Bishop of Tours, a celebrated ecclesiastic, was born of heathen parents at Saharia (Steinam-Anger) in Pannonia about 316. After receiving his education at Pavia, he entered the army at the age of sixteen, and served successively under Constantius and Julian. While stationed in Gaul he was admitted into the Christian church by baptism, and abandoning soon afterwards the profession of arms, he was consecrated to the priesthood by Hilarius of Poitiers. Having returned to Pannonia, he converted his mother, and became noted for his fearless opposition to the Arians, who were then on the ascendant. Directing his steps once more towards Gaul, he founded on his way a monastery at Milan, and sojourned in its retirement for some time. On his arrival at Poitiers about 360, he built

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1 See the article Burney, in which Martini's books and MSS. are noticed as they remained in 1819. another monastery on a piece of ground which had been presented to him by Hilarius. In 371, so high had his alleged miraculous power, his fanatical piety, and his sordid austerities raised him in the estimation of the populace, that the inhabitants of Tours forced him to become their bishop. Finding, however, that the miserable cell in which he had taken up his abode was not a sufficient protection against the flocks of his admiring visitors, he built the monastery of Marmontier, on the banks of the Loire, and there he secluded himself for the rest of his life. Martinus died in his eightieth year, near the close of the fourth century. For many years afterwards his memory was held in the greatest veneration, not only in France, but in other countries of Europe. An invocation of St Martin was universally regarded as a sovereign remedy for all diseases, whether bodily, mental, or moral. His Life by Sulpicius Severus, one of his disciples, is still extant. The Confessio Fidei de Trinitate, usually attributed to Martinus, is of doubtful authenticity.