Martin of Tours
Saint Martin of Tours is the patron of soldiers, of beggars, and of tailors and weavers because of the single most famous act of his life: a soldier himself, he met a half-naked beggar shivering at the gate of Amiens, cut his military cloak in two with his sword, and gave half away — and that night saw Christ in a dream wearing the very cloth. Soldiers honor the soldier-saint who put mercy above arms; beggars, the one whose charity clothed them; tailors and weavers, the saint of the divided cloak. The goose belongs to him by a homelier legend: hiding from those who came to make him bishop, he was betrayed by the cackling of geese, which are eaten on his feast (Martinmas) to this day. He is a principal patron of France.
Saint Martin of Tours was a Roman soldier who became the Bishop of Tours in Gaul. Born around 316 in Pannonia, he is best known for the story of cutting his military cloak in half to share with a beggar, after which he had a vision of Christ wearing the cloak. He became one of the first non-martyrs to be venerated as a saint.
