November 3: Saint Martin de Porres, Religious—Optional Memorial

1579–1639
Patron Saint of African-Americans, biracial people, barbers, innkeepers, the poor, Peru, public health workers, public schools, television, and interracial and social justice
Canonized by Pope John XXIII on May 6, 1962

Martín de Porres y Velázquez was born in Lima, Viceroyalty of Peru, in the early decades of Spanish occupation of modern Peru. Martin’s father was a Spaniard, and his mother was a freed slave of African or native descent. By custom, this made Martin and his younger sister illegitimate children of mixed race, earning them the demeaning label of “mulatto.” When their father, ashamed of his dark-skinned children, abandoned the family, their mother supported them by washing clothes. 

While Spanish generals treated the indigenous people cruelly, Spanish missionaries catechized and baptized natives and slaves. Young Martin developed a deep love of God and a love for the poor and suffering. When Martin was twelve years old, his mother could no longer afford to feed him, so she sent him to a school where he lived and studied for a couple of years. Afterwards, a barber-surgeon took him in, teaching him haircutting, basic medical techniques, and how to perform surgery. Martin’s trade gave him the opportunity to support himself and be of service to others. During his internship, Martin spent hours each night in prayer, entering deeper into divine union. His mixed race background barred him from becoming a professed religious, but he successfully petitioned the friar at the Domincans’ Holy Rosary friary in Lima to admit him as a non-professed lay brother. 

For eight years, Martin lived and dressed as a Dominican but worked as the friary’s servant. He cut the friars’ hair, cooked, cleaned, did laundry, and cared for the sick. Aware of his holiness, the friars put him in charge of the community’s alms for the poor. After Martin’s time of menial service, the Dominican superior ignored Spanish law and asked Martin to take formal vows as a Dominican at age twenty-four. For the next ten years, Brother Martin continued his humble service, spent hours before the Blessed Sacrament, performed severe penances, and developed a deep devotion to Mary. 

At age thirty-four, Brother Martin was placed in charge of the infirmary, a duty he would fulfill for twenty-five years until his death. While his barber-surgeon skills healed many, miracles also were reported. His humility, compassion, and spiritual wisdom made an even greater impact. In addition, he treated the poor and sick from the town at the friary, sometimes providing them his own bed.

Little by little, Brother Martin began to have a profound effect upon not only the friars but on all of Lima. He would miraculously appear in a sick friar’s room without even opening the door. Bi-locations were reported, and some arriving from Europe and Africa claimed that he had appeared to them there, before they arrived in Peru. He founded a home for orphans and begged for alms throughout the city. In prayer, he appeared enveloped in light or levitating. He could read souls, and his miraculous wisdom and knowledge led the most learned of men to seek his counsel. He treated stray animals with dignity as God’s creatures, some people claiming he was even able to miraculously communicate with them. After his death, the miracles increased as people sought his intercession. Twenty-five years later, Martin’s body was exhumed and found to be incorrupt.

Let us pray, Saint Martin de Porres, poverty and rejection did not deter you from pursuing the love of God that filled you with virtue and a deep love for God’s people. Pray that I may learn humility from your life and will never waver in my commitment to prayer, so that God can do great things in me and, through me, for the world. Saint Martin de Porres, pray for me. Jesus, I trust in You.