Saint Martin

The opening line of our vision features St. Martin and for us, this is very powerful as he is also the saint that the local church in Ancaster is named after and he is the figure within the logo of our school. His connections to Roman times provide invaluable context when we consider the historical links Ancaster as a village has to the Roman period. However, it is his story which we can use further to help cement our vision as a strong Christian Vision. As his story is one which we can use to further articulate who we are, why we are here and how we live.

A brief history of the story of St. Martin

St Martin lived between around AD 316 and 397. He began his career as a Roman soldier, but one day he saw a freezing beggar in the street. He cut his cloak in two, and gave half to the beggar. Afterwards he dreamt that the beggar was actually Jesus, and it changed his life.

Martin became a Christian and resigned from the army. He later became a Bishop (Bishop of Tours) in France. Martin is the patron saint of soldiers, beggars and France. He founded monasteries and helped to spread the word of Christianity wherever he went.

 A strong message that flows from the story of St. Martin is that it drills down the idea that he is represented by actions and not words, which is exactly who we are at Ancaster and is how we live-we will not just tell you how much we care-we will always show you!

How do we use the story of St. Martin to help further articulate our vision?

Let’s use our Guiding Lights and our Core Values to see where they link to the story of St. Martin and our school vision.

Inclusivity-St. Martin saw the freezing beggar in the street and cut his cloak in two-despite being a Roman Soldier-he saw him as an equal and gave him half of the cloak.

Exploration-Afterwards, he dreamt that the beggar was Jesus-this prompted him to explore Christianity, a new life and eventually took him to France to explore a new country and area.

Empowerment-The experience led St. Martin to resign from a job he already had empowered him to become a Bishop. The experience of seeing what he believed to be Jesus changed his life.

Values-Led-Using our core values to help drive the vision further, he used his wisdom as a Bishop to found monasteries and spread the teachings of Christianity as well as acquire new knowledge and wisdom along the way. He had the courage to leave his role within the army to become a bishop and he had respect from the outset for the beggar with whom he gave half of his cloak thus treating him with the compassion, respect and dignity of an equal.