The Story of St Martin for Children, and How to Tell It

Your child is holding a half-made lantern and asks who Martin was. The story below is one you can read aloud tonight, and tell from memory by Martinmas. The Waldorf School of the Peninsula tells it as a picture of compassion and warmth. In that picture, a young soldier stands at a city gate in winter, cutting his only cloak in two so a man with nothing can be warm. The 5 steps for telling it come after the story.

The story of Martin and his cloak

This is our own retelling, written to be read aloud.

Long ago, more than sixteen hundred years ago, a boy named Martin was born in a town called Sabaria. Today that town is in Hungary. When he was still young, his family moved to Ticinum, in Italy.

Martin's father was a soldier in the Roman army. He had started as an ordinary soldier and become an officer. Martin's parents were not Christians.

But Martin had his own mind. When he was ten years old, he went to the church on his own, though his parents didn't want him to. He asked if he could begin to learn the Christian faith.

When Martin was fifteen, there was a law that the sons of old soldiers must become soldiers too. So Martin was taken into the army, and he made the soldier's promise.

Martin was a soldier, but he gave away what he had to people who needed it. By the winter of this story, he had already given away all his other clothes.

That winter was colder than usual. The cold was so hard that people were dying of it.

One day, Martin came to the gate of a city called Amiens. There, by the gate, stood a poor man with no clothes on at all. He was asking the people who went by to help him. And every one of them walked past.

Martin saw that no one else was going to help. But what could he give? He had nothing with him except his sword and the cloak he was wearing.

So Martin took his sword. He cut his cloak into two equal halves. He gave one half to the poor man, and he put the other half back on himself.

Some of the people standing by laughed at him, because he looked so odd in half a cloak. But others felt sorry, because they had done nothing to help.

That night, Martin had a dream. He saw Christ, and Christ was wearing the half of the cloak that Martin had given away. All around him stood a great crowd of angels. And Martin heard Christ say to them, in a clear voice, "Martin, who is still only learning the faith, has clothed me with this cloak."

Soon after, Martin was baptized.

About two years later, Martin left the army. He went to learn from Hilary, the bishop of Poitiers. Near that town he built a monastery, a quiet home where he could live a life of prayer.

When he was older, the people of Tours wanted him as their bishop, and they brought him to their city. He was bishop of Tours until he died.

And every year, on November 11, people remember Martin.

Where the story comes from

Every part of that retelling, up to Martin becoming bishop, comes from the Life of St Martin. It was written by Sulpicius Severus, who knew Martin. Martin's childhood and his years as a young soldier are in chapter 2. The cloak at Amiens and the dream are in chapter 3, along with his baptism. Leaving the army is in chapter 4. His time with Hilary and the monastery near Poitiers are in chapters 5 to 7. His call to be bishop of Tours is in chapter 9. The last lines, about Martin staying bishop until he died and the day people remember him, come from the rest of his life as historians tell it.

The tale of the geese is a legend that isn't in Sulpicius's account. When Martin was about to be made bishop, he didn't want it and hid in a goose pen, until the cackling of the geese gave him away. You can tell it to older children after the cloak story.

The lantern walk is a custom too, kept in some towns and in many Waldorf schools. The oldest account of Martin's life doesn't mention lanterns.

How to tell it, by age

Knowing which parts are in the oldest account lets you choose what to tell. Here's one way to match it to your child's age.

Ages 3 to 6. You might keep it to one line, as Starpath's Martinmas guide suggests: Martin had a warm cloak, and he shared it. At this age the guide puts the lantern at the center of the festival: making it together and singing the same short song each day.

Grades 1 to 3. You can tell the whole story, from the boy at the church to the dream. Tell it slowly, by candlelight. Some families tell it with simple wooden figures, or with silks draped across a low table. In Waldorf schools, the stories of saints and good people traditionally sit in grade 2, beside the fables, as the grade 2 curriculum page explains.

Grades 4 to 8. You can add more of his life, up to becoming bishop, and then the tale of the geese. You can also tell them where the story comes from. If a conversation starts, you might wonder together what it means to share what keeps you warm. Then leave it as a question.

How to tell the story from memory

Whatever the age, you might put the book down and tell it. The Waldorf storytelling page explains why Waldorf teachers tell stories from memory. Here are the 5 steps for this one.

1. Read the story above to yourself on three evenings before you tell it.
2. Learn the five pictures, and tell the rest in your own words. The boy goes to the church alone. The young soldier. The poor man at the gate. The sword and the two halves of the cloak. The dream.
3. Choose one line for the dream, and learn it by heart. You can use ours, or put it in your own words.
4. Light a candle, or the lantern you've made, and tell it in a calm, even voice. End on the dream. For a child under 6, end on the shared cloak. Then blow out the candle. Leave it there, with no "what did you learn?" and no moral.
5. The next day, ask your child to tell it back to you. Then let them draw it, or act it out with a cloth for the cloak.

Tell the same story each evening until the lantern walk.

Bring it to the lantern walk

The story is the start of the festival, and the evening of November 11 is where families carry it out into the dark. Our Martinmas festival guide walks you through the rest, from the lantern to the walk itself.