The Devil Meets Martin on the Road

So Martin went on from there, and after he had passed Milan, the devil met him on the road, having taken the form of a man. The devil first asked him where he was going. Martin answered that he meant to go wherever the Lord called him, and the devil said to him: “Wherever you go, or whatever you attempt, the devil will oppose you.” Then Martin answered him in the words of the prophet: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear what man can do to me.” At this his enemy at once vanished from his sight. And so, as he had intended in his heart and mind, he set his mother free from the errors of paganism, though his father went on clinging to its evils. Still, he saved many by his example. [a]

After this the Arian heresy had spread through the whole world and was especially strong in Illyricum. There Martin, almost single-handed, fought with all his strength against the treachery of the priests, and he was subjected to many punishments: he was publicly flogged, and in the end he was forced to leave the city. He went back to Italy. Finding that the church in the two provinces of Gaul was in disorder, because holy Hilary had also gone away, driven into exile by the violence of the heretics, he set up a monastery for himself at Milan. There too Auxentius, the originator and leader of the Arians, persecuted him bitterly; and after heaping many injuries on him, he drove him out of the city by force. [b]

So, thinking it necessary to give way to circumstances, he withdrew to the island of Gallinaria, with a certain presbyter as his companion, a man of outstanding virtues. Here he lived for some time on the roots of plants. While doing so he ate hellebore, which, people say, is a poisonous plant. But when he felt the strength of the poison growing within him, and death now close at hand, he warded off the threatening danger by prayer, and at once all his pains were driven away. Not long after, he learned that the king had repented and that holy Hilary had been given permission to return. He tried to meet him at Rome, and with that in view he set out for that city.