He then traveled to Poitiers and became the disciple of Saint Hilaire who ordained him priest. During a visit to Savaria, he tried in vain to preach the Gospel to his parents before finally leaving his birthplace for good. According to another tradition he baptized his mother. Later he founded the Ligugé monastery in Poitiers on the banks of the river Clain. Disciples joined him and his reputation spread throughout Gaul. He was elected bishop by the Christian community of Tours on 5th July, 371. He tried to hide from this position into a poultry house, but was given away by the cackling of geese. That’s the reason the goose became Martin’s symbol. As a bishop he became very popular by his goodness and charity as well as his singular eloquence. He died in November 397 at the age of 80, in Candes, within the confinesof his diocese. To protect his body from the claims of the people of Poitiers, the locals transported him by boat to Tours by night. His tomb, on the Santiago de Compostela road, very soon became a center of pilgrimage. He became the patron saint of the Frankish kings and Gaul, and his veneration spread all over the world. In Europe several thousand settlements and churches bear his name.