Welcome to our chaplaincy section. Our chaplaincy team is led by Mrs Simpson and Mrs Graham.
Our chaplains are Akira, George, Oscar and Ava.
Please pray for John Arnold
Installed as 11th Bishop of Salford on 8th December 2014
"Stay with us Lord on our Journey"
Where does the name Chaplain originate from?
The 11th of November, as well as being Remembrance Day is also the Feast Day of St Martin of Tours. St Martin is special to the chaplaincy team because it is from him that the name chaplain originates.
Martin was born in the year 316, he was a native of Sabaria, an ancient province of the Roman Empire which we now know as Hungary. His father was a senior officer in the Roman army. He was named after Mars, the god of war, meaning ‘the brave, the courageous’.
The family moved to Pavia in Italy. When he was 15 being a son of an officer meant that he had to join the army himself. While he was a soldier stationed in Gaul he experienced a vision.
He was at the gates of the city of Amiens with his soldiers when he met a scantily dressed beggar. He impulsively cut his own military cloak in half and shared it with the beggar.
That night he dreamed that Jesus came to him and returned the half cloak Martin had shared with him. He heard Jesus say to the angels: “Here is Martin, the Roman soldier who is not baptised; he had clad me.” When Martin woke his cloak was restored. The miraculous cloak was preserved as a relic.
The Latin word for “short cloak”, cappella in Latin, was extended to the people charged with preserving the cloak of St. Martin, the cappellani or “chaplains” .
The dream had such an impact on Saint Martin that he was baptised the next day and became a Christian. He decided to leave the army and became a monk near the city of Tours.
Martin worked for the conversion to Christianity of the people, making many preaching trips through western and central France. In the course of his work he became extremely popular, and in 371 became bishop of Tours; he refused to live in the city and instead founded a monastery for his residence a short distance outside the walls.
St Martin died on 8 November 397 at Candes, Tours, France of natural causes; by his request, he was buried in the Cemetery of the poor on 11 November 397.