then bishop, assist all veterans, and all of us to seek after Christ, to serve Christ by serving the poor, to proclaim Christ as did this faithful and beloved bishop, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the nations of the world will seek to work together in harmony and peace; we pray to the Lord:

That our homeland will be preserved from violence and terrorism; we pray to the Lord

That even in armed conflict, we may keep clearly before us the defense of all human rights, especially the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

For all veterans experiencing physical or psychological, that they may know God’s healing and strength, and that all veterans may be blessed for their self-sacrifice.

For all veterans who gave their life for our liberty, and for the repose of the souls of all of our beloved dead, family, friends, those whose names are written in our parish necrology, deceased priests and religious, for all the souls in purgatory, and for N. for whom this mass is offered.

God, Almighty Father, creator of mankind and author of peace, as we are ever mindful of the cost paid for the liberty we possess, help us to use that liberty to promote peace and justice and spread saving Gospel of Christ. Through the same Christ Our Lord.