St Martin of Tours

Martin’s mom and dad did not believe in God, so Martin did not learn about God growing up. When he was only 10 years old, he went to the Christian church in his community and asked to be taught about the faith. In quiet times of prayer, he grew to love God more and more. Because Martin's father was a soldier, he also had to become a Roman soldier when he was 15 years old. His job was to protect the emperor and he went to France to do his job. Even though Martin had to be a soldier, he still spent as much time as he could praying. All that Martin wanted to do was to be a monk and spend all of his time with God but, because he couldn’t, he did whatever he could to live like a monk. He would serve anybody that he met, even his own servants. Then on a very cold winter day, when Martin was riding his horse through the city gates, he passed by a beggar whose clothes were so worn out that they could not keep him warm. Martin saw that the man was very cold and needed something to keep him warm, so he took off his cloak, used his sword to cut it in half, and gave the man half of his warm cloak. That same night Martin had a dream that Jesus appeared to him wearing the half of the cloak Martin had given the beggar. Jesus said to the angels and saints that Martin had given him the cloak and he wasn’t even baptized yet. When Martin woke up, he went straight to find a priest to baptize him. He was 18 years old. Martin was released from the army because he did not want to fight but, when he returned home, he was not accepted there either. He left and became a hermit. Martin soon started a monastery where people came to get closer to Jesus. The people of Tours then chose Martin to be their Bishop. He continued to live the very simple life of a monk and to serve everyone he could. He made sure that as many people as possible learned about Jesus and had a chance to give their life to Jesus. He built many churches and helped people turn away from worshiping idols. He performed many miracles and worked hard to serve his people.