St. Martin of Tours.
The Christian Nicene Creed states that one
of the four signs of the Church is its holiness. One of the many ways holiness
is present in the Church is through the holiness of believers. Like St. Paul, we
call them the “saints.” To some of the saints, God gives the power to work
wonderful miracles in order to bring His reality and knowledge of His Son,
Jesus Christ, to many people.
Once Martin was nearly killed from an
attack of outlaws. Never to waste an opportunity, he was able, by God’s grace,
to convert one of them away from his sinful life. Another time he kissed and
healed a leper. Another time he was with a companion and both were desperately
in need of food. Martin told his companion to cast a net in water, and the
fellow immediately pulled in a huge fish for their dinner.
As his popularity grew, he would be
followed by great crowds. One day, upon entering Paris, he encountered a beggar
so far gone with leprosy that the crowd withdrew in horror. But Martin was so
filled with compassion that he stopped, embraced, and blessed the leper. All
signs of the disease vanished instantly, a complete healing. Many were
converted to Christ.
Once when a bishop, Martin happened to be
with two other bishops when a father brought into their presence his
12-year-old daughter. She had been mute from birth. Martin asked the other two
bishops to cure the child, but they refused. So he did. He prayed for God’s
grace, blessed some oil, put some in the girl’s mouth, and held her tongue as
he asked the girl her father’s name. Instantly she spoke the name. It is said
the father wept aloud with joy.
One day Martin was walking and heard loud,
wailing cries. Exploring, he found a house with many there grieving for the
suicide death of a young slave who had hung himself. Martin prayed for the man,
prayed for grace, laid upon the man and then watched life slowly return until the
man looked Martin in the eye and rose to his feet. (The same method he had used
with his first raising.) The people’s sorrow was not only turned into joy but
also into awe at God’s power.
After Martin had been made (against his
will) a bishop, he was in a still pagan area but had a huge crowd gather to see
him because of his reputation for miracles. St. Martin cried out loudly, “How
can so great a crowd of souls not know the Lord our Savior?” Just then, a woman
pressed through the crowd, faced Martin with her dead child in her arms. She
cried to Martin, “You are God’s friend, we know. Give me back my son! He is my
only son!” All the crowd heard it. Martin, not one to walk away from a
challenge to God’s divinity and Christ’s salvation, took the child in his arms.
He knelt down and prayed. The crowd was silent. Waiting. Then Martin rose with
the living child in his arms, and handed him over to his mother. The whole
crowd now proclaimed Jesus Christ was God and all became catechumens to learn
about Christianity.
St. Martin was called, “Raiser of Three Dead.” He once wryly commented that he had raised two people before becoming a bishop, but only one afterwards.
Dibby Allan Green