St. Martin de Porres

Feast Day November 3

Patron of Social Justice and African Americans

Sometimes a Marian Mantle Group member must cope with a prodigal loved one who has rejected the Faith because they are the victim of injustice. Sometimes a prodigal loved one makes us stretch our patience to the breaking point.  Perhaps we ourselves need to pray for the virtue of humility within our own hearts.  Let us turn to St. Martin de Porres and ask his intercession that we and those we love might overcome all obstacles and become all that the Lord intends for us to be.

Who Was St. Martin de Porres?

Martin de Porres was born  in Peru in 1579.  He was the illegitimate son of a Spanish nobleman and a freed black slave. At age 15 he became a servant in the Dominican convent and after 9 years, the Dominicans were so impressed with his work with the poor and the sick they dropped the racial opposition and he was invited to make a full religious profession.  He chose a life of simplicity, prayer and meditation.  His life reflected God’s extraordinary gifts of light filling the room where he prayed, bilocation, and instantaneous cures.  He was always willing to do any work and his care of others extended to sick animals as well. 

Prayer for Humility

O God, who has given us in Your humble Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, the model of all virtue and perfection, grant to us the virtue of humility. We think so little of You because we are so full of ourselves. We cannot love You more until humility shows us our own nothingness and makes us rejoice in our complete dependence upon You. In St. Martin De Porres, you have given to the world a glorious apostle of humility. Guide us by his example and strengthen us through his intercession in our efforts to conform our hearts to the humble heart of Your crucified Son.  May the glory of sainthood which you have deigned to bestow upon Brother Martin draw the world closer and closer to You. Renew, O Lord, in these days when pride and forgetfulness of You are so widespread, The wonders which You performed through Your humble servant during his lifetime. Through the same Christ Our Lord. Amen.

 Words of Pope John XXIII
 at St Martin's canonization

"He excused the faults of others. He forgave the bitterest injuries, convinced that he deserved much severer punishments on account of his own sins. He tried with all his might to redeem the guilty; lovingly he comforted the sick; he provided food, clothing and medicine for the poor; he helped, as best he could, farm laborers and Negroes, as well as mulattoes, who were looked upon at that time as akin to slaves: thus he deserved to be called by the name the people gave him: 'Martin of Charity.'"