Feastday: October 24
Birth: 527
Death: 601
Hermit and founder of Vertou Abbey. He was born in Nantes and was ordained a deacon by St. Felix. Upon becoming a hermit, Martin lived in the Dumen Forest on the Sevre River in Brittany. There he attracted a host of disciples and founded Vertou Abbey, serving as abbot. He also founded Saint Jouin-de-Mames and other monastic institutions before dying at Durieu convent, one of his foundations. Numerous extravagant miracles are attributed to Martin.
Arms of Vertou bearing Saint Martin's yew tree
Saint Martin of Vertou (527–601) was a hermit and abbot, founder of Vertou Abbey, and the evangelist of the region around Nantes in Francia. He is sometimes known as the Apostle of the Herbauges.
Life
Martin was distinguished by his virtue, learning, and talent. He was ordained by Saint Felix, Bishop of Nantes, who also made him archdeacon of the church of Nantes and charged him with converting the inhabitants of the town and the surrounding area to Christianity.
In about 577, he withdrew into solitude in an area of wasteland on the right bank of the Sèvre Nantaise. Gradually, as people were drawn to him by his sanctity, he built a church and enlarged his hermitage, which became Vertou Abbey. He also founded other religious communities, including Durieu Abbey, where he died in 601 at the age of seventy-four.
There is a legend that he planted his pilgrim's staff in the middle of the abbey courtyard at Vertou and that it took root, growing into a yew tree, which appears on the arms of the commune of Vertou.
His feast day is 24 October.
