Saint Who?
Saints Who Were Close to Nature
Saint Martin de Porres
Religious († 1639) Feast: November 3
Martin was the illegitimate son of a Spanish knight living in Lima, Peru, and a freed slave from Panama. Although Martin and his sister were acknowledged by their father, he allowed them to grow up in poverty. Martin was apprenticed to a barber-surgeon to learn a trade, but a Dominican community later accepted him, first as a servant and later as a lay brother.
Martin served his community as a barber and surgeon, and he performed other menial tasks. He was a humble man with a profound love for God, and the other friars often witnessed Martin’s prayer ecstasies, acts of bilocation, and miracles of healing.
Martin cared for the sick regardless of the patient’s skin color, and he eventually established a hospital and orphanage. He also distributed food to the poor, and it was said he could miraculously multiply the amount of food to ensure that everyone was fed. But his love extended to animals as well. He kept a home for cats and dogs at his sister’s house, and rather than fearing or trying to kill mice and rats, he defended them. They were just hungry, he said.
Merciful God, give us tender hearts
to help those who are hungry.
