St. Martin of Tours

Who they were

Martin was a Roman cavalry officer's son, conscripted young and stationed in Gaul. At the gate of Amiens, in a hard winter, he met a beggar freezing in rags and, having already given away his money, drew his sword and cut his military cloak in two, giving half. That night, the account says, he dreamed of Christ wearing the half cloak. Baptised soon after, he eventually stood before the emperor and refused his combat bonus on the eve of battle: I am a soldier of Christ, it is not lawful for me to fight, offering to stand unarmed in the front line instead. Discharged, he became a monk, then, dragged to the city by a ruse and acclaimed over his objections, Bishop of Tours, where he stayed a monk at heart, founded monasteries, and died in 397. He was among the first non-martyrs the Church ever venerated as a saint. His feast later became Armistice Day: the soldiers' saint on the day the guns stopped.

Why people turn to St. Martin of Tours

Soldiers and veterans above all, and specifically people leaving the military, since his own hardest years were the transition out. Conscientious objectors claim the same man, and he holds both without contradiction.

How to ask their intercession

For a service member by name and unit. For a veteran struggling with the after, ask his prayers for the half of the cloak that civilian life never quite hands back.