St Martin De Porres

Confessor (1579 -1639)

Saint of the day November 3

St Martin was born on 9 December 1579 at Lima, Peru, the child of a free love union. His father, Don Juan de Porres, a knight of Alcantara, Spain, abandoned his mother (a freed negro woman from Panama) after the birth of his son. Growing up in utter poverty, he cultivated an immense love for his fellow poor and the afflicted. At 12 the “little mulatto”, as he was wont to call himself, was apprenticed to a surgeon and soon came to be loved by the inmates of the city hospitals and prisons among whom he distributed a part of his meagre wages.

At 15, Martin became an Oblate of the Dominicans, and such was his charity, obedience and humility, that after nine years the Friars insisted upon his becoming a lay brother. He spent many night hours in spiritual reading, prayer and penitential exercises. Though he tried to conceal the miraculous favours which God bestowed upon him, he soon came to be regarded as a saint, an angel of peace and of compassion; he was able to heal the sick by his mere touch, by his prayers, by the Sign of the Cross; he had the gift of prophecy and invisibility; 1w could read people’s hearts and understand unexpressed desires even at great distances. Although he never left Lima, there arc several authenticated cases of his having personally assisted those ir’ sickness and distress in Mexico, Algiers, France, the Phi1ippines China and Japan. At certain times God permitted the friars to see Martin accompanied by angels or enveloped in light during his ecstasy.

Supernaturally instructed in the faith, Martin devoted himself also to preparing people for the spiritual ministration of the Friars. Spaniards, Negroes and Indians alike were loud in their praise of him, for he seemed to neglect no one. Somehow he was always supplied with food to dispense among the numerous poor and the abandoned waifs who were dependent on the charity of his monastery. From the wealthy conquistadors he solicited funds which enabled him to distribute phenomenal amounts in alms each week. The Holy Cross School was also started through his influence.

When Martin died on 3 November 1639, in his 60th year, all Lima mourned; the Viceroy of Peru, a member of the Royal Chamber and two Bishops were his pall bearers. At the 25th anniversary of his death his body was found to have remained supple and incorrupt.

Beatified by Pope Gregory XVI in 1837 and canonized on 6 May 1962 by Pope John XXIII, St Martin de Porres is called the patron of social justice.