Martin’s Years as a Soldier

Martin, then, was born at Sabaria in Pannonia, but he was brought up at Ticinum, which is in Italy. By the world’s standards his parents were of no low rank, but they were pagans. His father was at first a common soldier, and afterward a military tribune. Martin himself followed a military career in his youth and was enrolled in the imperial guard, first under King Constantine and then under Julian Caesar. This, however, was not his own free choice, for almost from his earliest years this remarkable boy, holy even in childhood, longed rather for the service of God. When he was ten years old he went to the church against his parents’ wishes and begged to be made a catechumen. Soon afterward he became, in a wonderful way, wholly devoted to the service of God, and when he was twelve he wanted to take up the life of a hermit. He would have followed up that wish with the necessary vows if his still too youthful age had not prevented it. Still, his mind was always taken up with matters to do with the monasteries or the church, and already in his boyhood he was thinking over what he later carried out as a professed servant of Christ. [a]

But an edict was issued by the rulers of the state that the sons of veterans were to be enrolled for military service. On information given by his father, who looked with an evil eye on his blessed way of life, Martin was seized and put in chains when he was fifteen years old, and was forced to take the military oath. He then contented himself with only one servant to attend him. And even toward him, as though they had changed places, he often acted as if he were the inferior, though he was really the master. He went so far that most of the time he took off his servant’s boots and cleaned them with his own hands; and they ate their meals together, with the real master generally doing the serving. For nearly three years before his baptism he was a soldier by profession, but he kept himself entirely free of the vices that men of that class too often fall into. He showed great kindness toward his fellow soldiers and held them in wonderful affection, while his patience and humility went beyond what seemed possible to human nature. There is no need to praise his self-denial: it was so great that even at that time he was regarded not so much as a soldier as a monk. By all these qualities he had so endeared himself to all his comrades that they esteemed him, and loved him wonderfully.

Although he had not yet been made a new creature in Christ, he played the part of a candidate for baptism by his good works. He did this, for example, by helping those in trouble, giving aid to the wretched, supporting the needy and clothing the naked, while he kept nothing of his military pay for himself except what he needed to live on each day. Even then, far from being a heedless hearer of the Gospel, he obeyed its commands so far as to take no thought for tomorrow.