Martin de Porres is the patron saint of the Dominican Southern Province. His selfless giving, works of mercy, and humble nature appeal to many who are struggling to live out Gospel values in this world.

Becoming a Dominican. The illegitimate child of a Spanish nobleman and a freed African slave, Martin was born in Lima, Peru, scarcely forty years after the destruction of the Inca Empire. As a youth, he apprenticed as a barber-surgeon. At age 15, he was taken in by the Dominicans as a servant. He later became the friary’s almsgiver and in his 20s, was accepted as a brother and put in charge of the infirmary.

Caregiver. St. Martin spent his life helping those among Lima’s poor and sick. He convinced the wealthy to increase their almsgiving and is credited with planting fruit trees for Lima’s poor residents. He became an expert in the use of herbal medicines, finding these remedies to be much more effective than surgery, a primitive craft at that time. He founded an orphanage and staffed it with the best teachers and guardians. His charity was said to have extended even to Lima’s abandoned animals.

Devotion and Spiritual Gifts. Saint Martin’s charitable acts were sustained by his strong devotion, particularly to the Eucharist. A testament to the Dominican vow of voluntary poverty, he fasted and wore old, patched garments. He would spend long hours in prayer, sometimes reaching ecstatic states. He is said to have been gifted with prophecy, harmony, bilocation and miraculous cures.

Death and Canonization. St. Martin died at the age of sixty. He was canonized on May 6, 1962.

Today, St. Martin is known in the Americas as the patron saint of social justice and interracial harmony.