Saint Saint Martial

Martial of Limoges (3rd century), whose name is also rendered as Marcial, Martialis, and Marcialis, and is also called "the Apostle of the Gauls" or "the Apostle of Aquitaine," was the first bishop of Limoges. Venerated as a Christian saint, Martial of Limoges is considered to have been canonized Pre-Congregation, and his feast day is on 30 June. Of somewhat uncertain origin, Martial is said to have come from "the Orient." A medieval hymn, tentatively attributed to Venantius Fortunatus, suggests that he was of highborn Jewish origin. According to Gregory of Tours, during the time of the Emperors Decius Pope Fabian sent out seven bishops from Rome to Gaul to preach the Gospel: Gatien to Tours, Trophimus to Arles, Paul to Narbonne, Saturnin to Toulouse, Denis to Paris, Austromoine to Clermont, and Martial to Limoges. According to the Golden Legend, when Martial first went to Limoges as a missionary, he visited the temple, where the priests beat him before having him imprisoned. During his morning prayers the following day, a great light surrounded him and the bars and chains burst open, releasing Martial and resulting in the prison guards requesting to be baptised by him. He succeeded in converting the inhabitants to Christianity, and his memory has always been venerated there. Martial died in Limoges and was buried outside the Roman town. As his tomb became progressively more important as a pilgrimage site, the monks found patronage in the Benedictine order in the 9th century. The site became the Benedictine Abbey of Saint-Martial, a great library (second only to the library at Cluny), and scriptorium. The 12th-century chronicler Geoffroy du Breuil of Vigeois worked in its library. The Abbey of Saint-Martial, one of the great pilgrimage churches of western Christianity, was so thoroughly razed in the 19th century, that only the scattered manuscripts of its library remain.