Keeping Us Connected Newsletter

August 9, 2024

“Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you?”

– Matthew 25:37

Dear Saint Mary Friends,

St. Martin de Porres, is the 4th of the six saints in our series on the statues in the Adoration Chapel. He was born in 1579 in Lima with great disadvantage yet, with perseverance, and faith became the saintly wonderworker of Peru. What follows can be found in various sources.

Poverty and Rejection

His father, Don Juan de Porres, was a Spanish knight who took as a mistress Martin’s mother, Ana Velazquez, a freed slave from Panama. Martin, and his sister, Juana, were thought inferior and mocked for inheriting their mother’s dark features.

When Don Juan abandoned his family, Ana was left in poverty to raise their children on her own.

By Peruvian law, people of African or indigenous heritage were not allowed to become full members of religious orders. But at 15, Martin approached the Dominican monastery in Lima to become a donado—a volunteer who took on menial labor and lived with the community – essentially becoming the community's servant boy.

“Martin of Charity”

At times, the food he gave out to the hungry poor seemed to increase miraculously—he fed 160 people every day—and his medical care would sometimes lead to surprising cures and healings.

Eventually, Martin was allowed to become a fully-professed Dominican brother, but out of humility declined to seek priestly ordination. One example of his humility showed itself when the monastery faced serious debts. He offered to be sold as a slave to raise money, saying, “I am only a poor mulatto. I am the property of the order—sell me.” Happily, the order did not take him up on his offer.

Devoted to the Eucharist and constant prayer, his days were spent distributing food and alms, doing basic chores, and tending to the sick, regardless of race or status. He also established an orphanage and hospital for abandoned children and tended to the needs of slaves who were taken from Africa and brought to Peru.

Side by side with his daily work, Martin’s life reflected God’s extraordinary gifts: ecstasies that lifted him into the air, light filling the room where he prayed, bi-location, miraculous knowledge, and instantaneous cures. His charity extended to beasts in the field and even to the vermin of the kitchen.

Martin often offered his own bed to the homeless and sick. Not fearing for his own health—when a dangerous epidemic struck Peru, he cared for those who were afflicted, putting his own life at risk. On several occasions, observers saw Martin pass through locked doors to serve those in quarantine.

A close friend of St. Rose of Lima, he died on November 3, 1639. The miracle approved for his canonization is worth knowing about.

A Great Miracle

On August 25, 1956, a young Peruvian, Antonio Cabrera Pérez-Camacho was injured when a 60-pound cement building block fell on him, crushing his left leg. Doctors recommended it be amputated.

In Antonio’s own words, on Sept. 1 “a relative of mine, Adolfo Luque…told my mother: 'There is nothing left to do here except pray. I am very devoted to Blessed Martin de Porres. I want to give you this holy card because the only thing left to do is to pray.'”

“My mother put the holy card on my leg, praying the entire night. The next day, the doctors came to take me to surgery, they removed the bandages and were shocked. There was circulation in my leg, and they said there was no need to amputate anything. And that’s what happened. A few days later I was sent home.”

The Vatican approved the miracle leading to St. Martin De Porres being canonized on May 6, 1962.

How does a man rejected by his father, thought inhuman by some in society, rise to such goodness and holiness? The grace of Christ crucified and risen. A grace offered to us all.

Blessings,