November 11 – A Civil and Ecclesial Feast
When November 11 arrives each year, we are accustomed to seeing civic displays of patriotism and honor for the nation’s veterans. Originally known as Armistice Day – in honor of the ending of World War I, which concluded on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month – the United States in 1954 amended the holiday to include a remembrance of all the living and the dead of the nation’s veterans. And the name was subsequently changed to Veteran’s Day on June 1, 1954.
However, to the Catholic, November 11 is more than a day to honor the nation’s veterans, and even more than a day to pray for the repose of the souls of all who have died in battle for the country’s defense.
November 11 is the Feast of St. Martin of Tours, the great worker of charity who is said to have raised three persons from the dead. Known as Martinmas, this day of celebration featured numerous festivities in honor of the life and charity of St. Martin of Tours, and it is still observed by some Catholics who keep the tradition alive of carrying lanterns and eating a traditional meal of goose on this day. Note: No goose allowed, of course, on years when November 11 falls on a Friday.
In fact, Father Francis Weiser, in the Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs, shows that Martinmas was the ‘Thanksgiving Day’ of the Middle Ages. This is not a day we should forget:
“The most common, and almost universal, harvest and thanksgiving celebration in medieval times was held on the Feast of Saint Martin of Tours (Martinmas) on November 11. It was a holiday in Germany, France, Holland, England and in central Europe. People first went to Mass and observed the rest of the day with games, dances, parades, and a festive dinner, the main feature of the meal being the traditional roast goose (Martin’s goose). With the goose dinner they drank ‘Saint Martin’s wine,’ which was the first lot of wine made from the grapes of the recent harvest. Martinmas was the festival commemorating filled barns and stocked larders, the actual Thanksgiving Day of the Middle Ages. Even today it is still kept in rural sections of Europe, and dinner on Martin’s Day would be unthinkable without the golden brown, luscious Martin’s goose.”
Saint Martin of Tours
The best-known story about St. Martin, immortalized in images every child is familiar with, is his sharing his cloak[1] with a beggar. Our Lord later appeared to him and thanked him for “whatsoever you do to the least of My brethren, you do to Me.”
At that time, St. Martin was a young Roman soldier and a catechumenate. He was baptized soon thereafter and learned much from St. Hilary, Bishop of Poitier (also known as “the Athanasius of the West”). St. Martin suffered much for the True Faith at the hands of Arian heretics, a heresy that had overwhelmed nearly the entire Christian world with imperial support. He lived the life of a hermit, founded a community of monks, and then became a great bishop.
St. Martin founded numerous monasteries and churches, untiringly fought pagan idolatry and numerous heresies, and participated in several important synods that helped clarify the True Faith. Following his death, many miracles were attributed to his intercession. St. Patrick is also related to him, as Patrick’s mother, Conchessa, was either the sister or niece of St. Martin. Along with St. Denis, St. Remigius, St. Louis IX and St. Joan of Arc, he remains one of the principal patron saints of the Eldest Daughter of the Church.[2]
Advent’s “Mardi Gras”
But St. Martin’s Day was more than just Thanksgiving, it also served as the “Mardi Gras” of Advent by ushering in the pre-Christmas fasting period known as St. Martin’s Lent. St. Martin’s Lent, as a period of fasting leading up to Christmas, originated as early as 480 AD. Dom Gueranger, in his prodigious Liturgical Year, writes:
“The oldest document in which we find the length and exercises of Advent mentioned with anything like clearness, is a passage in the second book of the History of the Franks by St. Gregory of Tours, where he says that St. Perpetuus, one of his predecessors, who held that See about the year 480, had decreed a fast three times a week, from the feast of St. Martin until Christmas….
“Let us, however, note this interval of forty, or rather of forty-three days, so expressly mentioned, and consecrated to penance, as though it were a second Lent, though less strict and severe than that which precedes Easter. Later on, we find the ninth canon of the first Council of Mâcon, held in 582, ordaining that during the same interval between St. Martin’s day and Christmas, the Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays should be fasting days, and that the Sacrifice should be celebrated according to the Lenten rite. Not many years before that, namely in 567, the second Council of Tours had enjoined the monks to fast from the beginning of December till Christmas. This practice of penance soon extended to the whole forty days, even for the laity: and it was commonly called St. Martin’s Lent….
“There were even special rejoicings made on St. Martin’s feast, just as we see them practiced now at the approach of Lent and Easter. The obligation of observing this Lent, which, though introduced so imperceptibly, had by degrees acquired the force of a sacred law, began to be relaxed, and the forty days from St. Martin’s day to Christmas were reduced to four weeks.”
In a follow-up article, we will explore the history of St. Martin’s Lent – the true Advent fast – and see how we too can observe this venerable tradition.
[1] The part of the cloak (cappa) which St. Martin kept became one of the most celebrated relics of the Frankish kings. In the Middle Ages, the sacred relic would often be processed with the king. The French king would even have it carried into battle. The privileged priest who took care of the cloak (similar to the Old Testament Levites who cared for the Ark) was called ‘cappellanu.’ Eventually, the Latin word ‘capplellani’ came to refer to all priests who served in the military. The French translation for this term is ‘chapelains,’ and it is from there that the English word ‘chaplain’ is derived.
[2] The sanctuary which contained his relics became one of the great pilgrimage sites in Christendom. That is, until 1562, when Protestant Calvinists (Huguenots) sacked the basilica and destroyed the sepulcher and the relics of this great wonder worker. The shrine was re-built but then razed to the ground once again by freemasonic French Revolutionaries in 1793. The following century, some remains of this shrine were found (thought to be part of his tomb). These are kept at the basilica in Tours and are all that remain of this once great shrine.