SAINT MARTIN de PORRES
Dominican Coadjutor Brother
(1579-1639)
Saint Martin de Porres was born in Lima, Peru
in 1579, during the days when Spanish noblemen and many
adventurers were still in the land, fascinated by the lure of
the gold and silver which abounded there. He was the natural son
of one of these and a young Indian woman. It was not long before
his dark complexion caused his father to be ashamed of him and
his mother, and to abandon them. Later the father would regret
his too rapid decision, and take Martin under his protection.
The young boy often heard himself referred to
as a half-breed, and all his life long, his profound humility
saw in himself only the magnanimity of God amid the inadequacy
of his origins. 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, forbid 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.
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.
Even sick animals came to Martin for healing.
He demonstrated a great control of and care for animals--a care
that apparently was inexplicable to the Spaniards--extending his
love even to rats and mice, whose scavenging he excused on the
grounds that they were hungry. He kept cats and dogs at his
sister's house.
Great as his healing faculty was, Martin is
probably best remembered for the legend of the rats. It is said
that the prior, a reasonable man, objected to the rodents. He
ordered Martin to set out poison for them. Martin obeyed, but
was very sorry for the rats. He went out into the garden and
called softly--and out came the rats. He reprimanded them for
their bad habits, telling them about the poison. He further
assured them that he would feed them every day in the garden, if
they would refrain from annoying the prior. This they agreed
upon. He dismissed the rodents and forever after, they never
troubled the monastery.
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 1836, and in 1962 Pope John XXIII canonized
him. The poor and the sick will never fail to find in him a
friend having great power over the Heart of God.
Source: Vie du Bienheureux Martin de Porrès,
by Fr. Arthur M. Granger, O.P. (Dominican Press: St. Hyacinthe,
1941).
He died of quatrain fever at Rosary Convent
on November 3. The Spanish viceroy, the count of Chinchón, came
to kneel at his deathbed and ask his blessing. Martin was
carried to his grave by prelates and noblemen.
The startling miracles, which caused Martin
to be called a saint in his own lifetime, continue today at his
intercession. He lived a life of almost constant prayer, and
practiced remarkable austerities. He worked at hard and menial
tasks without ever losing a moment of union with God. His
charity, humility, and obedience were extraordinary--even for a
saint. Such was the veneration for Martin that the canonical
inquiry into his cause was begun in 1660 (Attwater, Cavallini,
Delaney, Dorcy, Farmer, Walsh, White).
He is the patron saint of interracial
relations (because of his universal charity to all men), social
justice, public education, and television in Peru, Spanish trade
unionists (due to injustices workers have suffered), Peru's
public health service, people of mixed race, and Italian barbers
and hairdressers (White)
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St.
Martin, you always had sympathy for the poor and those who were
suffering. I need your help and now ask for it with great
confidence in your goodness and power. Please remember me, as
you adore God. Amen.
St.
Martin, we praise God for the manifestation of His love. The
favors you received from God encourage us now to seek your
intercession and help. We ask you most humbly to befriend and
assist us from your place in heaven; but most of all, we beg you
to commend us to our beloved Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Amen.