About this edition

The text

The Life of Saint Martin was written in Latin by Sulpicius Severus around the year 396, while Martin was still alive. The Latin text used here is the one in Migne’s Patrologia Latina, volume 20, as published on Wikisource.

This edition puts the whole work into plain modern language and adds a narrator who explains the Roman world along the way, a map, and an epilogue on Martin’s last years taken from Sulpicius’s letters. The narrator’s notes are set apart from the text of Sulpicius.

The translations

The edition was first written in Portuguese. The English edition was made from it and is the master for every other language.

The other translations were made with the help of AI and have not yet been checked by a native speaker, unless the Library says otherwise. Each one is labelled. If your language is here and something reads badly, you are the person we need.

The paintings

The illustrations were made for this edition by its editor. They are not historical documents: nobody knows what Martin looked like.

What is history and what is not

Every story on the site carries a tag: told by Martin himself, reported by Sulpicius, or later tradition. Sulpicius admired Martin and wanted readers to admire him too. The site reports what he wrote and leaves the judgement to you.

Corrections

Mistakes in a translation, a date or a place name can be reported with the form in the Library. Corrections go into the next version of the book, and the version number changes.

Free, and why

The book is shared under the CC BY-SA 3.0 and GNU FDL licences. You may copy it, print it and hand it out, with credit and under the same terms.

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