The Greeb from Marazion bu Jonathan Polkest

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St. Martin continued his journey to Tours, where he was received as the tutelar angel of his people. In his great age he relaxed nothing of his austerities, or of his zealous labours for the salvation of others; and he continued to the end of his life to confirm his doctrine by frequent and wonderful miracles, as we are assured by St. Sulpicius Severus. This great man 10 renouncing the world, chose for his first retreat a little cottage upon an estate which he had at a village upon the borders of Aquitain, now in Languedoc, called Primuliac, and afterwards Mount Primlau, a place not now known. He made several visits to St. Martin, and squared his life by his direction. Upon his arrival, the blessed man himself presented water to him and his companions to wash their hands before eating; ordered them to be served with a moderate corporal refection; then fed them with the spiritual food of his heavenly discourses, strongly exhorting them to renounce sensuality, and the pleasures and distraction of the world, that, without hinderance, they might follow the Lord Jesus with their whole hearts. In the evening he washed their feet with his own hands. St. Sulpicius assures us, that though a stranger to secular learning, he was in his discourses clear, methodical, pathetically vehement, and powerfully eloquent: that he was very ready in solving intricate difficulties of holy writ, in answering questions upon spiritual matters, and in giving to every one suitable advice; that no one confuted errors and infidelity, or set off the truth of the Christian religion with greater perspicuity or force. This illustrious author adds, that he never heard any man speak with so much good sense, with so much knowledge and penetration, or with purer language: and that the gravity, dignity, and humility, with which he delivered himself, were not to be expressed. Nevertheless, his strongest exhortation to perfect virtue was the almost irresistible influence of his example and wonderful sanctity. No one ever saw him angry, disturbed, sad, or vainly laughing; the same tranquillity of mind, the same serenity of countenance appeared in him in prosperity and adversity, and, under all the vicissitudes of human accidents, even beyond what seemed possible in this mortal life. Christ was always in his mouth, and in his heart. Nothing reigned there but sincere humility, piety, peace, mercy, and goodness. He was very cautious never to judge others, and to interpret every one’s actions, if it was possible, in the best part. Injuries, slanders, envy, and the jealousy of persecutors, which, in the whole course of his life were never wanting, he recompensed by weeping bitterly for their sins, and by seeking every opportunity of serving them, and of heaping benefits upon them, never excluding any one from his holy friendship. 11 He would never lose any time in the day, and often passed whole nights in labours and watchings. To his body he allowed only that refreshment and repose which extreme necessity required, lying on the bare ground, covered with a coarse sackcloth. Amidst his exterior employments his heart was always closely united to God, and he seemed never to lose sight of his presence either in words or actions. And as smiths, when they have no iron bar before them to work on, strike sometimes on the anvil through use; so St. Martin, whether he read or wrote, or treated with men, through habit was continually recollected in the interior man, and conversed sweetly with the heavenly Spouse, and with the Giver of all graces. He was accustomed to gather profitable spiritual lessons and thoughts, and to kindle holy affections from all things which occurred. Once when he saw a sheep newly shorn, he pleasantly said to those that were with him: “This sheep hath fulfilled the precept of the gospel, because having enough for two coats, it hath parted with one to such as have need; so should you likewise do.” Seeing a man keeping swine, very cold, and but half covered with a poor scanty coat of skins, he said: “Behold Adam driven out of Paradise; but let us, leaving the old Adam, clothe ourselves with the new.” In visiting his diocess, arriving once at a river, he saw a great quantity of fowl very busy in gorging up the fish; whereupon he said: “These ravenous birds resemble much our infernal enemies, which lie always in wait to catch unwary souls, and suddenly make them their prey.” But he commanded the fowls to leave the waters, and betake themselves to the hills and moors; which they instantly did. In this manner every creature served the saint’s purified eyes as a lively glass of truth; and, from all things, he gathered, without study or labour, and even with delight, wholesome lessons, to maintain his heart always in pure and heavenly thoughts. In like manner he endeavoured that his subjects should exercise their souls constantly in prayer, that they might be disposed to afford a clean and agreeable lodging to the heavenly Spouse. It was by keeping his mind ever fixed on God, and by the excellent purity of his heart much more than by the natural vivacity of his wit, and by his reading, that he attained to so high a degree of true science, and heavenly eloquence, and acquired that strength with which, as a great captain of the spiritual warfare, he by all means continually waged war against the prince of this world, and, wherever he went, dispossessed him of his ancient tyranny

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