St. Martin a soldier who found Christ in a destitute man

Stirring conversion depicted in painting in hometown church

St. Martin – November 11

- WCR photo by Ted Fitzgerald St. Martin de Pau Church looking down Rue Henri IV.

By TED FITZGERALD
Special to the WCR
Pau, France

Those searching for St. Martin can't miss his historic church in Pau, whose slender spire dominates the skyline of the old town. It faces north on Rue Henri IV not far west of the city's famed chateau.

It's significant that the feast day of Martin, a soldier in his early life, coincides with the anniversary of the memorable date that marked the Armistice of 1918 and the end of the First World War. Like most French cities, Pau remembers the thousands who fell in "the war to end all wars" fighting for four terrible years on the country's eastern frontier.

Canadians have been pausing each November for a minute of silence to observe "the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month" and for a brief period the distinctive symbol of the fields of Flanders, red poppy badges, appear everywhere in memory of the fallen of almost 100 years ago.

War memorials

While people elsewhere note this anniversary, the Palois are reminded year-round of the trauma of 1914-18 by memorials in and around their revered church of St. Martin.

Pau is capital of the Bearn, the eastern part of the department of Pyrenees-Atlantiques. It occupies a ridge above the Gave de Pau (river) in the mountain foothills not far from the famous shrine of Lourdes.

Once a part of the Kingdom of Navarre, the Bearn has for centuries cherished its agricultural traditions and language. In 1620 the region became part of France under King Henry IV, the former Henry of Navarre who was born in the chateau of Pau, the city's best-known tourist attraction.

- WCR photo by Ted Fitzgerald St. Martin chapel altar in his Pau church has a painting of Christ appearing in a dream to the saint.

L'eglise Saint Martin de Pau was constructed in 1871. It's noted for its elegant apse and transepts, flying butressess and 77-metre-high spire. The patron of the city and church is portrayed in bas-relief on horseback at the tower's second level.

Martin's conversion

The story of Martin's conversion is a familiar one, of how while serving in a Roman legion in Gaul in 334 he was troubled by the sight of a destitute man begging at one of the gates of the city of Amiens. He was moved to cut his heavy winter cloak in two with his sword to give half to the beggar.

That night, in a dream, Christ appeared to Martin wearing his half-cloak. This experience caused the saint to embrace Christianity and to ultimately become famous as an evangelist and miracle-worker as bishop of Tours.

Visitors to the saint's church in Pau will find themselves in a spacious structure characterized by two subsidiary naves. Most visited chapel is that dedicated to St. Martin where a painting of Christ appearing to the sleeping saint has beneath it a sculpture of Martin at Amiens with the inscribed request in Latin "Sancte-Martine O.P.N." (Saint Martin pray for us.)

200 parishioners died

Nearby plaques list many of the Great War battle sites and the names of 200 parishioners who fell during the conflict.

Behind the church, overlooking the river, the city ramparts and the famed Boulevard des Pyrenees, a large white stone monument honours the fallen of both world wars.

On it, special note is made of the Flanders battlefields where local men died, and where all the fallen are remembered in the famous poem by Canadian military doctor John McCrae, himself a casualty, "In Flanders fields the poppies blow . . .".

The memorial and the large shaded park on the east side of the church are popular rendevous points and places to relax before or after attendance at one of the several daily or weekend Masses celebrated at the sacred L'eglise Saint Martin de Paur.

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