Summary, and Brief Relflections of "The Life of St. Martin" by Sulpitius Severus

Of all of the readings this week, I found the life of St. Martin as written by Sulpitius Severus the most interesting. I have never read of the life of any Saint before, and this was a truly enlightening experience. Acts of religious purity, and relentless do-goodedness are relentlessly constant through the first six chapters describing the life of St. Martin. Of the two “Lives of Saints” readings that we were assigned, I feel the life of St. Martin to be the most vivid, and also has the luxury of including an authors preface; so it is the one to be discussed.
The first chapter contains Sulpitius Severus’ thoughts on the purpose of writing about figures of great importance. He believes that he will do something new, and that past works were written with the notion of emulation or imitation as its purpose. This “new” approach is said to be one that would make “readers roused to the pursuit of true knowledge, heavenly warfare and divine virtue.” It is very clear that the author has put great thought into this work as he states that once something is published or communicated, it cannot be undone, and as such he would rather stay quite rather than communicate a false idea. Then, by extension, all happenings in the life of St. Martin are true beyond a doubt. Sulpitius Severus asks us, as readers, to “give full faith to things narrated.”
According to Severus, St. Martin was born in Italy, and his parents were heathens. At the behest of his father he joined the military and later resigned. At the age of 12, he wished to live the life of a hermit, however that wish would be short-lived as he was, at the mercy of a legislative act, re-enlisted into the military. In the army, he existed as a monk, rather than a soldier and he was known to have “patience and humility [that] passed what seemed to be possible by human nature.” As for his military pay, he only took what was required to keep body and soul together. St. Martins acts of relentless benevolence continue when he clothes a half naked man at a gate entrance on a cold winters eve. This man had been ignored by everyone else, and St. Martin, had to cut his current clothes (already poultry because of similar acts of kindness) in half to clothe the man. That night St. Martin is met with a vision, and is “filled with will of God”, and decides he is to be baptized and leave the military.
When St. Marin attempts to leave the military, his withdrawal is seen as cowardice. St. Martin counters by saying he would gladly enter the battle with no weapon and armor and trust in the will of Christ to keep him safe. This does not come to pass because the upcoming melee was abandoned via peaceful means, and as such this is seen as an act of protection by God, of St. Martin. St. Martin then converts a robber, and later defeats the devil with words of extreme faith in God. Chapter six ends with a description of how St. Martin prayed away the effects of poison.
I find this piece to be very interesting because it informs the divine providence attitude of the time. The common thought of the time being that no act of earth, however small, was acted without God’s will. Thus St. Martin is presented as a vessel of God’s will. I think it is very easy in today’s day and age to look at this piece cynically (which I tend to do), but it would be a disservice to the work if one did. While the life described here is nearly unbelievable, it was believed by the author. The commentary in the first chapter that the author gives clearly shows that the author is a smart man. Severus is aware that communication once shared cannot be revoked. I believe him to be sincere when he states he would rather speak nothing than speak falsely, and I believe that he believes beyond a doubt in the life of St. Martin. This informs the context of the time very well, and certainly helped me understand the period in which this piece was written. If it wasn’t for the self reflexive comments made by Severus at the onset of “The Life of St. Martin”, I suspect I wouldn’t have understood the context in the fuller manner that I do now.