MARTIN, ST. (c. 316-400), bishop of Tours, was born of heathen parents at Sabaria (Stein am Agger) in Pannonia, about the year 316. When ten years old he became a catechumen, and at 15 he reluctantly entered the army. While stationed at Amiens he divided his cloak with a beggar, and on the following night had the vision of Christ making known to his angels this act of charity to Himself on the part of "Martinus, still a catechumen." Soon afterwards he received baptism, and two years later, having left the army, he joined Hilary of Poitiers, who wished to make him a deacon, but at his own request ordained him to the humbler office of an exorcist. On a visit home he converted his mother, but his zeal against the Arians roused persecution against him, and for some time he lived an ascetic life on the desert island of Gallinaria near Genoa. Between 36o and 37o he was again with Hilary at Poitiers, and founded in the neighbourhood the monas terium locociagense (Licuge). In 3 72 the people of Tours chose him for their bishop. He did much to extirpate idolatry from his diocese and from France, and to extend the monastic system. To obtain privacy for the maintenance of his personal religion, he established the monastery of Marmoutier-les-Tours (Martini monasterium) on the banks of the Loire.
At Treves, in 385, he entreated that the lives of the Priscillianist heretics should be spared, and he ever afterwards refused to hold ecclesiastical fellowship with those bishops who had sanctioned their execution. He died at Candes in the year 400, and is com memorated by the Roman Church on Nov. 11. He is the patron saint of France and of the cities of Mainz and Wiirzburg. The Life by his disciple Sulpicius Severus is practically the only source for his biography, but it is full of legendary matter and chrono logical errors. Gregory of Tours gives a list of 206 miracles wrought by him after his death; Sidonius Apollinaris composed a metrical biography of him. The Feast of St. Martin (Martin mas) took the place of an old pagan festival, and inherited some of its usages (such as the Martinsmiinnchen, Martinsfeuer, Mar tinshorn and the like, in various parts of Germany) ; by this cir cumstance is probably to be explained the fact that Martin is re garded as the patron of drinking and jovial meetings, as well as of reformed drunkards.
See A. Dupuy, Geschichte des heiligen Martins (Schaffhausen, 1855) J. G. Cazenove in Diet. chr. biog. iii. 838 ; C. A. Bernoulli, Die heiligen der Merowinger (1900) ; C. H. von Rhin, Martin von Tours (1912).