"Martin de Porres"(December 9,1579-November 3,1639)

Was a Lay Brother the Dominican Order who was beatified in 1837 by Pope Gregory XVI & Canonized in 1962 by Pope John XXIII.He is the patron saint of mixed-raced people and all those seeking
interracial harmony.He was noted on behalf of the poor,establishing an orphanage and a children's hospital.He matained an austere lifestyle,
which included fasting and abstaining from meat.Among the many miracles attributed to him were those of  levitation,bilocation,miraculous knowledge,
instantaneous cures,and an ability to communicate with animals.
He was born in the city of  Lima,in the Viceroyalty of Peru,the illegitimate son of a Spanish nobleman,Don Juan mama was a freed slave from Panama,of African or possibly Native American descent,named Ana Valazquez.He had a sister named Juana,born two years later in 1581.After the birth of his sister,Don abandoned the family.Ana supported her children by taking in laundry.He grew up in poverty and,when his mama could not support him,Martin was confided to a primary school for two years,and placed with a barber/surgeon to learn the medical arts.He spent hours of the night in prayer,a practice which increased as he grew older.
By law in Peru,descendants of Africans & Indians were barred from becoming full members of religious orders.They only route open to Martin was to ask the Dominicans of Holy Rosary Priory in Lima to accept him as a "donado",a volunteer who performed the menial tasks in the monastery in return for the privilege of wearing the habit and living in the religious community.At the age 15 asked for admission to the Dominican Convent Rosary in Lima and was received first as a servant boy,and as his duties grew he was
promoted to almoner.
Martin continued to practice his old trades of barbering and healing performed many,many miraculous cures he also took on
kitchen work,laundry,and cleaning.After 8 years at Holy Rosary,the prior Juan de Lorenzana decided to turn a blind eye to the law
and permit Martin to take his vows as a member of the Third Order of Saint Domnic.Holy Rosary was home to 300 men,and
not all were not as opened- minded as Prior de Lorenzana.One of the priests mocked him for being illegitimate and descended from slaves.
When Martin was 24,he was allowed to profess religious vows as Dominican
lay brother.He is said to have several times refused this elevation in status,which may have come about due to to his daddy's innervation,and he never became a priest.It is said that when his convent was in debt,he implored  them: "I am only a poor mulatto,sell me."Martin was deeply,attached to the Blessed Sacrament,and he was praying in front of it one night when the step of the altar he was kneeing on caught fire. Throughout all the confusion and chaos that followed,he remained where he was unaware what was happening around him.
When he was 34,after he had been given the religious habit of a coadjutor brother,Martin was assigned to the infirmary,where he was placed in charge and would remain in service his death.Martin was known for his care of the sick.His superiors
saw in him in the virtues necessary to exercise unfailing patience in this difficult role.It was not long before miracles were attributed to him.Saint Martin also cared for the sick outside his
convent,often bringing them healing with only a simple glass of water.He ministered without distinction to Spanish nobles and to slaves recently brought from Africa.One day and aged
beggar,covered ulcers and almost naked,stretched out his hand,Martin took him to
his own bed.One of his brethren reproved him.Martin replied:"Compassion,my dear brother,is preferable to cleanliness."
When an epidemic struck Lima,there were this single Convent of  the Rosary sixty friars who were sick,many of them novices in a distant
and locked section of the convent,separated from the professed.Martin is said
to have passed through locked doors to care for them,a phenomenon which was reported in the residence more than ounce.They professed,too,saw him suddenly beside them without doors
having been opened.Martin continued to transport the sick to the convent until the Provincial Superior,alarmed by the contagion treating the friars,forbade him to continue to do
so.Juana,who lived in the country,offered her house to lodge those whom the
residence of the religious could not hold.One day he found on the street a poor
Indian,bleeding to
death from a dagger wound,and took him to his own room until he could transport him to Juana hospice.The prior,when he heard of this,reprimanded
Martin for disobedience.He was extremely edified,by his reply:"Forgive my error,and please instruct me,for i did not know that precept of  obedience took
precedence over that of charity.The prior gave him liberty thereafter to his follow his inspirations in the exercise of mercy.
Martin did not eat meat.He begged for alms to procure necessities the convent could provide.In normal times succeeded with his alms to feed 160 poor persons every day,and distributed a remarkable sum of money every week to the indigent.Side by side with his daily work in the kitchen,laundry and infirmary,his life is to have reflected extraordinary gifts:ecstasies tha lifted him into the air,light filling the room where he prayed,bilocation,miraculous knowledge,instantaneous cures and a remarkable rapport with animals.
Martin founded in the city of Lima residence for orphans and abandoned  children.
Michael was a friend of both St.Juan Macias and Rose of Lima.By the time he died,Martin had won the affection and respect of many of his fellow Dominicans as well as a host outside priory.