{"id":1578,"date":"2012-11-10T23:04:00","date_gmt":"2012-11-10T23:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/professor-points-to-st-martin-of-tours-for-rebuilding-culture\/"},"modified":"2012-11-10T23:04:00","modified_gmt":"2012-11-10T23:04:00","slug":"professor-points-to-st-martin-of-tours-for-rebuilding-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2012\/11\/professor-points-to-st-martin-of-tours-for-rebuilding-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Professor points to St. Martin of Tours for rebuilding culture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Washington D.C., Nov 10, 2012 \/ 04:04 pm (CNA<\/a>).- St. Martin of Tours' \u201cChristian valor\u201d is an example of how to sustain and rebuild Christian culture in a time of \u201cmoral exhaustion\u201d and cultural decay, theology professor John P. Bequette said.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cMartin of Tours challenged a dying Roman culture by presenting a radical Christian counter-culture, rooted in Christian valor,\u201d Bequette, a professor at the University of Saint Francis in Fort Wayne, Ind. wrote in Crisis Magazine Nov. 8.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThis re-orientation saved what was truly worthwhile of Roman culture and give it new life within the emerging Christian culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cAs Christians, we have a responsibility to build a distinct, living culture in the twenty-first century, just as our forebears had the same responsibility in their time, a culture which will manifest itself in education and humanitarian institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tBequette recounted the life of St. Martin of Tours in the fourth century Roman Empire, comparing it to the contemporary United States.<\/p>\n

\tHe said the Roman populace had lost its traditional civic devotion and its readiness to sacrifice, instead engaging in \u201can impoverished attitude of hedonism and self-promotion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThe cultural foundation of Rome was disintegrating, and since political life follows culture, Roman civic life was collapsing,\u201d he said. The Catholic Church was cultivating \u201can alternative culture and alternative civic life\u201d by \u201ctransforming what was good in the Roman legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tMartin, a Roman soldier from a career military family, had begun to cultivate a monastic attitude. In a famous episode, he came upon a beggar outside the city of Amiens in what is now France. In the harshness of winter, Martin cut his cape in two and gave half to the beggar.<\/p>\n

\tThough Martin was ridiculed by others for ruining his cloak, he was rewarded with a vision of Christ clothed in the half cloak he had given to the beggar.<\/p>\n

\tMartin\u2019s request for a discharge from the army of Julian the Apostate also showed his valor, Bequette said. Accused of cowardice, he offered to stand in front of the enemy lines without weapons and armor but \u201cprotected by the sign of the Cross.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tAfter his discharge, Martin became a monk, a deacon, and then Bishop of Tours. He retained independence of Emperor Maximus at a time when other bishops were subservient and fawning towards him.<\/p>\n

\tWhile in Martin\u2019s time, the Church began to have official status and was able to command deference from emperors, Bequette said that in the present day the Church is \u201cincreasingly under attack by a new, secular imperium which would strip the Church of her right to evangelize, educate, and minister.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThis new imperium is possessed of the same ferocious hostility that beset the Church in reign of the pagan emperors,\u201d the theology professor concluded. \u201cIn the face of this new, militant paganism, may God grant us the full measure of the Christian valor of Saint Martin of Tours.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington D.C., Nov 10, 2012 \/ 04:04 pm (CNA).- St. Martin of Tours' “Christian valor” is an example of how to sustain and rebuild Christian culture in a time of “moral exhaustion” and cultural decay, theology professor Joh…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-us"],"yoast_head":"\nProfessor points to St. Martin of Tours for rebuilding culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Washington D.C., Nov 10, 2012 \/ 04:04 pm (CNA).- St. Martin of Tours' “Christian valor” is an example of how to sustain and rebuild Christian culture in a time of “moral exhaustion” and cultural decay, theology professor Joh...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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