Saint Martin de Porres was born in Lima, Peru on December 9 1579. His father, Don Juan de Porras de Miranda, was a Spanish noble and his mother,
Ana Velázquez, was a freed slave from Panama.
His Mother wanted him to be baptized as soon as possible.
Before his baptism his father left them because he did not like his son’s skin color and later preferred his job as governor over him.
When he was about 8 his sister, Juana, was born. Around this time his father had acknowledged him but after Juana was born he abandoned them again.
Saint Martin's mother would ask him to go to the market to get some food. Even though they were poor, when he saw anyone begging for food.
He would give the beggar food from the food he had gotten from the market.
When Saint Martin de Porres was twelve he trained to be a barber.
In his day a barber was also a surgeon.
Then at fifteen he entered the Dominican order but he was not accepted at first so then he served as a servant boy at the Dominican Priory of the Holy Rosary also known as Santo Domingo in Lima, Peru.
In 1603 at twenty-four he was finally accepted as a Dominican as a lay brother.
He was able to talk to animals.
In one instance there was a dog and a cat eating at his feet, then he saw a mouse in a little hole in the wall and told the mouse to come over and eat with the dog and cat, it first hesitated then it came and ate with the cat and the dog.
The reason why this was unusual is because dogs hunted cats and cats hunted mice at this time.
They were also not yet domesticated.
St. Martin died on November 3, 1639 at around sixty among his fellow dominicans from quartan fever that if he got it in our time he might have survived. It is likely that he had gotten it for some of the sick people he was helping. When he died he was reciting the creed in latin when he got to the words et homo factus est (and became man) he died. During his funeral tons of Peruvians, poor, rich, young, old they all were there. They also were very eager to get a piece of his habit, these pieces contributed to many miraculous cures from various illnesses. He was buried in the convent where he joined the Dominican order, Santo Domingo in Lima Peru.
I think Saint Martin de Porres was declared a saint because of his humility, his care for the poor and the sick no matter where they were from(including animals). He did not hold back from helping any one. When he was helping around before he became a brother he found a sick person somewhere on the street with sores all over their body. He brought the sick person to the monastery and put the sick person in his own bed and cared for the sick person. He would even help animals that were sick, hungry, thirsty or injured.
There was one time when he was going up or down stairs when the devil appeared to him, then he used his belt to get the devil away, he drew a cross with burning coal and the devil left him. He might have been afraid for a second but he trusted the Lord and the devil fled. He was tormented by the devil frequently because he was very holy and was very charitable. No matter what he kept his faith and he was rewarded for keeping his faith and charity.
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