StM Community Donates Coats to New Orleans Mission

November 10th, 2023

Each year, the St. Martin’s community joins together to live out our ideal of Service and support a worthy cause as part of our celebration of our patron saint, St. Martin de Tours. This year, the school followed the example of St. Martin himself and hosted a coat drive.

According to legend, Martin of Tours was a soldier in the army of Constantine the Great in the fourth century. On a winter’s day Martin encountered a poor beggar at the city gates and cut his military cloak in half to help shield the shivering man from the cold. That night Martin had a vision that Christ came to him wearing the part of the cloak he had given to the beggar, saying: “What thou hast done for that poor man, thou hast done for me.” Martin, who had entered military service at his father's behest, then left the military to devote his life to the Christian faith.

More than 100 new or gently worn winter coats were donated by the St. Martin's community to benefit the New Orleans Mission. During the St. Martin's Day chapel service, Fr. Jeff Millican blessed the coat drive donations from the StM community. StM extends its gratitude to Dads’ Club member Andy Wittich ’89 and Erika Wittich ’91 for taking the St. Martin’s community’s donations to the New Orleans Mission. Thank you to our students, families, faculty, and staff for their donations.