St Martin de Porres

Word for the day

“Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” Matthew 25:40

Life

Martin was born in Lima, Peru, in 1579, the son of a Spanish nobleman, Juan de Porres, and Ana Velázquez, a freed Black woman from Panama. His father at first did not acknowledge him, and as a boy of mixed race Martin knew poverty and contempt. He was apprenticed to a barber-surgeon and learned to dress wounds and prepare medicines.

At about fifteen he asked to join the Dominican priory of the Holy Rosary in Lima. Because of the racial laws of the time he was received first only as a lay helper; in 1603 he was allowed to make his vows as a lay brother. He served as barber, gardener and infirmarian, cared for sick friars and for the poor of the city, founded a home for abandoned children and shared food each day with hundreds of hungry people.

He was a friend of St Rose of Lima and of St Juan Macías. He died on 3 November 1639, and the whole city came to his funeral. Pope St John XXIII canonised him in 1962; he is honoured as a patron of social justice and of people of mixed race.

Lessons

Humility is strength

Martin accepted the lowest work without bitterness and so became free to love everyone.

Charity without borders

He served Spaniards, Africans and Indigenous people alike, rich and poor, people and even animals.

Prayer and work together

His long nights of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament were the source of his tireless service by day.

Stories

The broom (tradition)

Martin is usually shown holding a broom. He called himself a poor slave and gladly swept the priory, seeing even small tasks as service to Christ.

Peace with the mice (legend)

A popular story says that when the friars wanted to poison the mice in the linen room, Martin led the mice out to the garden and fed them there, and they did no more harm.

Homily

1. The broom of humility

Martin swept floors and called himself a poor slave. Humility made him free to love everyone without pride or bitterness.

2. Christ in the least

Whatever you did to the least of my family you did to me (Matthew 25:40). Martin saw Christ in the sick, the poor, the abandoned child.

3. Charity across every line

Spaniard, African, Indigenous: Martin served all. Ask: whom do I quietly exclude?

Dear friends, today we honour a man the world once looked down upon. Martin de Porres was born poor, of mixed race, unacknowledged by his father. The Dominicans at first would accept him only as a helper. Yet today the whole Church calls him a saint.

Martin never fought for status. He took the broom, the basin and the bandage, and through them he served Christ. Jesus said that whatever we do to the least of his brothers and sisters, we do to him (Matthew 25:40). Martin believed it literally: the sick friar, the beggar at the gate, the abandoned child were Christ himself.

His charity crossed every line his society had drawn: race, class, even the line between people and animals. In a world still divided by colour, caste and status, Martin asks us: whom do I keep at a distance? This week choose one humble task no one wants, and do it with love for Christ. Amen.

Prayer

Lord God, you led St Martin de Porres by the path of humility to heavenly glory. Help us to follow his example of charity, so that we may serve Christ in the poor and the sick. Amen.