St. Martin de Porres was born on December 9, 1579 in Lima, Peru. His mother was African and his father was a Spanish gentleman in the aristocracy. His father abandoned him when he was a child, leaving his mother, younger sister, and Martin to live in abject poverty. Martin would spend much of his early life battling the racism of his day and was often ridiculed for being of mixed race. He was eventually befriended by a barber/surgeon who taught him the art of medicine and healing. This friendship would be pivotal in his life.
Despite his difficulties, Martin learned to pray and love Our Lord from a very early age. He developed a deep devotion to the Lord’s Passion and the Holy Eucharist. It was clear that he had a call to religious life. Unfortunately, the laws of Peru forbade men and women of mixed race to become full members of religious orders. St. Martin would not be deterred. He applied to the Dominican Convent of the Holy Rosary. He was accepted as a servant. In exchange for his work, he was allowed to wear the habit of the Dominican Order and participate in the religious activities of the community.
While he lived in the convent, Martin began his former work in healing. He combined his great love of prayer with his medical skills and was able to heal many people. Reports of his skill as a surgeon and healer quickly grew throughout the region. Sister Mary Jean Dorcy, O.P., in her book St. Dominic’s Family, shares a few examples of his healing:
As much by his prayers as through medical knowledge, he cured the most frightening diseases. Some of his cures were: bringing from near death a priest who had a badly infected leg; curing the fingers of a young student, who had feared that an accident had ruined his hopes for the priesthood; making whole again so many people afflicted with so many diseases no one attempted to count them.
After eight years of serving in the Dominican Convent of the Rosary, the prior, Juan de Lorenzana decided to disregard the law and allowed Martin to take vows in the Third Order of Saint Dominic. Martin spent the rest of his days serving in the infirmary of the convent where he was put in charge. He served all peoples regardless of their political, social, or economic status. He ministered to nobles and the poor alike with the same great charity, selflessness, and devotion.
There were many reports that Martin was able to bi-locate. He was said to have appeared in Mexico, Central America, and even in Japan, to people who had known him. He had not left Lima since joining the Order. He was able to walk through locked doors and he appeared at the bedside of those suffering in their hour of need. One such report came during an epidemic:
When an epidemic struck Lima, there were in this single Convent of the Rosary 60 friars who were sick, many of them novices in a distant and locked section of the convent, separated from the professed. Martin is said to have passed through the locked doors to care for them, a phenomenon which was reported in the residence more than once. The professed, too, saw him suddenly beside them without the doors having been opened. Martin continued to transport the sick to the convent until the provincial superior, alarmed by the contagion threatening the friars, 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 prior, when he heard of this, reprimanded him for disobedience. He was extremely edified, however, 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.” The prior gave him liberty thereafter to follow his inspirations in the exercise of mercy.
Catholic Online, St. Martin de Porres
Martin spent the rest of his life healing the sick, including animals, and founded a home for abandoned and orphaned children. He was well known for his mercy and charity towards all. He died on November 3, 1639. There were numerous miracles that occurred after his death and a great devotion to him began after his death. Twenty-five years after his death, his body was exhumed and found to be incorrupt with the scent of sanctity (the scent of flowers) present.
Selflessness
St. Martin de Porres is an example of selflessness and service to others. He dedicated his life to serving anyone in need of healing, regardless of background. He saw wach person as Imago Dei, made in the image and likeness of God. It did not matter how they treated him or what they could give him, he served and healed in charity. Martin experienced institutional injustice in the form of extreme racism. Even his brothers in the convent used derogatory and racist terms towards him. It is a reminder that injustice occurs in the lay life and the religious life, and we are all called to overcome such injustices with patience, selflessness, and our gaze fixed on Christ.
Prayer
Martin was a deeply prayerful man. What he accomplished for Christ was done through prayer. Like Our Lord, he went out to pray that he may serve all in need. Over his lifetime Martin healed multitudes, including those very same brothers who mistreated him.
No Life is Too Small for Christ
Martin is an example of how no life is too small when it is given over to Christ. Our Lord does great things with the poor and the rich. Oftentimes it is the former who are cognizant of the call of Christ and are able to serve Him completely. St. Martin de Porres began his life in rejection and poverty, much like Christ. He fostered a life of prayer, devotion, and service. He offers each one of us an example of a man who persevered and lived the call of Christ.
Not all of us are called to a life such as Martin’s, but we are all called. The question is: Where is God calling each one of us? We are called to live out our Baptismal promises through charity, selflessness, and prayer. We are all called to be saints. For members of the laity, we are called to sanctify the world and bring all peoples to Christ through the Church.
The lay apostolate, however, is a participation in the salvific mission of the Church itself. Through their baptism and confirmation all are commissioned to that apostolate by the Lord Himself. Moreover, by the sacraments, especially holy Eucharist, that charity toward God and man which is the soul of the apostolate is communicated and nourished. Now the laity are called in a special way to make the Church present and operative in those places and circumstances where only through them can it become the salt of the earth. Thus every layman, in virtue of the very gifts bestowed upon him, is at the same time a witness and a living instrument of the mission of the Church itself “according to the measure of Christ’s bestowal”.
When we look at St. Martin de Porres, we do not see his mission as our own. The temptation for Catholics can be to compare ourselves to this or that saint and lose sight of their witness in our own lives. Rather, looking at the example of St. Martin de Porres and other canonized saints, is to see a lens in which we can discover and view our own mission. God has a mission for each one of us that is tailor-made for us as individuals within the life of the Church.
Looking at Martin’s example of selflessness, prayer, and healing we can see examples of how we can serve. We must be selfless in our own families and serve constantly. Our lives must be centered, focused, and driven by prayer and the Sacraments. We cannot accomplish the work Christ is calling us to, or the mission of becoming a saint, without prayer. It is impossible. We can bring healing to others by forgiving old grudges and wounds, bringing meals to the sick, visiting the sick in the hospital, and serving the sick in our own families. We can also bring Christ to others so that the wounds of sin and death can be healed in the lost. St. Martin de Porres’ extraordinary witness and example helps light the way for each one of us as we keep our eyes fixed on the Crown of Glory that awaits us and the words: “Well done they good and faithful servant.” St. Martin de Porres, ora pro nobis.
image: St Martin de Porres OP by Fr. Lawrence Lew, OP via Flickr
