St. Martin de Porres

St. Martin de Porres (1579–1639) was born in Lima, Peru, the son of a Spanish nobleman and Ana Velázquez, a freed Black woman. His father did not acknowledge him for years, and Martin grew up poor and looked down on for his mixed race. As a boy he trained with a barber-surgeon, learning to cut hair, set bones and treat wounds.

At fifteen he asked to join the Dominican priory of the Holy Rosary in Lima. The laws of the time kept men of African descent out of full membership, so he entered as a donado, a lay helper who did the humblest work. His humility and holiness were so plain that the community later received him as a professed lay brother. For decades he ran the infirmary, nursed sick friars and townspeople alike, begged alms for the poor, helped found a home for abandoned children, and was known for his tenderness toward animals. He was a friend of St. Rose of Lima.

Martin died on November 3, 1639. He was canonized by Pope St. John XXIII in 1962, and he is often pictured with a broom, a sign that no work done for God is small.