Almsdeeds and compassion filled your life with their splendors

Irish Rune of Hospitality

I saw a stranger yestreen;

I put food in the eating place,

Drink in the drinking place,

Music in the listening place

And in the name of the Triune

He blessed myself and my house,

My cattle and my dear ones, and the lark said in her song

Often, often, often,

Goes the Christ in the stranger's guise,

Often, often, often,

Goes the Christ in the stranger's guise.

"St. Martin of Tours was born in Pannonia (Hungary today), the son of a pagan soldier in the Roman army. Martin joined the army, and also became a catechumen. While in the army in France, one bitter cold night Martin shared his military cloak with a naked beggar, and that night Martin had a dream: he saw Christ wearing the halved cloak he had given to the beggar. Soon after, Martin was baptized and left the army, determined to be a 'soldier of Christ.'

He became a hermit, and founded a hermitage at Liguge in France. He was elected bishop of Tours because of his reputation for holiness-and because he was already famous for his miracles: he is said to have raised a dead man to life, to have cured a leper with a kiss, to have conversed frequently with angels and with saints. At his episcopal ordination, some complained that he was not a nobleman, and he had 'dirty clothes and unkempt hair.' (He was forever giving his nice things away to the poor.) Be that is it may, Martin's holiness was universally recognized, and when he died in 397, he became one of the first non-martyrs to be venerated as a saint."  from Evelyn Birges Vitz's, A Continual Feast: A cookbook to celebrate the joys of family and faith through the Christian year