St. Martin of Tours 

Saint Martin of Tours born in 316 and dying in 397, Saint Martin’s feast is on November 11. He was a pagan soldier who converted at the hand of Saint Hilary. He lived as a deacon, then an exorcist, and was made bishop by popular acclamation. He is one of the first canonized confessors to not die as a martyr. He cut his Roman soldier’s cape in two in order to clothe a naked beggar. That night, he saw Christ, who told him, “You did well to clothe the beggar in that you clothed me.” Why is he an apostle of the Holy Face? As Veronica clothed the Lord’s face, covered with spit and mud, Saint Martin also clothed the Lord. Saint Martin is a great wonder-worker who started the system of dioceses and parishes. It was his experience in the Roman military that helped him take the Roman system as a model for the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. This hierarchy, developed by Saint Martin, was used to crush paganism in Europe and helped bring many souls to the water of baptism. Venerable Leo DuPont and Saint Martin are similar. Venerable Leo DuPont became an apostle of devotion to the Holy Face, destined to crush the works of revolutionary men and bring about the triumph of the Catholic Church. He, like Saint Martin, worked miracles with God’s help. God brought both saints to Tours to become famous for heroic virtue. It was the intercession of Saint Martin that brought together Venerable Leo DuPont and Sister Mary of St. Peter to Tours, France, These two souls were responsible for the messages of reparation which constitute the devotions of the Archconfraternity of the Holy Face established by Pope Leo XIII in 1885.

Fr. Lawrence Carney, The Secret of the Holy Face – The Devotion Destined to Save Society pp. 119-120

Pictures from a church in a small town outside of Tours.

The grave marker indicates where Saint Martin died.

Map of the old St. Martin’s church and the current church. The map shows how the French Revolution tried to cover the relics and how Venerable Leo DuPont found them.

Venerable Leo Dupont moved to Tours and wandered the streets on pilgrimage visiting the churches, including those still functioning and those in disrepair due to the devastation of the French Revolution. He found the relics of Saint Martin by asking a woman selling vegetables - turnips, carrots, and onions - where the revolutionists tore down Saint Martin’s, the most popular pilgrimage in all of France. The engineers planned to put a highway over the grave, but they missed and placed it too far to the right to cover the grave. Leo asked the lady where the grave was. “I’ve been selling vegetables for twenty-five years and no one has asked me that question.” she replied as she pointed to the location of the relics. After purchasing three properties, involving the archbishop, and showing the excavators where to dig, they rediscovered his relics through a divine manifestation of the hearing of heavenly music.

Fr. Lawrence Carney, The Secret of the Holy Face – The Devotion Destined to Save Society pp. 104-105