"Saints of Empowered Prayer: St. Martin de Porres"
St.
Martin de Porres: St. Martin was born in Peru
in 1579. He was the illegitimate son of a Spanish gentleman and a freed slave
from Panama, of African or Native American descent. His father abandoned him
when his sister was born and Martin was eight years old. Although Martin was
reared in poverty, locked into a low level of Lima's society where he might
have grown to be a bitter man, he was not bitter. For, his mother taught him
kindness and gentleness, and he learned to be sensitive to the suffering of
others and generous with the few possessions he had. It is said that even as a
child he gave his heart and his goods to the poor and despised.
After two years in primary school Martin was placed with a
barber/surgeon where he learned to cut hair and the medical arts. As Martin
grew older, he experienced a great deal of ridicule for being of mixed race. He
desired to enter into religious orders but by law, all descendants of Africans
or Indians were not allowed to become full members. He spent many hours in
prayer and found that his only way into what he longed for was to ask the
Dominicans of Holy Rosary Priory in Lima to accept him as a volunteer. At 15 he
was received as a servant boy able to wear the habit and live in community.
After nine years, the example of his prayer and penance, charity and humility,
led the community to request Martin to make full religious profession. His days
were filled with caring for the sick and poor, treating all regardless of their
color, race or status. He was instrumental in founding an orphanage, took care
of slaves brought from Africa and managed the daily alms of the priory. His
love of everyone, even of animals, made Martin a figure not unlike that of St.
Francis of Assisi.
With St. Martin de Porres the
extraordinary was ordinary. Side by side with his daily work, Martin's life
reflected God's extraordinary gifts. He was a mystic of the highest order,
experienced ecstasies that lifted him into the air, had the gift of
bi-location. Light filled a room where he prayed, he had remarkable theological
knowledge, was famous for his miraculous cures and had a remarkable rapport
with animals. St. Martin spent long nights in prayer and penance, and during
the day he took care of the sick, looking after the poor and showing God's
goodness to everyone. He was a friend of all: of rich and poor, the simple and
the great, bishops, governors, men, women and children.
St. Martin became a formidable fundraiser, raising money
for dowries for poor girls to marry or enter the convent. Many of his fellow
religious took Martin as their spiritual director, but he continued to call
himself "a poor slave." He was a good friend of St. Rose of Lima. He died at
Rosary Priory in Lima, Peru on November 3, 1639, and his pallbearers were the
bishops and nobility of Peru. He was canonized by Pope John XXII in 1962. His
feast day is November 3rd. The
closer a person gets to God, the more love he seems to have for others. St.
Martin had a thirst for God that drove him to spend his nights in prayer, and
that love overflowed into amazing activities for the good of others. We need
never fear that prayer will limit our power to do good; it only intensifies
everything we do.
Questions
1)
Is my heart becoming more like Jesus', loving and accepting of all
no matter their religion, race or status?
2)
Would I describe myself as a person of prayer and penance?
