St. Martin de Porres was born in Lima, Peru on December 9, 1579, The
illegitimate child of Don Juan de Porres, a Spanish Knight, and Anna Velasquez, a freed
Negro woman of Panama. St. Martin inherited the features and dark skin of his mother,
which upset his father. Left to the care of his mother and despite of their utter poverty,
St. Martin was an exceptional child who had immense love for the poor and afflicted. At
the age of twelve, he was apprenticed to a barber-surgeon from whom he learned the art
of medicine as it was practiced in those days, allowing him to bring the poor the benefit
of his knowledge without any fee.

When he was fifteen, he became a Tertiary helper of the Dominicans. Such was
his charity, obedience, and humility that after nine years, the friars insisted upon his
becoming a regular lay brother. Soon he became a model religious whose spirit of
penance was extraordinary, spending nights in spiritual reading, prayer, and penitential
exercises. Most obedient and humble, he tried to conceal the miraculous favors God
bestowed upon him. He nursed the sick, including plague victims of any race, and
miraculously healed them by his mere touch, prayers, and the Sign of The Cross. This
led to his being called a saint who brought the poor to Jesus Christ and an angel of mercy
and compassion. Moreover, he had the gift of prophecy and invisibility. He could read
people’s heart and understand unexpressed desires even at great distances. He
experienced visions and ecstasies. At certain times, God allowed the friars to see him
accompanied by angels or enveloped in light during an ecstasy. He had bilocations and
levitations, Although he never left Lima, personally assited the sick and distressed people
of France, Alegria, Mexico, the Philippines, China, and Japan.

Aware of his boundless charity, his superiors gave him a free hand to distribute
the convent’s daily alms of food to the poor and abandoned. Sometimes he increased the
food supplies miraculously. He cared for the slaves who were brought to Peru from
Africa and visited the hovels of the wretched, the miserable, and the dying. Filled with
love and sympathy for mankind, everywhere he went St. Martin brought comfort and
consolation to all classes in every condition of life. Selfless, practical, and capable, he
used the money and goods that he solicited carefully and methodically in his charities.
It was through his efforts that the Orphanage of the Holy Cross was built for the poor and
homeless children in Peru. Thus, he was affectionately called the “Father of the Poor.”
He showed a great control of care for animals, which surprised the Spaniards, extending
his love to rats and mice whose scavenging he excused on the grounds that the poor little
things were insufficiently fed.

St. Martin was a close friend of St. Rose of Lima and St. John Massias. When St.
Martin died at the age of sixty on November 3, 1639, the grief of all in Lima was terrible
to behold. He was carried to his grave by prelates and noblemen. Numerous miracles
occurred at his tomb and his body was found to be incorrupt twenty-five years after his
death. Canonized on May 6, 1962, St. Martin is the patron saint of social justice; racial
relations; public education, health service and TV in Peru; and Italian barbers and
hairdressers. His feast day is on November 3.