St. Martin's Day -- and the "Little Lent" That Follows

Today is the feast of St. Martin of Tours.  Martin, born in what is today’s Hungary, lived in the fourth century.  He died in A.D. 397.  He was a convert to Christianity, a soldier, a monk, and a bishop.  He is most commonly known for the story of his generosity with a beggar.  As a soldier in the Roman army, he was entering the city of Amiens on his horse when he encountered a scantily-clad beggar.  He took his sword and slashed his cloak in half, giving half to the beggar.  That night, in a dream, he saw Christ in the form of that beggar, praising him – even though he was still but a catechumen – for his generosity.  That event is frequently represented in Christian art (an example, by El Greco, is here  [ https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5b/El_Greco_-_San_Mart%C3%ADn_y_el_mendigo.jpg/320px-El_Greco_-_San_Mart%C3%ADn_y_el_mendigo.jpg  ). The cut cloak is held as a relic in Tours. Something I just learned: according to Wikipedia, the priest charged with care of that cloak relic was called a cappellanu, which would eventually led to our word, “chaplain.”

In Europe, the feast of St. Martin has many customs associated with it.  Perhaps one of the most significant, however, for Christians, is a kind of “long range” preparation for Christmas.

Christmas is roughly 45 days away.  Advent is the preparatory time for Christmas, once explicitly treated – like Lent – as a penitential period.  But, in the pre-1969 Roman Calendar, Lent itself was “eased into” by a quasi-somber period called Septuagesima.

One might argue some similar analogy to this time of year.  For a long time, the period from the day after the feast of St. Martin – “Martinmas” – a period of fasting in preparation for Christmas set in.  That tradition remains in the Eastern Church: Eastern Christians – both those in union with Rome and the Orthodox – begin fasting this week in preparation for Christmas.  The  “Philip’s Fast” in the East starts November 15.

Last week was Hunters Moon, the second full moon of autumn, so-called because – like Harvest Moon a month earlier – it rises close after sunset.  Both extended the day by giving light, one for farmers to finish harvesting their fields, the other for hunters to bag the last meat from the forest to store for winter, something they would be doing in these weeks.  So, preparation for Christmas accompanied the shortening of days and the preparations for winter.  (Conversely, in the Christian tradition, Christmas launched the season of “carnival” that lasted until Lent, a period of rejoicing and happiness in the midst of winter after “all is safely gathered in//ere the winter storms begin.”  [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msOzJ6DY7EA

With St. Martin’s Day, we can ease into a “little Lent,” a period of preparation for Christmas.  Penance is appropriate to that preparation for two reasons: penance is always appropriate for sinful man and Christmas, which is the celebration of the Redeemer’s coming, should remind us what we need redemption from. 

I’m often asked, “is Advent a penitential season?”  Technically, according to the Code of Canon Law (Canon 1250): no.  The penitential times are Lent and all Fridays of the year (though the abstinence discipline has been modified in the United States).  But that doesn’t mean – in fact it encourages – one’s own commitment to penitential practices.

So, like Lent itself and, in the model of St. Martin, let’s consider:

Prayer – the staple of St. Martin’s life;

Charity/Almsgiving – He “gave the coat off his back.”

(See also Lk 3:11, the advice of St. John the Baptist, our other Christmas preparation companion);

Fasting – as our Eastern Christian brothers now begin.

(On the Eastern tradition, see here). [https://stmichaelsbyzantine.com/our-traditions/the-nativity-fast-philips-fast/ ]