Martin de Porres
Basilica and Convent of Santo Domingo, Lima, Peru | |
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Feast | 3 November |
Attributes | a dog, a cat, a bird, and a mouse eating together from a same dish; broom, crucifix, rosary, a heart |
Patronage | Diocese of Biloxi, Vietnam, Mississippi, black people, hair stylists, innkeepers, lottery, lottery winners, mixed-race people, Peru, poor people, public education, public health, public schools, race relations, social justice, state schools, television, Mexico, Peruvian Naval Aviators |
Martín de Porres Velázquez
He was noted for his work on behalf of the poor, establishing an orphanage and a children's hospital. He maintained an austere lifestyle, which included fasting and abstaining from meat. Among the many miracles attributed to him were those of levitation, bilocation, miraculous knowledge, instantaneous cures, and an ability to communicate with animals.
Life
Martin was born in the city of
Under
Martin continued to practise his old trades of barbering and healing and was said to have performed many miraculous cures. He also took on kitchen work, laundry, and cleaning. After eight years at Holy Rosary, the prior Juan de Lorenzana decided to turn a blind eye to the law and permit Martin to take his vows as a member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic. Holy Rosary was home to 300 men, not all of whom accepted the decision of De Lorenzana: one of the novices called Martin a "mulatto dog", while one of the priests mocked him for being illegitimate and descended from slaves.[6]
When Martin was 24, he was allowed to profess
When Martin was 34, after he had been given the religious habit of a lay brother, he was assigned to the infirmary, where he was placed in charge and would remain in service until his death at the age of 59. He was known for his care of the sick.[2] His superiors saw in him the virtues necessary to exercise unfailing patience in this difficult role. It was not long before miracles were attributed to him. Martin also cared for the sick outside his convent, often bringing them healing with only a simple glass of water. He ministered without distinction to Spanish nobles and to slaves recently brought from Africa.[1] One day an aged beggar, covered with ulcers and almost naked, stretched out his hand, and Martin took him to his own bed. When one of his brethren reproved him, Martin replied: "Compassion, my dear Brother, is preferable to cleanliness."
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."[8] The prior gave him liberty thereafter to follow his inspirations in the exercise of mercy.
Martin did not eat meat. He begged for alms to procure necessities the convent could not provide.
Death and commemoration
Martin was a friend of both Saint Juan Macías, a fellow Dominican lay brother, and Saint Rose of Lima, another lay Dominican. By his death on 3 November 1639, he had won the affection and respect of many of his fellow Dominicans as well as a host of people outside the priory.[6] Word of his miracles had made him known as a saint throughout the region. As his body was displayed to allow the people of the city to pay their respects, each person snipped a tiny piece of his habit to keep as a relic. It is said that three habits were taken from the body. His body was then interred in the grounds of the monastery.[citation needed]
When the body of de Porres was exhumed after 25 years, it was supposedly found intact, and exuded a fine fragrance. Letters to Rome pleaded for his beatification; the decree affirming the heroism of his virtues was issued in 1763 by Pope Clement XIII.[citation needed]
He is recognised as Papa Candelo in the
Iconography
Martin de Porres is often depicted as a young mixed-race friar wearing the old habit of the Dominican lay brother, a black scapular and capuce, along with a broom, since he considered all work to be sacred, no matter how menial. He is sometimes shown with a dog, a cat and a mouse eating in peace from the same dish.
Legacy
Martin's sometimes defiant attachment to the ideal of social justice achieved deep resonance in a church attempting to carry forward that ideal in today's modern world.[1]
Today, Martin is commemorated by, among other things, a school building that houses the
In popular culture
In 1965, American composer E. Anne Schwerdtfeger composed the Mass of St. Martin de Porres for chorus and organ.[15]
In the 1980 novel A Confederacy of Dunces, Ignatius Reilly contemplates praying to Martin for aid in bringing social justice to the black workers at the New Orleans factory where he works. In music, the first track of jazz pianist Mary Lou Williams's album Black Christ of the Andes is titled "St. Martin De Porres".[16]
There are several Spanish and Mexican works regarding his life in cinema and television, starring Cuban actor Rene Muñoz, most of them referring to his mixed race, his miracles and his life of humility. The best known movies are Fray Escoba (Friar Broom) (1963)[17] and Un mulato llamado Martin (A Mulatto Called Martin) (1975).[18]
In the Moone Boy episode "Godfellas", the character Martin Moon is shown to be named by his grandfather after San Martin de Porres. His grandfather is unable to actually remember any of San Martin's accomplishments, and simply refers to him as "one of the black ones" when asked about him.
American singer
See also
- Saint Martin de Porres (sculpture) by Father Thomas McGlynn
- Saint Martin de Porres, patron saint archive
References
- ^ a b c d "Martin Porres", Encyclopedia of World Biography.
- ^ a b c "St. Martin de Porres , the first Black saint in the Americas". African American Registry. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
- ISBN 978-0-86716-887-7.
- ^ a b c "St. Martin de Porres". American Catholic. Archived from the original on 27 April 2015.
- ^ Fullerton, Anne. "Who was St. Martin de Porres?". St. Martin de Porres School, Oakland, CA. Archived from the original on 19 October 2013.
- ^ a b c Craughwell, Thomas J. (1 September 2016). "Patron Saints for Modern Challenges". Franciscan Media. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
- ^ Biography in The Saint Martin De Porres Prayer Book, pp. 147–152.
- ^ a b Granger, Fr. Arthur M. (OP) (1941). Vie du Bienheureux Martin de Porrès. St. Hyacinthe: Dominican Press.
- ^ Index ac status causarum beatificationis servorum dei et canonizationis beatorum (in Latin). Typis polyglottis vaticanis. January 1953. p. 171.
- ^ "St. Martin de Porres". Dominican Province of St. Martin de Porres. Archived from the original on 24 April 2016.
- ISBN 978-1-5051-0346-5.
- ^ "The Calendar". The Church of England. Retrieved 9 April 2021.
- ^ Las Casas Institute Archived 2013-07-09 at the Wayback Machine at Blackfriars Hall website
- ^ St. Martin de Porres Parish Archived 2013-03-12 at the Wayback Machine
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- ^ "St. Martin de Porres". Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
- IMDb
- IMDb
External links
- St. Martin de Porres website and image
- Saint of the Day, November 3: Martin de Porres Archived 27 November 2009 at the Wayback Machine
- Order of Preachers: Southern Dominican Province of St. Martin de Porres
- St. Martin de Porres Shrine & Institute • Memphis, Tennessee
- St. Martin De Porres, First Black Saint Of The Americas, Celebrated Nov. 3