"Father unknown" is the cold legal phrase sometimes used on baptismal records. Like many others, Martin might have grown to be a bitter man, but he did not. It was said that even as a child he gave his heart and his goods to the poor and despised. St. Martin de Porres was born in 1579 as an illegitimate son of a freed woman of Panama, probably black but also possibly of Native American stock, and a Spanish grandee of Lima, Peru. Martin inherited the features and dark complexion of his mother. That irked his father, who finally acknowledged his son after eight years. After the birth of a sister, the father abandoned the family.
His charity extended to beasts of the field and even to the vermin of the kitchen. He would excuse the raids of mice and rats on the grounds that they were underfed; he kept stray cats and dogs at his sister’s house. He became a formidable fundraiser, obtaining thousands of dollars for dowries for poor girls so that they could marry or enter a convent. Many of his fellow religious took him as their spiritual director, but he continued to call himself a "poor slave." He was a good friend of another Dominican saint of Peru, Rose of Lima, whose feast is on August 23. He died in 1639 and was canonized by Pope John XXIII in 1962.
Thank you Fr. Julian for sharing your knowledge with me. Your daily blogs are so informative. Can you please e-mailed me your address so I can send you some recent poetry??
ReplyDelete