The Legend
of Saint Martin’s Cloak
Born in
316AD, Martin became a soldier in the Roman army and deployed in Gaul
(modern-day France). He experienced a vision, which became the
most-repeated story about his life. One day as he was approaching the gates of
the city of Amiens, he met a scantily clad beggar. He impulsively cut his
military cloak in half to share with the man. That night, Martin dreamed of
Jesus wearing the half-cloak he had given away. He heard Jesus say to the
angels: "Here is Martin, the Roman soldier who is not baptised; he has
clad me." (Sulpicius, ch 2). In another version, when Martin woke, he
found his cloak restored to wholeness. The dream confirmed Martin in his piety,
and he was baptised at the age of 18. After his army service, Martin
became a monk, then the Bishop of Tours, and then a saint who was revered
throughout Europe.
The remnant
of this cloak kept by Martin became a famous relic preserved in the oratory of
the Merovingian kings of the Franks at the Marmoutier Abbey near Tours,
France. During the Middle Ages, the supposed relic of St. Martin’s
miraculous cloak, (cappa Sancti Martini) was carried by the king even into
battle, and used as a holy relic upon which oaths were sworn. The cloak is
first attested in the royal treasury in 679, when it was conserved at the
palatium of Luzarches, a royal villa that was later ceded to the monks of
Saint-Denis by Charlemagne, in 798/99.
The priest
who cared for the cloak in its reliquary was called a cappellanu, and
ultimately all priests who served the military were called cappellani. The
French translation is chapelains, from which the English word chaplain is
derived. One of the many services a chaplain can provide is
spiritual and pastoral support for military service personnel by performing
religious services at sea or in the battlefield.
A similar
linguistic development took place for the term referring to the small temporary
churches built for the relic. People called them a "capella", the
word for a little cloak. Eventually, such small churches lost their association
with the cloak, and all small churches began to be referred to as
"chapels".
November 11: Happy St. Martin’s Day & Happy
Veterans’ Day
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