November 3 | Saint Martin de Porres

Welcome, young history buffs and curious minds, to My Daily Saint, the podcast that digs deep into the incredible lives of the saints, those remarkable people who shaped history and continue to inspire us today. Forget dusty old portraits and boring stories. Today, we are traveling back in time over 400 years to colonial South America, to the bustling city of Lima, Peru. There lives a boy named Martin, born in the year 1579.

Imagine growing up in a world where you are judged and excluded before you even speak a single word. That was Martin's reality. His father was a Spanish knight, and his mother was a freed Peruvian slave. Because of his mixed race, the society around him considered him to be of a lower social class. Martin and his sister, Juana, were ostracized, excluded, and looked down upon simply because of their physical features. And to make matters worse, Martin's father eventually abandoned the family, leaving their mother to raise them all on her own in poverty.

As he grew, Martin needed to learn a trade to help support his family. He was trained to be a barber. Back then, barbers didn't just cut hair. It was common at the time for them to also learn medicine. Martin became highly proficient at his job, serving his customers and patients with immense charity. But his healing touch went even further. Martin was also gifted with an extraordinary rapport with And he helped them just as willingly as he helped his human patients.

Eventually, Martin perceived that God was calling him to a religious community. He went to the Dominicans and became a lay helper. He served them faithfully through prayer, penance, charity, and humility. For nine years, Martin worked quietly and humbly in the background. But his holiness and dedication were impossible to ignore. After nine years of this faithful service, the Dominican community itself requested him to profess religious vows. He accepted and became a full religious brother, eventually even becoming a spiritual director for many of his fellow brothers.

Compassionate and highly skillful, Martin spent his days nursing the sick and caring for the poor. He didn't care about skin color, race, or social status. He served everyone with the exact same love. He went on to found an orphanage and fundraised thousands of dollars for poor girls who had no dowries from marriage or religious life.

But that's not all. Martin's life was also marked by the supernatural. He received remarkable spiritual gifts, including ecstasies during prayer, miraculous knowledge, and deep healing. He even received the gift of bilocation, the miraculous ability to be in two places at the exact same time. Throughout his life of service, he was also close friends with another famous Peruvian Dominican, Saint Rose of Lima. Martin died in 1639. His life of quiet service, humility, and miracles left a mark that history could never erase.

In 1962, Pope Saint John XXIII officially canonized him as a saint. Today, Saint Martin de Porres is known as the patron saint of hairstylists, innkeepers, the lottery, Peru, the poor, public education, and public health. In artwork, his symbols and attributes include a dog, a cat, a bird, a broom, a crucifix, a rosary, and a heart, reminding us of his love for animals, his humble service, and his devotion.

It's easy to feel like our circumstances, our background, or how other people treat us define who we are. Martin shows us that the world's labels don't define us. Our love, our charity, and our faith do. Look around your school or community. Is there someone who is being ostracized, ignored, or left out because of who they are or how they look? Take a page from Martin's book. Reach out, be kind, and show them they matter, regardless of their background. Also, practice humility.

Find one quiet, unnoticed chore at home, like sweeping a floor with a broom or doing the dishes, and do it without being asked, purely out of love. Thank you for joining us on My Daily Saint. We look forward to sharing another incredible story of faith and courage with you tomorrow.