The Meenister’s Log – Charlie Chaplain’s Tales
It all starts with the man who became the Patron Saint of France, St. Martin – OK, are you listening?!
Weel then, this geezer, Martin was a Roman (in the gloamin’) sodjer – right. An wan day, he cam across this pan-handler sittin’ at the gates o’ this city (it wis cried Amiens) and this doon an’out says tae Martin, “Ony spare change, Jimmy?”
“Sorry, pal” says Martin, “but am stoney”
But this Martin wiz a decent bloke, and didnae like seeing this puir guy chitterin’ in the cauld.
So here’s whit he did: he took aff his Roman Sodjer’s cloak and cut it in twa. “Here ye are, pal”, he said to the bloke “this’ll keep oot this brass monkey weather, sure it will”
(El Greco – Martin of Tours)
Now, that nicht, it said that Martin had a dream.
It wiz o’ heavin’ with a’ the angels and archangels and them with their halos a’ arood And, ye’ll never believe this: here’s the Big Man – aye Jesus himself – staunin’ richt there amangst them. And guess whit: he’s got oan hauf a sodjer’s cloak!
Wan o’ they angels or it micht have been an archangel, I cannae mind, speers tae him “Lord, why are yoose wearin’ that cloak like?”
An’ Jesus replies – now get this – “Ma servant, Martin, gied it tae me!”
(by this, he was referring to his words: Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these my brethren, even these least, ye did it unto me.)
After St. Martin died, his cloak was kept as a sacred relic. Frankish kings took the cloak with them into battle, and it was used to give sanctity to oaths.
The cloak was preserved in a specially built sanctuary. In the Mediaeval Latin of the time, the cloak was called a cappella (“short cloak”), a diminutive of Late Latin cappa (“cloak”). Soon the sanctuary itself became known as the cappella.
In Latin-speaking Europe, the word cappella expanded its meanings to include, in roughly chronological order, any sanctuary holding sacred relics, any private sanctuary or holy place, and any building for worship that was not a regular church.
In Old French, cappella became chapele, which entered Middle English in the 13th century as chapel.
The capella and the custodians of the relic became known as capellani: hence the word chaplain is derived through Middle English chapelein, from Old French chapelain, from Medieval Latin capellanus.
And that’s how it all came about.
Wake up, you at the back!