St. Martin de Porres

MOB 39 St. Martin de Porres

Martin was a friend of both Saint Juan Macías, a fellow Dominican lay brother, and Saint Rose of Lima, another lay Dominican. By his death on 3 November 1639, he had won the affection and respect of many of his fellow Dominicans as well as a host of people outside the priory. Word of his miracles had made him known as a saint throughout the region. As his body was displayed to allow the people of the city to pay their respects, each person snipped a tiny piece of his habit to keep as a relic. It is said that three habits were taken from the body. His body was then interred in the grounds of the monastery.

After De Porres died, the miracles and graces received when he was invoked multiplied in such profusion that his body was exhumed after 25 years and his body was supposedly found intact, and exuded a fine fragrance. Letters to Rome pleaded for his beatification; the decree affirming the heroism of his virtues was issued in 1763 by Pope Clement XIII.

Pope Gregory XVI beatified Martin de Porres on 29 October 1837, and nearly 125 years later, Pope John XXIII canonized him in Rome on 6 May 1962. He is the patron saint of people of mixed race, and of innkeepers, barbers, public health workers and more, with a feast day on November 3, also commemorated in the Calendar of Saints of the Church of England.

He is recognised as Papa Candelo in the Afro-Caribbean-Catholic syncretist religion, which is practised in places where African diaspora culture thrives such as Colombia, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, the United States, and his native Peru.