Today, 11 Nov 2011, the Church recalls the life of St Martin of
Tours, soldier, monk and bishop. He lived from around 336 until
397, mostly in Gaul, and was the first person to be declared a
saint who was not a martyr. Mostly he is remembered for chopping
his cloak in half to provide for a beggar, who turned out to be
Jesus, but this was only the beginning of St Martin’s life-long
service to Jesus. The ‘Life of St Martin’ by Sulpicius Severus
contains many wonderful stories about St Martin. To get to
appreciate him better, we will look at three of them. On a
journey through the Alps, St Martin fell into the hands of
robbers. He wasn’t harmed, but he was bound and stripped.
Something in the way St Martin was responding to this ill
treatment caused one of the robbers to get curious about him. A
conversation began between them where Martin revealed that he
was a Christian and that he felt completely safe because he knew
the Mercy of the Lord would be with him especially when he faced
difficulties. Expressing his