“The cult of St Martin of Tour represents a great story of success. St Martin is one of the major saints of Christianity. He is venerated all over Europe, both in Catholic and Orthodox Christendom. Perhaps more than any other saint, he presents a European saint . . . Protestant Christians do not usually venerate saints, but Martin is still one of the two saints who is traditionally celebrated with a variety of events in the predominantly protestant parts of northern Germany. In early modern Europe, the feast of St Martin was the central church feast of the entire calendar year, surpassing even Christmas in significance . . . The reason for that was probably that St Martin’s feast coincided with the latest part of the harvest season.”
—Andre Mertens, The Old English Lives of St Martin of Tours (Göttingen, Germany: Universitätsverlag Göttingen, 2017), p 40
[Image: “Grüße vom Martinstag in Erfurt (Greetings from Martin’s day in Erfurt),” postcard dated 10 November 1913]