St. Martin de Porres

St. Martin de Porres was born on 9 December 1579 at Lima, Peru, the son of a Spanish nobleman and a freed woman of African descent, and died there on 3 November 1639. Born into poverty and looked down upon because of his mixed race and illegitimate birth, he trained as a barber-surgeon before joining the Dominicans, at first only as a lowly servant, and later, moved by his humility, being received as a lay brother.

He spent his life in the humblest tasks of the friary while pouring himself out in charity: tending the sick and injured with remarkable skill and love, feeding the poor of the city daily, and founding an orphanage and hospital for abandoned children. Many wonders were attributed to him, including healings, bilocation, and a tender care even for animals. Renowned for his self-effacing holiness, he was canonized in 1962 by Pope St. John XXIII — the first Black saint of the Americas — and is invoked as a patron of interracial harmony, of the poor, and of public health.