Martin de Porres

Martín de Porras Velázquez (9 December 1579 – 3 November 1639) was a Peruvian lay brother of the Dominican Order who was beatified in 1837 by Pope Gregory XVI and canonized in 1962 by Pope John XXIII. He is the patron saint of Black people, mixed-race people, barbers, innkeepers, public health workers, all those seeking racial harmony, and animals.

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.

Lifestyle

Martin was born in the city of Lima, Viceroyalty of Peru, Spanish Empire, on 9 December 1579. He was the illegitimate son of a Spanish nobleman, Don Juan de Porras y de la Peña, and Ana Velázquez, a freed slave of African and Native descent. He had a sister named Juana de Porres, born two years later in 1581. After the birth of his sister, the father abandoned the family. Ana Velázquez supported her children by taking in laundry. Martin grew up in poverty and, when his mother could not support him, he was sent to a primary school for two years, and then placed with a barber surgeon as an apprentice. At the age of 15, he asked for admission to the Dominican Convent of the Rosary in Lima and was received first as a servant boy, and as his duties grew he was promoted to almoner.

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.

left|thumb|A mid-20th-century stained-glass representation of Martin de Porres in [[St Pancras Church, Ipswich, with a broom, rosary, parrot and monkey]]

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. One day an aged beggar, covered with ulcers and almost naked, stretched out his hand, and Martin let the man use 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." 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.

Pope John XXIII canonized him in Rome on 6 May 1962. He is the patron saint of people of mixed race, and of innkeepers, barbers, public health workers and more, with a feast day on November 3, also commemorated in the Calendar of Saints of the Church of England.

Iconography

thumb|Forensic facial reconstruction of Martin de Porres

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 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. He is the titular saint of the parish of St. Martin de Porres in Poughkeepsie, New York, and some elementary schools. A number of Catholic churches are named after him. The Southern Province of Dominicans in the United States also bears his name.

In popular culture

In 1965, American composer E. Anne Schwerdtfeger composed the Mass of St. Martin de Porres for chorus and organ.

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".

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) and Un mulato llamado Martin (A Mulatto Called Martin) (1975).

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 Madonna's hit single "Like a Prayer" (1989) featured Martin de Porres as a character in the song's music video. The portrayal of de Porres and Madonna in a romantic relationship was met with mixed criticism from the Catholic church in Peru and the Vatican.

The name is used as an alias by the titular character of the 1997 movie The Saint.

References

External links

St. Martin de Porres website and image
Saint of the Day, November 3: Martin de Porres
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