Vital Martin was born the son of Francis and Agnes Picard Martin on October 12, 1819, in Porssard, France, and entered the Novitiate at age 17 at Lyons. He taught in France until his arrival at Christian Brothers College in 1865 where the community register lists him as a "working Brother." He died ten years later in St. Louis and is buried in Calvary Cemetery at Glencoe, Missouri. He was in his thirty-ninth year as a De La Salle Christian Brother.