How well do you know your Saint?
St Martin of Tours

     I have had the name Martin from an early age! I have never really liked it and as a youngster thought how nice it would be to change it – maybe to Steve or Dave something more up to date. I found by reading through the lectionary during sermons at Coventry, that St Martin’s Day was celebrated on 11th November – the day after my birthday. I asked Mum about this but she said it must be coincidence because she hadn’t chosen the name by reference to any prayer books.
     So when my Chrismation was afoot, there arose the possibility of changing my name. A number of alternatives appealed – Zacchius sounded fun since he was a short man and a bit of a comedy character in my book. Then I thought about Martin again and did a little bit of reading about him – particularly the story about the cloak.

St Martin seen in mosaic above the Sanctuary in the Basilica St Martin in Tours

     Giving just half his cloak to a beggar seemed to ring bells with me – that’s my sort of generosity: to give a bit of something but not leave yourself without! I might manage to emulate this sort of thing – and that is of course part of the point of a Name Saint; to have someone to try to emulate or model oneself on.
     So I stuck with the name Martin after all those years of wanting to change it.
     I was lucky enough to have the opportunity, with Carolyn, to take a pilgrimage to Tours in France where St Martin was Bishop, before attending the enthronement of Metropolitan John. Now I know more about St Martin, his life and times, I realise there was rather more to him than half-hearted generosity. After all, how could I have thought that one can become a saint simply by giving away half a cloak? There had to be more to it than that...

St Martin’s Rebuilt Basilica in Tours

     Born in 316 in Savaria, Martin’s Father was a senior officer in the Roman army and Martin grew up in Ticinum in modern Pavia, Italy. At aged ten, he went to church against his parents wishes and became a catechumen. At this time, Christianity had only just become a legal religion but was still a minor faith, with the cult of Mithras being by far the dominant religion in the army. When aged 15, Martin was required to join the cavalry himself and was stationed in what is now Amiens in France.
     It was while serving as a soldier that he impulsively gave half his cloak to a beggar. That night he received a vision of Christ wearing that cloak which Martin had given away, saying to the angels: “Here is Martin, the Roman soldier who is not baptised; he has clothed me.”
     So Martin was baptised and refused to battle with the Gauls at Worms in 336 saying “I am a soldier of Christ. I cannot fight.” Charged with cowardice, Martin’s response was to volunteer to go to the front of the troops unarmed. It was planned to accept this offer but peace broke out, the battle never happened and Martin was released from military service.

The church at Candes where Martin died

     Martin then became a disciple of Hilary of Poitiers, a chief opponent of Arianism and proponent of Trinitarianism. When Hilary was forced into exile, Martin returned to Italy to lead the life of a hermit on the little island of Gallinaria. When Hilary returned in 361, Martin joined him again and Hilary gave Martin a wilderness retreat. Many people came to see him and enough stayed as disciples that Hilary founded a monastery for them called Legug where Martin lived until Hilary died. It was here that Martin performed one of his first and many miracles. When a catechumen died before baptism, Martin laid himself over the body and after several hours, the man came back to life.

The tomb of St Martin beneath the Altar in the Basilica

     In 371, Martin became the reluctant Bishop of Tours – hiding from the people in a barn full of geese. The geese made such a noise that his hiding place was given away – so he is the Patron Saint of Geese! Martin lived not in a palace, but in a cell attached to a church in the hope of maintaining the lifestyle of a monk, but the role of Bishop meant that people came constantly to Martin with questions and concerns that involved all the affairs of the area.

     To regain some solitude, Martin withdrew outside the city to a cabin made of branches. Here he attracted as many as eighty disciples who wanted to follow him and so he established a monastery at Marmoutier near Poitiers which still survives today and is the longest operating monastery in France – and somewhere to visit on my next trip.
     It is easy to suppose that Martin avoided many of his bishoping responsibilities, but he was said to be very committed to his people. One of these responsibilities was, he felt, to convert those who still held to non-Christian beliefs. He did not attempt to convert these people by preaching from a high pulpit or from far away, but instead he travelled from house to house speaking to people about God. He would then organise the converts into a community under the direction of a priest or monk. He would visit these communities regularly. Of course, he sometimes ran into resistance. On one occasion he tried to convince locals to cut down an old pine tree they venerated. They agreed, but only if Martin would sit directly under the the path of the leaning tree. Martin sat himself down by the tree and the townsfolk began to cut away at the other side. Just as the tree began to fall, Martin made the sign of the cross and immediately the tree fell in the opposite direction – slowly enough to miss the fleeing people. He made many converts that day!

     The wondrous stories of Martin and his miracles are worthy of a book in their own right – indeed his biographer Sulpicius Severus (c363 – 420) wrote lengthy works, begun before Martin’s death. There is too much to repeat in this small space.
     Martin died in Candes and although accounts differ as to the year (between 395 and 402) it was known to be on November 8th. Monks from Tours came and stole his body during the night from the monks in Candes, and he was buried, at his request, in the Cemetery of the Poor in Tours.

The reliquery for the head of St Martin from the late 14th Century – now in the Louvre

     Martin’s successor as Bishop in Tours, Bricius, built a little chapel over Martin’s grave and then when Bishop Perpetuus took office in 461 a grand basilica was built as the chapel was no longer sufficient for the crowds of pilgrims that were already coming. Martin was reburied behind the altar of the basilica, his sarcophagus placed on a large block of marble to make it visible. The basilica itself was 160ft long and 60ft wide and contained 120 columns.
     Destroyed many times by fire, the basilica was rebuilt beginning in 1014 and the shrine became a major stopping point on pilgrimages. The basilica was finally sacked by the Huguenots in 1562, then it was deconsecrated during the French Revolution, used as a stable and then its dressed stones sold and a street built on the site.
     In 1860, excavations established the dimensions of the former basilica and a project for a new basilica took shape in 1871. The present building was consecrated in 1925 and maintains the shrine of St Martin in the same position as the original basilica, containing a small reliquery and all that remains of the relics of St Martin.
     The story of St Martin is everywhere in this part of France – from depictions in stained glass windows, frescoes and carvings to beautiful paintings – and societies throughout the world concerned with charity and justice for the poor and oppressed are dedicated to St Martin.

Martin offers up the Host at the Liturgy

     Aside from miracles, the introduction of the Chenin Blanc grape and the technique of pruning vines is attributed to St Martin – so he is also the Patron of wine growers, wine makers and (curiously) reformed alcoholics. He is also Patron Saint of the Pontifical Swiss Guards, the diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart and Buenos Aires. Martin Luther was named after him as he was baptised on St Martin’s day in 1483.
     As the Advent Fast draws near, it is also interesting to note that from the late 4th century until the late Middle Ages, much of Western Europe – including Great Britain – engaged in a period of fasting beginning on the day after St Martin’s Day. The fast lasted 40 days and was therefore called “Quadragesima Sancti Martini”. At St Martin’s Eve and on the feast day, people ate and drank heartily – the traditional food being, of course, goose. This fasting time became Advent.

     So St Martin is a much more worthy Saint than I had first imagined – and not as straightforward to emulate as I had hoped.

     I have a considerable way to go!

Martin Shorthose

How to make Kolyva

     This is so easy to do and gives us the opportunity to be more involved in the Memorial of a loved one. There are many different recipes, all are correct, for each of the various countries. This is the one Fr. Samuel uses.

     Buy Bulgar Wheat, or a whole wheat, from any supermarket. It is usually on the shelves with things like dried beans, lentils etc. You will also need raisins/sultanas, honey, ground almonds, sesame seeds, icing sugar, parsley and something to decorate the top … cherries, pomegranates or silver balls.

     Follow the instructions to make the wheat usable. This will involve boiling water and steeping the wheat. I usually leave it for an hour then drain off the excess water. I then add the raisins/sultanas, parsley and honey and leave overnight.

     The next morning I put the mixture, after draining again if still too wet, into a glass bowl and press it flat. Leave for a little while for the top to dry then coat with ground almonds. This will give a dry base for the icing sugar so that it does not simply dissolve into the mixture.

     Cover the whole top with icing sugar then decorate with silver balls in the shape of a cross, leaving a space in the centre for the candle. Alternatively the top can be covered with sesame seeds and pomegranates, quartering the appearance of the top to represent a cross.

     I have seen wonderfully decorated bowls of Kolyva in Romania and Cyprus, but my simple abilities cannot emulate those!

     As you work at the Kolyva you pray for the Departed.

     ‘The Divine Liturgy is worship; there is prayer and a whole life there, the life of Christ. In the Holy Eucharist, we accomplish the exchange of our limited and temporal life for the unlimited and infinite life of God. We offer to God a piece of bread and a little wine, but in that bread and wine, we place all our faith, love, humility, expectation of Him, all our life. And we say to God, “Thine own of thine own, we offer unto Thee in all and for all.” We offer to God all our life, having prepared ourselves to come and stand before Him and do this act. And God does the same: He accepts man’s offering and He puts His life – the Holy Spirit – in the gifts, trans-making them into His Body and Blood, in which all the fullness of the Divinity is present, and He says to man, “The Holy things unto the holy.” God accepts our gifts and fills them with His life, and He renders them back to us’.

(Fr Zacharias Zacharou, The Hidden Man of the Heart)