Martinmas and Veteran’s Day

Today is the feast of St. Martin and in the US it is also Veterans Day. It seems very fitting!

The feast of St. Martin because is filled with legend and mysticism and even some humor!

St. Martin is a patron saint of the poor and outcast. As legend tells, the soldier Martin discovered a poor beggar one night, shivering, and cold. Martin gave the man half his cape for warmth. The next night, he dreamed that he saw Christ wearing the same piece of his cape. After that, he spent the rest of his life serving those in need, bringing light and warmth to those in darkness. November 11th is his feast day, originally celebrated in many French households with a festival of lanterns.

We made our own lanterns a few years ago.

 
A votive candle is fastened inside the jar with a bit of wax – and voila!

Last year we did something a bit different.  I bought an inexpensive glass vase from Pat Catan’s.  Then we found a template under St. Martin Transparency (googled it!) and transferred that to the black paper.  We glued that to the globe and then used Mod Podge to put the glitter in the background for the winter effect!

Today’s peg saint!  Complete with the goose that gave Martin away!

From the Rhythm of the Home Blog.

Legend has it that when the people wanted to make him the bishop, he strenuously objected and tried to hide from the crowd. But he made the mistake of hiding in the goose house and the cackling from these noisy birds gave the saint away and the emissaries from Tours were able to find him and convince him to become the new bishop.   St. Martin was so annoyed that he killed one of the geese and cooked it for his dinner that day!

Legend also has it that  St Martin reputedly met Satan on a trip to Rome. He changed the Devil into a donkey and rode him into Rome. The donkey said: Signa te signa. Temere me tangis et angis./ Roma tibi subito motibus ibit amor. (Cross thyself, you plague and vex me without need; for by my efforts you are about to reach Rome, the object of your travel.) Each of the Latin sentences is a palindrome, that means they read the same forwards or backwards.

HT English Diary.

A more sombre superstition that I have read in a number of places says that if you are at the back of the church on Martinmas Day, you will see a glowing over the heads of people in the congregation who will not be alive by next Martinmas Day. 

Follow Elena LaVictoire’s board St. Martin of Tours on Pinterest.

Today is also the day to remember our beloved Veterans.

Mr. Pete’s Uncles and Father.

See all my links about this feast on Pinterest and Diigo.