Saint Martin de Porres (Part 3)

Apostle of Charity

On one occasion a man who had suffered badly in a brawl outside was brought into the infirmary. He was bleeding profusely and covered in mud. As a result, after the man had been healed and left the infirmary, the sheets were left an awful mess. Another brother showed them to Martin and remarked, “And now to try to get them white again!” Martin was not amused, and perhaps lost his patience. For, while he could bear the most awful of insults to himself and his character, he could not stand to hear even the slightest of offenses to fraternal charity. He responded, “Brother, with the application of a little elbow grease, water and soap, the sheets will be white again, but the soul needs other things! Only tears and penance can cleanse it from the lack of charity.”

To Animals and Nature

We have all invariably heard the story of Martin and the mice in the priory. Of his pact with them to feed them, if they would only stop chewing up the linens of the house. And so they gladly relocated to the garden where Martin faithfully fed them. Martin so loved animals that on his deathbed when the doctor prescribed a medicine that would require the blood of freshly killed young roosters he calmly asked that it not be done, for he and the doctor both knew that it would be of no help. On that note, we can also recount his knowledge of the earth’s natural remedies and the simple cures that he employed in spite of the healing powers he possessed.

For Vocations

There was a young man who attended the Dominican school in Lima until he was eighteen. He then went to study at the Jesuit College. When Martin would see him he would say, “Listen to me; God wishes you to be a Dominican.” Martin seemed to have a sense for vocations. However, Anthony was stubborn and refused to accept this charge, instead he went off to the north to seek out anything but the religious life. When he left, Martin told him that before Martin died, Anthony would enter the Order. Four years later Anthony, in Cuzco, found himself with the sudden desire to hear the Salve chanted. He rushed to the priory of Santo Domingo in Cuzco for Compline, begged one of the friars to hear his confession and then insisted that he be admitted as a postulant. Martin had been right. He received the habit three months before Martin died on November 3, 1639.