Today we celebrate the Feast Day of our patron saint, St Martin De Porres. The patron saint of social justice, racial harmony, and mixed-race people.
St Martin was born in Lima, Peru. His father was a Spanish noble man and his mother a freed black slave from Panama. When he was 12, his mother apprenticed him to a barber-surgeon. Martin learned how to cut hair and also how to draw blood, care for wounds, and prepare and administer medicines.
After a few years in this medical apostolate, he applied to the Dominicans to be a “lay helper,” not feeling worthy to be a religious brother. He set up a residence where he nursed the sick, befriended the poor. He also had an orphanage and set up a shelter for stray animals to whom he was extremely kind. He was eventually accepted as a lay brother.
St. Martin died on November 3rd, 1639 at the age of 60. He is buried in the Convento Santo Domingo in Lima, Peru.🙏
