Why Martin Let the Queen Serve Him

To these words Postumianus replied: “While listening to you, Gaul, I have long been admiring the faith of the queen. But where does that statement of yours lead, that no woman was ever said to have stood closer to Martin? For let us consider that this queen not only stood near him but even waited on him. I am really afraid that those who mix freely with women may to some extent defend themselves by that example.”

Then the Gaul said: “Why do you not pay attention, as the grammarians teach us to do, to the place, the time, and the person? Only picture to yourself a man kept in the emperor’s palace, pressed by entreaties, constrained by the queen’s faith, and bound by the needs of the times to do his utmost to set free those shut up in prison, to bring back those who had been sent into exile, and to recover property that had been taken away. How important do you think these things must have seemed to a bishop, to lead him, in order to accomplish them all, to relax not a little the strictness of his usual way of life? [a]

“However, since you think that some will make bad use of the example this gives them, I will only say that they will be truly happy if they do not fall short of the excellence of that example. For let them consider that the facts of the case are these. Only once in his life, and that in his seventieth year, was Martin served and waited on at his meals; and not by some widow free to do as she pleased, nor by a wanton virgin, but by a queen who lived under the authority of a husband, and whose husband joined in begging that she be allowed to do it. Note further that she did not recline with Martin at the meal, and did not even venture to share in the feast, but simply gave her service in waiting on him.

“Learn, then, the proper course. Let a married woman serve you, not rule you; and let her serve you, but not recline at table with you. Just so Martha, of whom we read, waited on the Lord without being invited to share the meal; indeed, the one who chose rather simply to hear the word was preferred to the one who served. But in Martin’s case the queen we have spoken of did both: she served like Martha and listened like Mary. If anyone, then, wants to make use of this example, let him keep to it in every detail: let the cause be the same, the person the same, the service the same, and the meal the same, and let the thing happen only once in a whole lifetime.”