Life of Saint Martin

Contents

Translation in progress.

Reading pages: 0–16 · 17–27

1. 0Sulpicius Severus sends the Life to his friend Desiderius, apologizes for his plain style, and asks that it circulate without his name.
2. 1Unlike pagan biographers who sought lasting fame, Sulpicius writes Martin's life to rouse readers to holiness, and vouches for its truth.
3. 2Martin, son of a pagan officer, becomes a catechumen as a boy, is forced into the army at fifteen, and lives there like a monk.
4. 3At Amiens Martin cuts his cloak in two for a naked beggar; that night Christ appears wearing it, and Martin is baptized.
5. 4Before a battle Martin asks Julian for his discharge as a soldier of Christ, offers to face the enemy unarmed, and the enemy surrenders.
6. 5Martin joins Hilary of Poitiers, is made an exorcist, and on his journey home converts a robber in the Alps.
7. 6Martin repels the devil with a psalm, converts his mother, resists the Arians in Illyricum and Milan, and survives poisoning on Gallinaria.
8. 7Near Poitiers Martin prays over a catechumen who had died unbaptized; the man revives, is baptized, and describes his judgment.
9. 8Martin prays over a slave who had hanged himself, and the man revives and walks out with him.
10. 9Martin is lured from his monastery and acclaimed bishop of Tours; a chance reading of Ps 8 silences the opposing bishop Defensor.
11. 10As bishop Martin keeps his monastic life and founds a monastery near Tours where eighty monks live in common poverty, prayer, and fasting.
12. 11Doubting a local martyr's shrine, Martin prays at the tomb; the ghost of an executed robber reveals itself, and Martin removes the altar.
13. 12Mistaking a pagan funeral for an idolatrous procession, Martin halts the bearers with the sign of the cross, then releases them.
14. 13Bound in the path of a falling sacred pine, Martin makes the sign of the cross and the tree falls the other way; many pagans believe.
15. 14Martin turns back a fire from a neighbouring house and, after three days of fasting, destroys a temple at Leprosum protected by angels.
16. 15Pagans who try to kill Martin are thwarted, and often his preaching leads them to destroy their own temples.
17. 16At Trier Martin prays, blesses oil, and restores a paralysed girl on the point of death.
18. 17Martin casts out two demons at Trier, one from the slave of the pagan Taetradius, who then becomes a Christian.
19. 18A demon confesses to spreading a false invasion rumour; at Paris Martin kisses and heals a leper; threads of his clothing heal the sick.
20. 19A letter of Martin cures Arborius's daughter, Martin heals Paulinus's eye, and an angel heals Martin after a fall.
21. 20At the court of the usurper Maximus Martin alone refuses flattery, passes the emperor's cup to his presbyter, and foretells Maximus's fall.
22. 21Martin sees angels and the devil in every disguise; the devil boasts of killing a man, and Martin sends the brothers to find him.
23. 22Martin resists the devil's disguises and, rebuking his claim that the fallen cannot be pardoned, says he would promise even the devil mercy if he repented.
24. 23The false prophet Anatolius shows a shining robe supposedly given from heaven, but it vanishes as he is being dragged before Martin.
25. 24After noting false prophets and messiahs as signs of the Antichrist, Sulpicius tells how the devil appeared to Martin as a royal Christ and was unmasked.
26. 25Sulpicius describes his visit to Martin, who washed his feet and urged him to follow the example of Paulinus in renouncing wealth.
27. 26Sulpicius says Martin's inner life of unceasing prayer, fasting, and patience is beyond words.
28. 27Sulpicius describes Martin's unchanging serenity, laments his detractors among the bishops, and affirms the truth of his account.