"Martin-de-Porres-Velazquez" (December 9,1679-November 3,1639)

Was a lay brother of  the Dominican Order who was beatified in 1837 by Pope Gregory XVI and  canonized in 1962 by Pope John XXXIII.He is the patron saint of mixed-race people and all those seeking interracial harmony.He was noted for work on behalf of the poor,establishing an orphanage and a children's hospital.He maintained 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.Martin was the illegitimate son of of a Spanish nobleman,Don Juan de Porres,and Ana Velazquez,a freed slave from Panama,of African possibly part Native American descent.He had a sister named Juana,born two years later in 1851.After the birth of Juana,Don Juan Porres abandoned the family.Ana supported her children by taking in lanundry.Martin grew up up poor and, when his mama could not support him,Martin,was confided to a primary school for two years,and then placed  with barber/sureon 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 and Indians were barred from becoming full members of religious orders.The only route open to Martin was to ask the Dominicans of Holy Rosary Priory in Lima to accept as a donado,a volunteer  who peformed menial tasks in the monastery in return for the privilege wearing the habit and living with the religious community.At 15 he asked for permission to the Dominican Convent of the Rosary in Lima and was received first as a servant boy,and as his duties grew he was promoted to almoner.