History of Saint Martin of Tours, Louisville KY
St. Martin of Tours is a church rich with
history and tells the story of a community
blessed by God through good times and bad.
From the grounds of a small brickyard, our
church was constructed in 1853 and named
for the patron of the Bishop, Martin John
Spalding. The parish’s first pastor was a
Franciscan priest and a native of Bavaria.
He concentrated on organizing the parish
and building a parish school. He recruited
the Ursuline sisters from Germany to open
their first school here in 1858. Within just
six years the parish had outgrown its
facility, and the building was enlarged to
its current size and in the shape of a cross.
In 1861, soon after the church was enlarged,
the great organ arrived from Germany.
Around the end of the 1800’s, there were
several more important architectural
additions to the church, including the
stained glass windows and Stations of the
Cross, all made in Germany. In 1901 the
church acquired the full skeletal relics of two
early Christian martyrs, Magnus and Bonosa.
They are housed in glass reliquaries under
the two side altars. From the time of WWI to
the late 1970’s, membership declined
drastically to just 30 or so people attending
Sunday Mass. This was the result of the
declining number of immigrants, anti-
German sentiment and the flight to the
suburbs. Several disasters, such as fires, a
tornado and the 1937 flood did not help.
However, the Lord’s faithfulness was about
to be revealed at its fullest. Under the Direction of
Fr. Vernon Robertson, Mass attendance began to rise quickly to 350
households by 1992. He used the great organ to fill the church with
classical and traditional church music. With the spiritual leadership of Fr.
Dennis Cousens and his introduction of Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration in
1996, our total membership reached 1,000 households, coming from 43
zip codes in the Louisville Metro area.
About Saint Martin of Tours (The Saint)
Source: EWTN
St. Martin, called “the glory of Gaul,” was born about the year 316 of pagan
parents in Sabaria, Upper Pannonia, a province comprising northern
Yugoslavia and western Hungary. His father was an officer in the Roman
army who had risen from the ranks. While Martin was still a child, his
father was transferred to a new station in Pavia, north Italy. Here the boy
learned of Christianity, felt drawn to it, and became a catechumen. As the
son of a veteran, at the age of fifteen he was required to begin service in
the army. Though never shirking his military duty, he is said to have lived
more like a monk than a soldier.
Young Martin was stationed at Amiens, in Gaul, when the incident
occurred which tradition and art have rendered so famous. As he rode
towards the town one winter day, he noticed near the gates a poor man,
thinly clad, shivering with cold, and begging alms. Martin saw that none
who passed stopped to help the miserable fellow. He had nothing with
him but the clothes he wore, but, drawing his sword from its scabbard, he
cut his great woolen cloak in two pieces, gave one half to the beggar, and
wrapped himself in the other. The following night, the story continues,
Martin in his sleep saw Jesus Christ, surrounded by angels, and dressed in
the half of the cloak he had given away. A voice bade him look at it well
and say whether he knew it. He then heard Jesus say to the angels,
“Martin, as yet only a catechumen, has covered me with his cloak.”[1]
Sulpicius Severus, the saint’s friend and biographer, says that as a
consequence of this vision Martin “flew to be baptized.”
When Martin was about twenty, some Teutonic tribes invaded Gaul, and
with his comrades he went before the Emperor Julian[2] to receive a war-
bounty. Suddenly he was moved to refuse it. “Up to now,” he said to Julian,
“I have served you as a soldier; allow me henceforth to serve Christ. Give
the bounty to these others who are going out to battle. I am a soldier of
Christ and it is not lawful for me to fight.” Julian, angered, accused Martin
of cowardice; the young man replied that he was ready to go into battle
the next day unarmed, and advance alone against the enemy in the name
of Christ. He was taken off to prison, but discharged as soon as a truce had
been made. He then went down to Poitiers, where the renowned Hilary
had been bishop for many years. Hilary gladly received this early
“conscientious objector” and ordained him deacon.
Having heard in a dream a summons to revisit his home, Martin crossed
the Alps, and from Milan went over to Pannonia. There he converted his
mother and some other persons; his father he could not win. While in
Illyricum he took sides against the Arians with so much zeal that he was
publicly scourged and forced to leave. Back in Italy once more, on his way
to Gaul, he learned that the Gallic Church was also under attack by the
Arians, and that his good friend Hilary had been banished. He remained at
Milan, but soon the Arian bishop, Auxentius, drove him away. Martin took
refuge with a priest on the island of Gallinaria, in the gulf of Genoa, and
stayed there until Hilary returned to Poitiers in 360. It had become
Martin’s desire to pursue his religious calling in solitude, and Hilary gave
him a small piece of land in central France, now called Liguge. He was
joined by other hermits and holy men, and the community grew into a
monastery, the first, it is said, to be founded in Gaul. It survived until 1607;
in 1852 it was rebuilt by the Benedictines of Solesmes.
For ten years Martin lived there, directing the life of his disciples and
preaching in outlying places. Many miracles were attributed to him. About
the year 371, Lidorius, bishop of Tours, died, and the people demanded
Martin in his place. Martin was so reluctant to accept the office that they
resorted to stratagem and called him to the city to give his blessing to a
sick person, then forcibly conveyed him to the church. When neighboring
bishops were summoned to confirm this choice, they thought the monk’s
poor and unkempt appearance proved him unfit for the office, but they
were overruled by the acclamations of the local clergy and the people.
Even as a bishop, Martin lived an austere life. Unable to endure the
constant interruptions, he retired from Tours to a retreat that was later to
become the famous abbey of Marmoutier. The site was enclosed by a steep
cliff on one side and by a tributary of the Loire River on the other. Here
Martin and some of the monks who followed him built cells of wood;
others lived in caves dug out of the rock. In a short time their number
grew, with many men of high rank among them. From this time on bishops
were frequently chosen from Marmoutier, for the holy Martin took the
greatest pains in the training of priests.
Martin’s piety and preaching resulted in the decline of paganism in that
part of Gaul. He destroyed temples and felled trees which the heathen
held sacred. Once when he had demolished a certain temple, he
proceeded to the cutting down of a pine tree that stood near. The chief
priest and other pagans there offered to cut it down themselves, on
condition that he who trusted so strongly in his God would stand under it
wherever they would place him. The bishop agreed and allowed himself to
be tied and placed on the side towards which the tree was leaning. Just as
it seemed about to fall on him, he made the sign of the cross, at which the
tree fell in the other direction. Another time, as he was pulling down a
temple in the vicinity of Autun, a crowd of pagans fell on him in fury, one
brandishing a sword. Martin stood and bared his breast, at sight of which
the armed man fell backwards, and in terror begged forgiveness. These
marvels are narrated by Sulpicius Severus, who also describes various
revelations and visions with which Martin was favored.
Once a year the bishop visited each of his parishes, traveling on foot, or by
donkey or boat. He continued to set up monastic communities, and
extended the bounds of his episcopate from Touraine to such distant
points as Chartres, Paris, Autun, and Vienne. At Vienne, according to his
biographer, he cured Paulinus of Nola of a disease of the eyes. When a
brutal imperial officer, Avitianus, arrived at Tours with a band of prisoners
he planned to torture to death on the following day, Martin, on being
informed of this, hurried in from Marmoutier to intercede for them.
Reaching the city near midnight, he went straight to the quarters of
Avitianus and did not leave until the officer promised mercy to his
captives.
The churches of other parts of Gaul and in Spain were being disturbed by
the Priscillianists, an ascetic sect, named for its leader, Priscillian, bishop of
Avila. A synod held at Bordeaux in 384 had condemned his doctrines, but
he had appealed to Emperor Maximus. Meanwhile, Ithacius, the orthodox
bishop of Ossanova, had attacked him and urged the emperor to have him
put to death. Neither Ambrose at Milan, however, nor Martin at Tours
would hold communion with Ithacius or his supporters, because they had
appealed to the emperor in a dispute over doctrine, and now were trying
to punish a heretic with death. Martin wrote to reprove Ithacius severely. It
was sufficient, he said, that Priscillian should be branded as a heretic and
excommunicated by the bishops. Maximus, yielding to Martin’s
remonstrances, ordered the trial deferred and even promised that there
should be no bloodshed, but afterwards he was persuaded to turn the case
over to his prefect Evodius. He found Priscillian and some others guilty on
several charges and had them beheaded. At this news, Martin went to
Treves to intercede for the lives of all the Spanish Priscillianists who were
threatened with a bloody persecution, and also for two men under
suspicion as adherents of the late Emperor Gratian. As a condition before
granting this request, Maximus stipulated that Martin should resume
communion with the intolerant Ithacius and his party. Since they were not
excommunicated, this was no violation of any canon, and he accordingly
promised the emperor that he would do so, provided the emperor would
pardon the two partisans of Gratian and recall the military tribunes he had
sent to Spain. The next day Martin received the Sacrament with the
Ithacians in order to save so many people from slaughter; yet he was
afterwards troubled in conscience as to whether he had been too yielding.
For their part in the affair both the emperor and Ithacius were censured
by Pope Siricius. It was the first judicial death sentence for heresy, and it
had the effect of spreading Priscillianism in Spain.
Martin had premonitions of his approaching death and predicted it to his
disciples, who besought him not to leave them. “Lord,” he prayed, “if Thy
people still need me, I will not draw back from the work. Thy will be done.”
When his final sickness came upon him, he was at Candes, in a remote
part of his diocese. The monks entreated him to allow them at least to put
a sheet under him and make his last hours comfortable. “It becomes not a
Christian,” said Martin, “to die otherwise than upon ashes. I shall have
sinned if I leave you any other example.” He lay with eyes and hands
raised to Heaven, until the brothers begged him to turn on one side to rest
his body a little. “Allow me, my brethren,” he answered, “to look towards
Heaven rather than to earth, that my soul may be ready to take its flight to
the Lord.”
On November 8 he died, and three days later was buried at Tours. Two
thousand monks and nuns gathered for his funeral. His successor built a
chapel over his grave, which was replaced by a fine basilica. A still later
church on this site was destroyed during the French Revolution, but a
modern one has since been built there. Throughout the Middle Ages, the
knightly Martin, who shared his cloak with a beggar, was the subject of
innumerable anecdotes, which expressed the love and veneration of the
people. His tomb became a national shrine in France, of which country he
is patron saint, and one of the most popular pilgrimage places of Europe.
St. Martin is patron of the cities of Wurtburg and Buenos Aires. Many
churches in France and elsewhere have been dedicated to him. His
emblems are a tree, armor, a cloak, and a beggar.
Endnotes
1 The building where St. Martin’s cloak was preserved as a precious relic
came to be known as the, from the Latin word for cloak,; and fromis
derived our word “chapel.”
2 On Julian, see above,. n. IO.
Saint Martin of Tours, Bishop, Confessor. Celebration of Feast Day is
November 11. Taken from “Lives of Saints”, Published by John J. Crawley &
Co., Inc.
St. Martin of Tours Church - 639 South Shelby
Street - Louisville, KY 40202