Posts Tagged ‘Martin of Tours’
Don’t Hide from God – Br. Jack Crowley
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Br. Jack Crowley
Martin of Tours
Tonight we celebrate the life of Saint Martin of Tours. Saint Martin lived in the fourth century and converted to Christianity as a young adult at a time when Christianity had only recently become legal in the Roman Empire. Martin went on to be a Roman soldier, then a hermit, then started the first monastery in what is now France, and finally became a bishop. His life was a series of pendulum swings between solitude and service. Read More
Kindness, Mercy, and Justice – Br. James Koester
Br. James Koester
Preached at the Church of St. Augustine and St. Martin, Boston, at the annual Homecoming Service.
Martin of Tours
It should come as no surprise that I have been thinking a great deal about St. Martin over the past week. In part that’s because I’m preaching today as we keep his feast. In part that’s because I have spent many hours in our archives pouring over our collection of material related to this parish. That, I admit, has been more fun than working on the sermon!
In the back of my mind, as I have been looking at old photographs and various documents, there are several questions. One is obvious. Who are some of these people? I hope when you see them, you can help answer that one. The other question is, Why Martin? Augustine, I get. We founded two parishes in South Africa: St. Philip’s and St. Cyprian’s in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, about the same time as this parish. Philip was instrumental in introducing the Ethiopian court official to the Christian faith, and Cyprian, like Augustine, was a bishop in north Africa. (It was this Philip, by the way, who was this parish’s first patron. The Sunday school room opened in 1882 on Beacon Hill was called St. Philip’s Mission. The name was later changed to St. Augustine’s.) But why Martin? Read More
Giving at Eye Level – Br. Keith Nelson
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Feast of St. Martin of Tours
Luke 18:18-30
St. Martin of Tours, whom we remember today, was almost universally unpopular among his fellow bishops. But the reasons for this unpopularity are also the reasons we remember his life and witness in the Church. He was strongly opposed to the suppression of heresy through the use of military intimidation or violence. Tragically, such suppression had become common by that point in the history of the early Church. Martin was also called to the monastic life, and refused to compromise this commitment after becoming bishop. The monastic movement in the Western Church was still new enough that this way of life must have made Martin seem even more eccentric and uncooperative with clerical business as usual. Finally, he lacked a formal Latin education and was not a member of the ruling class, having been trained from an early age as a soldier.
St. Martin is most frequently represented in sacred art wearing the military uniform of a soldier, seated on horseback, cutting his red cloak in half with his sword and giving one half to a poorly clad beggar. It is a deeply archetypal image of compassion. We have seen so many images in children’s books, in movies, or in video games, of warriors on horseback committing acts of violent subjugation, slaying dragons or evil knights or foreign invaders. Even those who do so in the service of rescuing a helpless victim are seen slaying or beheading or trampling in the fulfillment of their virtuous mission. St. Martin inhabits this mythic genre, but with a crucial twist that confronts all that what we have been conditioned to see or expect in a warrior. St. Martin believed that spiritual warfare called for spiritual weapons. Foremost among these was his sacrificial generosity. Read More