Martin, Saint (exorcist)

An Encyclopaedia of Occultism (1920)

(circa 316-400). Most of the pristine luminaries of the Christian Church are credited with working miracles, and indeed the great majority of them maintained that, would the rude populace be won Mascots for Christ, the one sure way was to show them extraordinary marvels. Even Columba, most engaging of saints, was not averse to practising deception with a view to making converts; and it has often been suggested, not without considerable reason, that some of these early thaumaturgists brought science to their aid. Perhaps St. Martin was among those who essayed this practice, and certainly the muster-roll of his miracles is formidable, for he is traditionally credited with considerably over two hundred. Martin was born about the year 316 at Sabaria, in Pannonia. His parents were heathen, yet he very soon came into contact with Christians, and their teaching impressed him greatly. As a young man he entered the army, and it was soon after this step that, while stationed with his regiment at Amiens, he performed his famous act of charity, dividing his cloak with a beggar who was shivering with cold. The night after this generous act he was vouchsafed a vision, Christ appearing to him and giving him his blessing; and thereupon Martin espoused the Christian faith formally, he was baptised and renounced soldiering once and for all. Going to Poitiers, he then made the acquaintance of Hilary, who wished to make him a deacon, but at his own request ordained him to the humbler office of an exorcist; and a little later, during a visit to his home, Martin experienced the joy of winning his mother from heathendom to the new faith. However, his open zeal in opposing the Arians raised persecution against him, and for a considerable space he found it advisable to live at the island of Gallinaria, near Genoa, in which quiet retreat he had ample leisure for scientific researches and theological studies; but by the year 365 he was back with Hilary at Poitiers, when he founded the Monasterium Locociagense. Then, in 371, the people of Tours chose him as their bishop, and for some time subsequently he showed great activity in trying to extirpate idolatry in his diocese, and in extending the monastic system. Nevertheless, he was anything but a fierce proseletyser, and at Trèves, in 385, he entreated that the lives of the Priscillianist heretics should be spared, while he ever afterwards refused to have anything to do with those bishops who had sanctioned their execution. Meanwhile, being anxious for another period of quiet study, Martin had established the monastery of Marmontier les Tours, on the banks of the Loire; and here much of his remaining life was spent, yet it was at Candes that his death occurred about the year 400. Martin left no writings behind him, the Confessio with which he is sometimes credited being undoubtedly spurious. His life was written by his ardent disciple, Sulpicius Severus, and a curious document it is, filled with accounts of the miracles and marvels worked by the quondam bishop. Thanks to his triumphs herein, Martin was duly sanctified by the church, and he is commemorated on the 11th of November; but the feast of Martinmas, which occurs on that date, and which of course derives its name from him, is, nevertheless, a survival of an old pagan festival; and it inherited certain usages thereof, this accounting for the fact that Martin is regarded as the patron saint of deep potations. Certain of his miracles, and other incidents in his life, were figured by numerous painters of note, perhaps the finest picture of him being one by the Flemish master, Hugo van der Goes, which is now in the Municipal Museum at Glasgow; while it behoves to add that the term Martinet, signifying a severe and punctilious person, is not derived from the saint's name, but from one Jean Martinet, a French soldier who, during the reign of Louis XIV ., won fame by his ardour in promoting discipline in his regiment.