Sulpicius Severus · Contents

The Life of Saint Martin

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Introduction The Narrator’s Opening Note: The Man behind the Legend
Dedicatory Letter The Author’s Letter to his friend Desiderius on the Life of Saint Martin
Chapter I Why a holy life is worth more than the fame of Hector or Socrates
Chapter II From Pannonia to Italy: The boy who ran away to church and was taken to the army in chains
Chapter III The cloak cut in two at the gates of Amiens and the vision of Christ
Chapter IV Face to face with Julian at Worms: “I am a soldier of Christ; I cannot fight”
Chapter V Saint Hilary of Poitiers, the office of exorcist and the robbers’ ambush in the Alps
Chapter VI The encounter with the Devil on the road, the public flogging and the poison on the Island of Gallinara
Chapter VII The monastery of Ligugé and the first miracle: The catechumen who came back to life
Chapter VIII Lupicinus’s young slave saved from death
Chapter IX The “kidnapping” to make him bishop of Tours and the humiliation of Bishop Defensor
Chapter X The bishop who lived in a wooden hut: The founding of Marmoutier
Chapter XI The false martyr unmasked: The criminal’s spirit beside the altar
Chapter XII The pagan funeral frozen in the middle of the fields
Chapter XIII The challenge of the sacred pine: Tied up beneath the falling tree
Chapter XIV The fire that drew back against the wind and the two armed angels at Levroux
Chapter XV The neck bared before the sword in the land of the Aedui
Chapter XVI The paralysed girl healed at Trier with blessed oil
Chapter XVII The former proconsul Tetradius and Martin’s fingers in the mouth of a possessed man
Chapter XVIII The false rumour of the barbarian invasion, the kiss for the leper in Paris and the threads of the tunic
Chapter XIX The letter that cured Arborius’s daughter, the eyes of Paulinus of Nola and the fall down the stairs
Chapter XX The banquet of the emperor Magnus Maximus: The cup passed to the priest before the emperor
Chapter XXI Conversations with the angels and the Devil with the ox horn covered in blood
Chapter XXII The disguises of Jupiter, Mercury and Venus — and the promise of forgiveness to the Devil himself
Chapter XXIII The story of Clarus, the false prophet Anatolius and the tunic that vanished into thin air
Chapter XXIV The false Christs in Hispania and the Devil dressed as Emperor: “I will not recognise Christ without the marks of the Cross”
Chapter XXV The Author’s visit to Saint Martin: The bishop who washed his biographer’s feet
Chapter XXVI The inner portrait: The blacksmith’s anvil and his patience with his own priests
Chapter XXVII Conclusion: A luminous face and the answer to the envious bishops
Narrator’s Epilogue What happened next: The death of Saint Martin and the origin of the 11th of November