St. Marin of Tours was a Bishop and pioneer of Western monasticism. He was born in 316 to a pagan army officer in Sabaria, Pannonia, on the Danube (modern day Hungary). He then moved with his family to Pavia, Italy. At age fifteen, he was inducted into the army, and in 337 cut his cloak in half to clothe a freezing beggar in Samarobriva (modern Amiens, France). That night he had a vision of Christ wearing half of his cloak.

Converting to Christianity, Martin left the army and returned to Pannonia, where his mother and others converted to the faith. After years of fighting Arianism and enduring persecution from the Arian heretics, Martin joined St. Hilary of Poitiers and became a hermit around 360, the first monastic-style community in Gaul (modern France).

After a decade at Liguge, Martin was made bishop of Tours in 371. He founded Marmoutier Abbey and lived there while performing his episcopal duties. He intervened with the usurper Magnus Maximus in the Priscillianist Controversy.

He then went to Rome and then back to Gaul, where he established a religious center, dying there on November 8, 397. Martin was gifted with many mystical graces and was the outstanding monastic pioneer before St. Benedict of Nursia.