Martin de Porres

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Martin de Porres
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Martin of Charity Saint of the Broom
Born	December 9 1579(1579-12-09) in Lima, Peru
Died	November 3 1639 (aged 59) in Lima, Peru
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church, Lutheran Church
Beatified	1837 by Gregory XVI
Canonized	May 6, 1962 by Pope John XXIII
Major shrine	Church and Convent of Santo Domingo, Lima, Peru; St. Martin De Porres National Shrine in Memphis, Tennessee
Feast	November 3
Attributes	a dog, a cat, a bird, and a mouse eating together from a same dish; broom, crucifix, rosary
Patronage	diocese of Biloxi, Mississippi, black people, hair stylists, innkeepers, mixed-race people, Peru, poor people, public education, public health, public schools, race relations, social justice, state schools, television, Peruvian Naval Aviators

Saint Martín de Porres (December 9, 1579 – November 3, 1639) was a Dominican cooperator brother who was beatified in 1837 by Pope Gregory XVI and canonized on May 6 1962 by Pope John XXIII.

Summary

Martin was born in Lima, Peru, as the illegitimate son of a Spanish nobleman and a young, Black former slave born in Panama. He had a sister Juana born in 1581. He grew up in poverty, and at the age of 15 was taken in by the Dominicans as a servant boy. As his duties grew he was promoted to almoner, and then put in charge of the infirmary. His piety and miraculous cures led his superiors to drop the racial limits on admission to the Order and he was made a full Dominican brother. It is said that when his priory was in debt, he implored them: "I am only a poor mulatto, sell me. I am the property of the order, sell me please!" Martin was deeply attached to the Blessed Sacrament, and according to a biography of him in "The Saint Martin De Porres Prayer Book" (p147-152), he was praying in front of it one night when the step of the altar he was kneeling on caught fire. However, the story goes, throughout all the confusion and chaos that followed, he remained where he was, unaware of what was happening around him.

His work on behalf of the poor was tireless: he established an orphanage and a children's hospital. He maintained an austere lifestyle, which included fasting and forswearing meat. His devotion to prayer was notable even by the pious standards of the age. Among the many miracles attributed to him were those of levitation, bilocation, miraculous knowledge, instantaneous cures and an ability to communicate with animals.

In iconography, Martin de Porres is often depicted as a young mulatto priest with a broom, since he considered all work to be sacred no matter how menial. It is also shown with him the dog, the cat and the mouse, eating in peace from their dish.

Martin was a friend of St. John de Massias and Saint Rose of Lima. He died in Lima in 1639. As his body was displayed to allow the people of the city to pay their respects, each person snipped a tiny piece of his habit to keep as a relic. It is said that three habits were taken from the body. His body was then interred in the grounds of the monastery.

His life

Saint Martin de Porres was born in Lima, Peru in 1579, during the days when Spanish invaders came fascinated by the lure of the gold and silver which abounded there. He was the son of an Afro descendant woman from Panama and a Hispanic man.

When his mother could not support him and his sister, Martin was confided to a primary school for two years, then placed with a surgeon to learn the medical arts. This caused him great joy, though he was only ten years old, for he could exercise charity to his neighbor while earning his living. Already he was spending hours of the night in prayer, a practice which increased rather than diminished as he grew older. Until his death he would flagellate himself three times every night, for his own failings and for the conversion of pagans and sinners.

He asked for admission to the Dominican Convent of the Rosary in Lima and was received first as a tertiary. When he was 24, he was given the habit of a Coadjutor Brother and assigned to the infirmary of that convent, where he would remain in service until his death at the age of sixty. His superiors saw in him the virtues necessary to exercise unfailing patience in this difficult role, and he never disappointed them. On the contrary, it was not long before miracles began to happen, and Saint Martin was working also with the sick outside his convent, often bringing them healing with only a simple glass of water. He begged for alms to procure for them necessities the Convent could not provide, and Providence always supplied what he sought.

One day an aged beggar, covered with ulcers and almost naked, stretched out his hand, and Saint Martin, seeing the Divine Mendicant in him, took him to his own bed, paying no heed to the fact that he was not perfectly neat and clean. One of his brethren, considering he had gone too far in his charity, reproved him. Saint Martin replied: “Compassion, my dear Brother, is preferable to cleanliness. Reflect that with a little soap I can easily clean my bed covers, but even with a torrent of tears I would never wash from my soul the stain that my harshness toward the unfortunate would create.”

When an epidemic struck Lima, there were in this single convent of the Rosary sixty religious who were sick, many of them novices in a distant and locked section of the convent, separated from the professed. Saint Martin is known to have passed through the locked doors to care for them, a phenomenon which was observed in the residence more than once. The professed, too, saw him suddenly beside them without the doors having been opened; and these facts were duly verified by the surprised Superiors. Martin continued to transport the sick to the convent until the provincial Superior, alarmed by the contagion threatening the religious, forbade him to continue to do so. His sister, who lived in the country, offered her house to lodge those whom the residence of the religious could not hold. One day he found on the street a poor Indian, bleeding to death from a dagger wound, and took him to his own room until he could transport him to his sister’s hospice. The Superior, when he heard of this, reprimanded his subject for disobedience. He was extremely edified by his reply: “Forgive my error, and please instruct me, for I did not know that the precept of obedience took precedence over that of charity.” In effect, there are situations where charity must prevail; and instruction is very necessary. The Superior gave him liberty thereafter to follow his inspirations in the exercise of mercy.

Extra information

In normal times Saint Martin succeeded with his alms to feed 160 poor persons every day, and distributed a remarkable sum of money every week to the indigent—the latter phenomenon hard to explain by ordinary calculations. To Saint Martin the city of Lima owed a famous residence founded for orphans and abandoned children, where they were formed in piety for a creative Christian life. This lay Brother had always wanted to be a missionary, but never left his native city; yet even during his lifetime he was seen elsewhere, in regions as far distant as Africa, China, Algeria, Japan. An African slave who had been in irons said he had known Martin when he came to relieve and console many like himself, telling them of heaven. When later the same slave saw him in Peru, he was very happy to meet him again and asked him if he had had a good voyage; only later did he learn that Saint Martin had never left Lima. A merchant from Lima was in Mexico and fell ill; he said aloud: “Oh, Brother Martin, if only you were here to care for me..!” and immediately saw him enter his room. And again, this man did not know until later that he had never been in Mexico....

When he died in 1639, Saint Martin was known to the entire city of Lima; word of his miracles had made him known as a Saint to every resident of the region. After his death, the miracles and graces received when he was invoked multiplied in such profusion that his body was exhumed after 25 years and found intact, and exhaling a fine fragrance. Letters to Rome pleaded for his beatification; the decree affirming the heroism of his virtues was issued in 1763 by Clement XIII; Gregory XVI beatified him in 1837, and in 1962 Pope John XXIII canonized him. He is the Saint Protector of the Mixed Race people.

External links

Portal:Saints

Saints Portal

• St. Martin de Porres website and image
• St. Martin de Porres – Saints of the Day
• Prayer for the intercession of St. Martin de Porres
• Order of Preachers: Southern Dominican Province of St. Martin de Porres
• St. Martin de Porres Shrine & Institute • Memphis, Tennessee

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