For the poor and for racial harmony

To the Dominican brother who was refused a habit.

Born in Lima in 1579 to a Spanish nobleman and a freed African woman, Martin was barred by law from full religious profession because of his race and accepted as a servant instead. He ran an orphanage, treated the sick of the whole city, and was eventually professed by a prior who overruled the rule.

The Prayer

St. Martin de Porres,
you were despised for your birth and served anyway.

Pray for those who are looked past,
for the poor and the sick,
and for a Church and a world
where no one is treated as lesser for what they cannot help.

Teach me your humility, which was not weakness,
and your kindness, which did not depend on being thanked.

St. Martin, pray for us. Amen.

About This Devotion

His feast is 3 November. He is patron of mixed-race people, barbers, public health workers and those seeking racial harmony. The stories about him are numerous and cheerfully improbable — the cat, the dog and the mouse eating from the same dish is the best known.