St Martin of Tours was born AD 336 in Savaria, in the Diocese of Pannonia (now Szombathely in Hungary). His father was a senior officer in the Roman military. At the age of 10, he attended the Christian church against the wishes of his parents and became a catechumen. Christianity had been a legal religion in the Roman Empire since 313, but was far from accepted among the higher echelons of society, including the military. 

As the son of a veteran officer, he was required to sign up for military service at the age of 15, and joined the elite cavalry, where he was stationed at Samarobriva (now Amiens, France). In the early 360s, he left military service, declaring "I am the soldier of Christ: it is not lawful for me to fight." He was charged with cowardice and jailed, but in response to the charge, he volunteered to go unarmed to the front. His superiors planned to take him up on the offer, but before they could, their enemies made peace, the battle was over, and Martin was released from military service.

Martin then declared his Christian vocation, made his way to the city of Caesarodunum (now Tours), and became a disciple of St Hilary of Poitiers, who was actively promoting Christian orthodoxy against the powerful but heretical Arianism favoured at the Imperial Court. In 371, Martin was consecrated the third bishop of Tours, although according to legend, he was so unwilling to be made bishop that he hid in a barn full of geese, but their cackling at his intrusion gave him away to the crowd!

One of his greatest achievements as bishop was the establishment of a basic but functional parish system throughout his  diocese. Once a year he visited each parish, travelling on foot, or by donkey or boat. He also established monasteries, and his influence extended to such distant cities as Chartres, Paris, Autun, and Vienne.

Martin died in Candes-Saint-Martin ibetween Tours and Angers in 397, and local citizens quarrelled with residents of Tours as to where he should be buried. One evening after dark, several residents of Tours secretly carried his body to a waiting boat on the river Loire, where teams of rowers ferried him back to Tours and onto a small grove just west of the city, where he was buried and his shrine established – and this, in time, became a regular stop for pilgrims on the road to Santiago de Compostela.

Martin is the patron saint of soldiers, beggars, wool-weavers, tailors, winemakers, innkeepers, horses, geese, and France. Why weavers and tailors? Legend goes that one day as he approached the gates of the city of Amiens, he met a scantily clad beggar. He impulsively cut his cloak in half to share with the man. That night, he dreamed of Jesus wearing the half of the cloak he had given away. The other half, which he kept, became a famous relic preserved at Marmoutier Abbey near to Tours.

Interestingly, the priest who cared for the cloak in its reliquary was called a cappellanu, and ultimately all priests who served the military were called cappellani, from where our English word, ‘chaplain’ is derived. A similar linguistic development took place for the term referring to the small temporary church built for the relic. People called it a capella, the word for a little cloak, from where our word, ‘chapel’ comes.

Picture above: Detail taken from Cretan icon of Saint Martin sharing his cloak. This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer.