cloak to a beggar, who the next night revealed himself in a dream as Christ. Martin was
baptized soon after this episode, and at some time after 339 he won release from the
Roman army at Worms. He then returned to Italy to see his parents and while there ran
into difficulties with the Arians, eventually finding respite as a hermit on the island of
Gallinara (now Isola d’Albenga) in the Tyrrhenian Sea. After Hilary of Poitiers returned
from exile, Martin joined him (ca. 360) in Poitiers and then founded at Marmoutier the
first monastery in Gaul. Acclaimed bishop of Tours by the populace, but against his will,
he was consecrated July 4, 372.
Although bishop, Martin lived as a monk, establishing a small hermitage outside of
Tours at Ligugé. Considered the founder of monasticism in France, he was known for
working miraculous cures and for at least two miracles in which he resuscitated the dead.
Martin was also involved in many political and ecclesiastic struggles during his lifetime.
He died at Candes, most probably in 397, although some have argued for the year 400. At
his death, his body was claimed by the citizens of both Poitiers and Tours, with the relics
finally coming to rest in Tours. His cult was popular throughout the Middle Ages, and the
small chapel built over his tomb was rebuilt and enlarged a number of times. Martin’s
vita was written by his friend Sulpicius Severus. An account of his miracles was
composed by Gregory of Tours.
Paula L.Gerson
[See also: GREGORY OF TOURS; HAGIOGRAPHY; MONASTICISM;
PILGRIMAGE; RELICS AND RELIQUARIES; SAINTS, CULT OF; SAINTS’ LIVES;
TOURS-TOURAINE]
Sulpicius Severus. Vita sancti Martini. PL 20.159–222.
——. Vie de saint Martin, ed. Jacques Fontaine. 3 vols. Paris: Cerf, 1967–69.
——. Life of Saint Martin. In Writings of Sulpicius Severus, trans. Bernard Peebles. In Fathers of
the Church, Vol. 7. New York: Fathers of the Church, 1949.
Gregory of Tours. De virtutibus beati Martini episcopi. In Miracula et opera minora, ed. B.Krusch
(MGH, Scriptorum rerum merovingicarum I, 2, 584–661). Hanover, 1885; repr. 1965.
Donaldson, Christopher William. Martin of Tours: Parish Priest, Mystic and Exorcist. London:
Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1980.
Farmer, Sharon A. Communities of Saint Martin: Legend and Ritual in Medieval Tours. Ithaca:
Cornell University Press, 1991.
MARY, DEVOTION TO
. Over the course of the medieval period, devotion to the mother of Jesus became a focus
of Christian belief and practice, affecting liturgy, theology, art, and personal piety.
Although Mary is mentioned infrequently in the canonical Gospels, with the exception of
the birth-infancy narratives, Christian tradition soon developed a special place for her in
literature, devotion, and thought. The apocryphal 2nd-century Greek Protoevangelium of
James supplies Mary with a biography that makes her a dedicated virgin in the Jerusalem
Temple, fed by angels, assigned the sacred task of weaving cloth for the Temple, and, at
the end of her service, at age twelve, betrothed to a pious elderly man, Joseph. This same
source provides a vita of Mary’s parents, who are given the names Anna and Joachim.
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