to the accomplishment of God's great
plan.

After making a pilgrimage to Rome, which was now not only the head of
the worldwide Empire, but the kind of headquarters of the Christians, he
returned to France, so as to put himself under the guidance of a very
holy man, called St. Hilary, the Bishop of Poitiers.

St. Hilary soon saw that Martin was no ordinary young soldier, but was a
very promising "soldier of Jesus Christ," and that his services would
be very valuable. He saw, also, that he had received a special call from
God, so he proposed to ordain him deacon. But Martin was very humble,
and he refused the honour. In the end he let St. Hilary ordain him
exorcist. But directly after this he was ordered by God in a dream to go
back to his native land and visit his relations and bring them into the
Christian Faith. St. Hilary was disappointed, but he let him go, making
him promise, however, that he would return to the Diocese of Poitiers,
to which he now belonged.

After many adventures, including falling into the hands of robbers and
escaping in a marvellous way, which must have been through God's help,
Martin reached his old home, and had the joy of seeing his mother
received into the Church, as well as seven of his cousins and his two
great-uncles.

At this time the Church was being persecuted by a very strong party
called the Arians. They were heretics, who taught that Our Lord was only
a man and not God, and as the Church turned them out on account of their
false teaching, they did nothing but fight against her. Of course,
Martin, the brave soldier of Christ, stood up for what he believed, so
that one day he was seized by the Arians, beaten, and banished from his
own country. He began to make his way back to St. Hilary, but when he
reached Milan he learned that his friend had been banished from
Poitiers, and that an Arian Bishop ruled in his place. So Martin stayed
at Milan; and this, too, was a part of God's plan, because it was his
stay here which started him on an idea which in the end developed into
one of the most important things in his life.

This idea was to form a kind of little monastery outside the city, where
he and a handful of other young men lived, and tried to do good and to
live in a way specially pleasing to God, and more perfect than they
could do in the busy rush of the ordinary world. But after a while the
Arians got strong in Milan, and drove out Martin and his followers. For
a while Mar