Open Invitation: St. Martin De Porres Calls All of Us to the Heavenly Feast

Open invitation: St. Martin de Porres calls all of us to the heavenly feast

Just before Communion at each Mass, the priest elevates the host and speaks words that recall the Book of Revelation: “Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.” No matter where we’re headed after Mass, this is the greatest feast we can ever hope to partake of. No wedding, gala or banquet can outdo the splendor of this supper. It is set apart for its beauty and ma…

Martin of Porres’ Heroic Charity

Some of the saints signify sanctity in a way that goes beyond the norm, if ‘norm’ can be applied to a thing like sanctity, which itself is characterized by going beyond the normal requirement of virtue, into the realm of the heroic. One of those was today’s humble Peruvian lay-brother Dominican, Martin de Porres (+1639) a mulatto, as they were called then, the son of a Spanish nobleman and a native mother, perhaps from Panama. The father abandon…

Saint Martin de Porres

Born in Lima, Peru, in 1579, Saint Martin de Porres was the son of a Spanish nobleman and a freed woman of color from Panama. At the age of fifteen, he joined the Dominican Friary in Lima as a lay brother, dedicating his life to a multitude of services including barbering, farming, and caring for the sick as an almoner and infirmarian. While Martin harbored a profound longing to become a missionary and perhaps a martyr, circumstances kept him wi…