I will raise for myself a faithful priest; he will do what is in my heart and in my mind, says the Lord. St. Martin of Tours whose memory the Church honors today was born in Pannonia (what is now Hungary) to pagan parents. He was a soldier before being baptized at the age of eighteen. He founded a monastery in France at Liguge (the first one in the West) and later became the Bishop of Tours. He sent missionaries to evangelize the country and to educate the clergy. He was also noted for his opposition to the practice of executing heretics. St. Martin was the first non-martyr with annual feast in the Western Church. He is the patron saint of soldiers, wine producers, and of France. 
There is a popular account in the life (biography) of St. Martin of Tours which narrates how, while still a soldier,St. Martin was riding his horse when he happened to come across a poor beggar who was clad in rags. According to the account, St. Martin got off his horse, cut his expensive cloak in two, and covered the shivering beggar with one half. It was a gesture whose importance is seen in its duplication in the lives (biographies) of several saints in the Middle Ages. It is also perhaps the reason for the choice of the Feast’s Gospel passage, the Last Judgment. 
The Last Judgment scene presents us with the criteria that Jesus will use to separate the righteous from the non-righteous at the end of time when he will come to lead creation back to God. And that criteria is love. At the last judgment, the only one question that Jesus will ask us is how much we loved while we were here on earth. He/she who is familiar with the last judgment scene does realize that those questions that Jesus will ask us – whether we fed the hungry and the thirsty, welcomed the stranger and clothed the naked, visited the sick and those in prison – are all expressions of love. Love is the essence and goal of creation. God created the human person out of love, and it is only through love that a follower of Jesus fully lives his/her call. When St. Martin encountered the poorly clad beggar on that cold, winter day, he was moved to cut into two his expensive cloak because of his love for a fellow brother. It was an act that came to define the Christian virtue of charity for his contemporaries. Unbeknownst to him, he was creating a precedent that many after him would try to emulate.  
May we who are honoring the memory of St. Martin today be moved to emulate his desire to live in a practical way the Gospel virtue of charity. Through his intercessions, may we see in our brothers and sisters who are in need an opportunity to put to practice the faith that we profess.