Martin de Porres (1579–1639)

Biography

He was the son of a Spanish nobleman, Dn. Juan de Porres, and a mulatto girl, Ana Velázquez. Martín was baptized in the church of San Sebastián, in the same baptismal font in which Santa Rosa de Lima would be seven years later. Since he was a child he was very generous with the poor, to whom he gave part of the money when he went shopping. His mother often took him to the temple. His father, governor of Panama, provided him with a good education. Martín learned the barber's trade, which included surgeon and general medicine. He carried out his job well, especially in favor of the poor, and took advantage of the opportunity to speak to them about God, and his goodness was such that it moved everyone. During the day he worked and at night he dedicated himself to prayer. At the age of fifteen he entered the Rosario convent in Lima as a Dominican tertiary. There he was happy, serving those inside and outside with humility and charity. He converted the convent into a hospital. He picked up the sick and wounded from the streets, carried them on his shoulders and laid them in his own bed. She cared for them and pampered them like a mother. Some religious people protested, as it violated the closure and peace. "Charity is above the cloister," answered Martín. Their rudimentary medicines, and even more so their hands, worked cures and miracles. His charity extended to the poor little animals he found hungry and injured. There were many homeless people in Lima. He looked for money and founded the Santa Cruz Asylum for children. There he took care of them and taught them a profession. His favorite devotions were: Christ Crucified, and in memory of the sufferings of Christ on the Cross he gave himself three daily disciplines. Another devotion was that of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, and he spent hours before the Blessed Sacrament with frequent ecstasies, devotion to the Virgin Mary - especially under the invocation of the Rosary - with whom he conversed lovingly, and devotion to the guardian angel, to whom he went very frequently. He fought tenaciously against sleep in prayer. When smallpox began to wreak havoc in Lima, Martín's activity and care multiplied. Everyone came to him. Everyone considered him a saint. It was the angel of Lima. That superhuman effort came to dangerously weaken him. He fell ill. He knew that he would not get out of that illness. When he saw that the moment of his death was approaching, he asked the religious around him to sing the Creed. While they sang it, he gave his soul to God. It was November 3, 1639. His death caused deep shock in the city. He had been the brother and nurse of everyone, especially the poorest. Everyone was fighting to get some relic. The entire city said goodbye to him. His cult has spread prodigiously. Gregory XVI declared him Blessed in 1837. He was canonized by John XXIII in 1962. The Pope recalled - in the canonization homily - the devotions in which the new Saint had distinguished himself: HIS DEEP HUMILITY that made him consider everyone superior to him, his apostolic zeal, and his continuous efforts to care for the sick and needy, which earned him, on the part of all the town, the beautiful nickname of "Martin of charity".