St. Martin of Tours by an Unknown German Master, circa 1450

Collect of the Day: St. Martin of Tours Posted by David Werling St. Martin of Tours Bishop and Confessor From The Liturgical Year by Dom Guéranger, O.S.B. Three thousand six hundred and sixty churches dedicated to St. Martin in France alone, and wellnigh as many in the rest of the world, bear witness to the immense popularity of the great thaumaturgus. In the country, on the mountains, and in the depth of the forests; trees, rocks, and fountains, objects of superstitious worship to our pagan ancestors, received, and in many places still retain, the name of him who snatched them from the dominion of the powers of darkness to restore them to the true God. For the vanquished idols, Roman, Celtic, or German, Christ substituted their conqueror, the humble soldier, in the grateful memory of the people. Martin’s mission was to complete the destruction of paganism, which had been driven from the towns by the martyrs but remained up to this time master of the vast territories removed from the influence of the cities. While one the one hand he was honoured with God’s favours, on the other he was pursued by hell with implacable hatred. At the very outset he had to encounter Satan, who said to him: “I will beset thy path at every turn”: and he kept his word. He has kept it to this very day: century after century, he has been working ruin around the glorious tomb which once attracted the whole world to Tours: in the sixteenth, he delivered to the flames, by the hands of Huguenots, the venerable remains of the protector of France; by the nineteenth, he had brought men to such a height of folly, as themselves to destroy, in time of peace, the splendid basilica which was the pride and the riches of their city. The gratitude of Christ and the rage of Satan, made known by such signs, reveal sufficiently the incomparable labours of the pontiff, apostle, and monk, St. Martin. Rest here at Ars Orandi arsorandi.blogspot.com/…/collect-of-day-…