Denver, Colo., Oct 30, 2011 / 06:05 am
On Nov. 3 the Roman Catholic Church celebrates St. Martin de Porres, a Peruvian Dominican brother whose life of charity and devotion led to his canonization as the first black saint of the Americas.
Martin de Porres was born in Lima, Peru during 1579, the son of the Spanish nobleman Don Juan de Porres and the former Panamanian slave Ana Velazquez. His father at first refused to acknowledge the boy publicly as his own, because Martin, like his mother, was black. Though Martin's father later helped to provide for his education, his son faced difficulties because of his family background.
But Don Juan's son showed great gifts at a young age. Martin served as apprentice to a doctor, and before the age of 13 he had begun to learn the practice of medicine. The young man also spent hours in prayer, and practiced forms of physical mortification for the good of his soul and others.
During these years Martin had also become a member of the Dominican Third Order, which promoted the group's spiritual practices among laypersons. He lived in their quarters, and did manual work to earn room and board. But a law preventing people of mixed race from joining religious orders kept him from entering the Dominican Order as a religious brother until 1603.