Saint Martin of Tours was Bishop of Tours, France. He is one of the popular Catholic saints across Europe because of his birthplace in what is now part of Hungary, his childhood years spent in Pavia, Italy, and much of his adult years lived in France. His father forced him to become a Roman soldier just like himself, and prevented him from practicing Christianity. One of the best-known events of Saint Martin while he was in the Roman army was his charity for a beggar. Based on an account of his life by Sulpicius Severus, he used his sword to cut his military cloak in two, giving the other half to a beggar who was in rags in the cold of the winter. This charitable act in his life is famously depicted in paintings and sculptures.
Saint Martin believed that his growing Christian faith was contrary to his life as a soldier. This led him to denounce and leave the army and pursued baptism in the Catholic Church. For a while, he lived as a hermit. Later on, he founded a monastery in Ligugé, which still stands today. In the year 372, he was elected Bishop of Tours, although he was reluctant of holding such a high position. There, he founded and lived in a community where he served the rural poor by caring for the sick and ministering for the people. Given the detailed accounts of his exemplary living as written by the educated aristocrat Sulpicius Severus, he also became a model of a saintly life.
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