A Novena to Saint Martin de Porres
Fray Escoba
Lima, 1579
The Novena Prayer
Most humble Martin de Porres, whose burning charity embraced not only the poor and needy but even the animals of the field: for thy splendid example of charity I honour thee and invoke thy help.
From thy place in heaven hear the requests of thy needy brethren, that by imitating thy virtues we may live contentedly in that state in which God has placed us, and carrying our cross with strength and courage may follow in the footsteps of our blessed Redeemer and his most sorrowful Mother.
Martin de Porres was born at Lima in Peru on 9 December 1579, the illegitimate son of a Spanish nobleman, Juan de Porras, and Ana Velazquez, a freed Black woman from Panama. His father left the family, and Martin grew up in poverty with his mother and younger sister.
Barred by Law
The Novena Prayer
Most humble Martin de Porres, whose burning charity embraced not only the poor and needy but even the animals of the field: for thy splendid example of charity I honour thee and invoke thy help.
From thy place in heaven hear the requests of thy needy brethren, that by imitating thy virtues we may live contentedly in that state in which God has placed us, and carrying our cross with strength and courage may follow in the footsteps of our blessed Redeemer and his most sorrowful Mother.
Colonial law in Peru prohibited descendants of Africans or of Indigenous people from becoming full members of religious orders. The bar was legal and explicit, and it applied to Martin from birth.
A Barber and a Surgeon
The Novena Prayer
Most humble Martin de Porres, whose burning charity embraced not only the poor and needy but even the animals of the field: for thy splendid example of charity I honour thee and invoke thy help.
From thy place in heaven hear the requests of thy needy brethren, that by imitating thy virtues we may live contentedly in that state in which God has placed us, and carrying our cross with strength and courage may follow in the footsteps of our blessed Redeemer and his most sorrowful Mother.
Martin was apprenticed at about twelve to a barber-surgeon, a trade that then covered cutting hair, drawing teeth, letting blood and dressing wounds. It gave him the medical training he used for the rest of his life.
Admitted as a Servant
The Novena Prayer
Most humble Martin de Porres, whose burning charity embraced not only the poor and needy but even the animals of the field: for thy splendid example of charity I honour thee and invoke thy help.
From thy place in heaven hear the requests of thy needy brethren, that by imitating thy virtues we may live contentedly in that state in which God has placed us, and carrying our cross with strength and courage may follow in the footsteps of our blessed Redeemer and his most sorrowful Mother.
At fifteen Martin asked to join the Dominicans at the priory of the Holy Rosary in Lima and was received not as a member but as a donado, a volunteer servant who did the menial work in exchange for a habit and a place to live. He accepted those terms and kept them for nine years.
Fray Escoba
The Novena Prayer
Most humble Martin de Porres, whose burning charity embraced not only the poor and needy but even the animals of the field: for thy splendid example of charity I honour thee and invoke thy help.
From thy place in heaven hear the requests of thy needy brethren, that by imitating thy virtues we may live contentedly in that state in which God has placed us, and carrying our cross with strength and courage may follow in the footsteps of our blessed Redeemer and his most sorrowful Mother.
Martin swept floors, cleaned the latrines and did the laundry, and Lima came to call him Fray Escoba, brother broom. He is usually depicted holding one.
Received Against the Law
The Novena Prayer
Most humble Martin de Porres, whose burning charity embraced not only the poor and needy but even the animals of the field: for thy splendid example of charity I honour thee and invoke thy help.
From thy place in heaven hear the requests of thy needy brethren, that by imitating thy virtues we may live contentedly in that state in which God has placed us, and carrying our cross with strength and courage may follow in the footsteps of our blessed Redeemer and his most sorrowful Mother.
After nine years the prior admitted Martin as a lay brother in 1603, setting aside the legal prohibition. Some of the community objected on grounds of his birth and his colour, and the records preserve the objections.
The Infirmary
The Novena Prayer
Most humble Martin de Porres, whose burning charity embraced not only the poor and needy but even the animals of the field: for thy splendid example of charity I honour thee and invoke thy help.
From thy place in heaven hear the requests of thy needy brethren, that by imitating thy virtues we may live contentedly in that state in which God has placed us, and carrying our cross with strength and courage may follow in the footsteps of our blessed Redeemer and his most sorrowful Mother.
Martin was placed in charge of the priory infirmary and treated whoever came, members of the community and the poor of the city alike. During an epidemic he brought the sick into the priory itself, and when a superior objected that the rules forbade it, he is said to have answered that obedience mattered less than charity.
The Animals
The Novena Prayer
Most humble Martin de Porres, whose burning charity embraced not only the poor and needy but even the animals of the field: for thy splendid example of charity I honour thee and invoke thy help.
From thy place in heaven hear the requests of thy needy brethren, that by imitating thy virtues we may live contentedly in that state in which God has placed us, and carrying our cross with strength and courage may follow in the footsteps of our blessed Redeemer and his most sorrowful Mother.
Martin kept a hospital for stray dogs and cats at his sister's house and is the subject of a well-known story about feeding a dog, a cat and a mouse from the same dish. The animal stories are the ones best remembered, and they sit alongside the founding of an orphanage and a foundling hospital in the city.
Canonized 1962
The Novena Prayer
Most humble Martin de Porres, whose burning charity embraced not only the poor and needy but even the animals of the field: for thy splendid example of charity I honour thee and invoke thy help.
From thy place in heaven hear the requests of thy needy brethren, that by imitating thy virtues we may live contentedly in that state in which God has placed us, and carrying our cross with strength and courage may follow in the footsteps of our blessed Redeemer and his most sorrowful Mother.
Martin died in Lima on 3 November 1639, aged fifty-nine. He was beatified in 1837 by Gregory XVI and canonized on 6 May 1962 by John XXIII, the first Black saint of the Americas, and is invoked as a patron of interracial justice and of people of mixed race.
The prayer that opens each day is the traditional novena prayer to Saint Martin, of unknown authorship and long in circulation, given here as it is commonly printed. Fray Escoba, brother broom, is the nickname Lima gave him. ⚠ The plate is illustrative, not a likeness. No public-domain portrait of Martin exists, so rather than pass off another face as his the card carries Murillo’s painting of a beggar boy in Seville, painted within his lifetime and true to what he spent his life on. The same rule produced the blank card on St. Thérèse.
