Martin of Tours

Martin was a Roman soldier who, while still a catechumen, cut his cloak in half to give to a beggar — and then dreamed Christ wearing the half he gave away. He left the army, became a monk under Hilary of Poitiers, and ended up bishop of Tours against his will. He founded the first major monastery in Gaul, evangelised the rural countryside (the word 'pagan' comes from this period — paganus meant villager, the people not yet Christianised), and became the first non-martyr to be venerated as a saint in the West. Sulpicius Severus wrote his Life and it became the template for medieval saints' biographies for the next thousand years.