Saint Martin de Porres
Religious
- Feast Day
- November 3
- Life
- 1579–1639
- Canonized
- 1962
- Order
- Order of Preachers (Dominicans), lay brother
- Born
- Lima, Peru
Martin de Porres was born in Lima, Peru, on December 9, 1579, the illegitimate son of a Spanish nobleman, Don Juan de Porres, and Ana Velazquez, a freed Black or Indigenous woman from Panama. His father initially refused to acknowledge him because of his dark skin, and Martin grew up in poverty with his mother and sister. As a youth he was apprenticed to a barber-surgeon, learning the medical and surgical skills then practiced in that trade.
At fifteen Martin sought entrance to the Dominican Priory of the Holy Rosary in Lima as a servant boy (donado), the lowest status available to him because of laws restricting religious profession by those of mixed ancestry. After nine years his prior, recognizing his evident sanctity, received him as a lay brother in defiance of the racial regulations. Martin spent the rest of his life as the priory's infirmarian, caring for the sick poor of Lima, founding an orphanage and a foundling hospital, and serving runaway slaves and abandoned children. Contemporary biographies record extraordinary phenomena attributed to him: bilocation, miraculous healings, gifts of prophecy, and an evident kinship with animals. He died on November 3, 1639. Pope Gregory XVI beatified him in 1837, and Pope Saint John XXIII canonized him on May 6, 1962, the first Black saint of the Americas.
Saint Martin's life is a witness against racism within the Church and the world. Born under the legal disabilities of colonial Peru's racial caste system, he answered contempt with charity and was finally received as a Dominican son by a community that recognized holiness exceeded their own social rules. He is invoked for racial justice and reconciliation.
Patronages
interracial justice · barbers · public health workers · people of mixed race
Catholic Churches Named After Saint Martin de Porres
20 parishes on Catholic Church Times share Saint Martin de Porres's name. Find their Mass times, confession schedules, and adoration hours:
- St. Martin de Porres Parish — Bulawayo
- St. Martin de Porres Parish — Parañaque City, NCR
- St Martin de Porres, Sheidow Park — Sheidow Park, SA
- St Martin De Porres, Avondale Heights — Avondale Heights, VIC
- Saint Martin de Porres — Syracuse, IN
- St. Martin De Porres Catholic Aboriginal Community — Casuarina, NT
- St. Martin de Porres — Regina, SK
- St. Martin De Porres — Milwaukee, WI
- St. Martin de Porres — Yorba Linda, CA
- San Martin De Porres — Sahuarita, AZ
- St. Martin De Porres — Louisville, KY
- St. Martin de Porres — Scott, LA
- Saint Martin de Porres Catholic Church — Boulder, CO
- St. Martin de Porres — Prosper, TX
- St. Martin de Porres — Philadelphia, PA
- Saint Martin de Porres Catholic Church — Weslaco, TX
- Saint Martin de Porres Catholic Church — Delcambre, LA
- San Martin de Porres — Laredo, TX
- St. Martin de Porres — Amarillo, TX
- Iglesia de San Martin de Porres
Sources