November 03 - Martin was born on December 9, 1579 in Lima, Peru. Illegitimate child of Jean de Porrès, knight of the Order of Alcantara, and Anne Vélasquez, freed black slave. A sister named Joanna was born two years later.
His father, called to high office, unable to provide for the education and subsistence of his family, left his mother to provide for him and his two children. They therefore lived in the midst of great material difficulties. During one of his visits, Jean de Porres took his two children with him to Guayaquil, Ecuador. They stayed there for four years, but when Jean was called to Panama, he left Joanna in Guayaquil with an aunt and took Martin back to his mother in Lima, providing him with a decent education. At the age of twelve, Martin decided to learn the barber's trade. Barbers at that time also learned to treat wounds and acted as doctors and even surgeons. Martin was an attentive and dedicated apprentice. He was a very gentle and skilled barber, and the sick people came to him in preference. Moreover, Martin did not charge the poorest people for his services, and he was always willing to go the extra mile for anyone who asked him to do so. Martin worked a lot. He had a deep piety: he would get up before daylight to stop at the church to serve Mass, and after his work, he would lock himself up in his room to pray, with his eyes fixed on the crucifix, and read pious books.
At the age of sixteen, Martin quit his job as a barber to enter the Dominican Order. He asked to be admitted to the humblest place, that of a member of the Third Order. Martin swept the cloister and hallways, cleaned the toilets, prepared food, washed clothes, and also served as the barber of the monastery. He performed all these tasks with joy and humility; he was also attached to the care of the sick in the infirmary. Apart from his service to the sick, Martin prayed a lot, spending long hours in front of the Blessed Sacrament, stopping for short and deep prayers in front of all the pious images of the monastery, devoting a large part of his rest hours to veneration of the Virgin. After nine years, his superiors asked him to make Profession. He therefore made his solemn vows of poverty, chastity, obedience, while continuing to exercise his modest functions within the monastery, in the most perfect obedience. Brother Martin was in the habit, despite his many occupations, of bringing together a few young workers from the monastery to teach them and talk to them about the Gospel. Outside the convent, in the city of Lima, many orphans were wandering about, without families and without education. Martin worked with ardor in the foundation of the orphanage of the Holy Cross which had for vocation to take in these children and to educate them. Martin used to go from table to table at the end of the meal to collect whatever had been left behind and immediately go out to distribute it to the poor who were waiting for him. While the Archbishop of Mexico, Bishop Felician da Vega was on his way to Lima, he suffered from pneumonia during the trip. He already knew Martin, and asked to be treated by him. When he was cured of his illness, he asked the Provincial of the Dominicans to take Martin with him. Which was accepted. But the trip was not planned until several months later, and in the fall of 1639 Brother Martin developed a high fever. He then announced to his brothers that this would be his last illness, and he passed away on November 3 in serenity. When he heard of his death, many people from the city of Lima rushed to his bedside to honor him. Martin de Porrès was beatified on October 29, 1837 by Pope Gregory XVI and he was canonized on May 16, 1962 by Pope John XXIII.
