It was a day like today.
On November 11, 1661 was born Carlos IV of Spain, and successor Carlos V in 1748.
Today is celebrated as Veterans Day in the United States and as Remembrance Day in the United Kingdom. It ma rks the cessation of hostilities of the First World War at the 11th hour on the 11th day in the 11th month in 1918. Some 70 million soldiers, sailors and marines were mustered by the various countries in the conflict that claimed some 15 million lives, changing the face of Europe and made the United States a world power.
How appropriate that the Western church should commemorate a soldier-saint on this day. Today is the feast day of St. Martin, Bishop of Tours, who died n November 11, 397 AD. A native of Pannonia, which is in what is now Hungary, Martin was a soldier of the Roman Empire who has gone on to become the patron saint of France; his burial place became one of the most popular pilgrimage sites in Europe. It was in 337 that occurred in Gaul the signal event in his life when he encountered an ill-clad beggar shivering in the cold. Dividing his cloak in half, he gave a half of it to the beggar. That night he was granted a vision of Christ wearing the cloak. He converted to the Christian faith and refused to fight. He spent time in Italy and Illyricum defending the faith from Arians and spent time as a recluse on the island of Gallinaria in the Tyrrhenian Sea. Returning to Gaul, he helped St. Hilary form a monastic community at Ligugé – the first in Gaul. Against his wishes, he was appointed bishop of Tours but continued to life the monastic life, establishing the monastic center of Marmoutier. He destroyed pagan temples and opposed the herwsy of Priscillianism, even while he opposed the beheading of Priscillian himself by an imperial prefect as an unwelcome intromission of the secular arm in ecclesial business. Martin was also a protector of Jews during a persecution in Gaul.
The feast of St. Martin, which in England is called Martinmas, has long been identified with the autumn wine festival in which the new vintage is tasted. In fifteenth century Germany, the festivities were described thus:
“To belly cheer, yet once again,
Doth Maritn more incline,
Whom all the people praiseth
With roasted geese and wine.
Both all the day long, and the night,
Now each man open makes
His vessels all, and of the must,
Oft times, the last he takes,
Which holy Martin afterwards
Alloweth to be wine,
Extol with praise divine.”
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