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PAGE 6—THE BULLETIN, May 12, 1962
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Canonization Rites For Saint Martin de Porres
VATICAN CITY — The
canonization of St. Martin de
Porres was a triumph of
spirituality for the Americas —
his own Spanish America of 300
years ago, and the United States,
which fostered the devotion to
him which has become world
wide in the past 30 years.
It was in the splendor of St.
Peters’ basilica that His Holi
ness Pope John XXIII on May
6 pronounced the ritual words:
“We declare and define
Blessed Martin de Porres, Con
fessor, to be a saint and to be
inscribed in the list of
saints ...”
Martin was born in Lima.
His mother was a freed-wo-
man from Panama, probably
a Negress but possibly of In
dian stock. The union be
tween the Spanish knight and
the former slave was not a
marriage in the sacramental
sense, and after the birth of
a second .child (a daughter),
Juan left his illegitimate
family in Lima and went to
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Martin was reared in pov
erty in the little house on
the Street of the Holy Spirit
where he was born. Although
the son of one of the ruling
class, as a half-caste the
child was locked into a low
level of Lima’s society.
It is told that even in his
poverty, the child Martin
gave what he had to the poor,
and that this generosity
brought blows from a mo
ther weighed down with the
cares of raising two aban
doned children.
But the good reports of
Martin’s behavior came to
the ears of his father when
he returned to Lima from
time to time. When Martin
was about eight years old,
his father took him and his
sister Juana to Guayaquil to
be educated. It is said that
Martin there learned from an
old Indian couple some an
cient cures drawn from the
medical lore of South Ameri
ca’s once-high Indian civili
zation.
Two years later, however,
the father had to move on to
a high government post in
Panama. He was unwilling
to take his halfbreed children
with him, so he left Juana
with his uncle in Guayaquil
while Martin returned to his
mother in Lima.
In Lima his mother ap
prenticed him to a barber-
surgeon. He learned not only
to cut hair but how to draw
blood (a standard medical
treatment of those days), care
for wounds and prepare and
administer medicines.
At the age of 15, Martin
applied to Lima’s Convent of
the Holy Rosary for admis
sion as a helper of the Dom
inican priests. He received
RAISED TO SAINTHOOD — This painting of
Martin de Porres was unveiled in St. Peter’s Basili
ca in Rome on Sunday, May 6, during the canoniza
tion ceremonies on his behalf. The former Dominican
lay brother, long venerated as the patron of interracial
justice, was beatified in 1837.—(NC Photos)
the habit of a Dominican
tertiary: white tunic, black
scapular and black cloak.
Nine years later he was or
dered to enter the more dig
nified state of member of
the First Order of St. Domi
nic as a lay Brother with
solemn vows.
Martin spent about 45
years in the Convent of the
Holy Rosary. It was his home
until his death on November
3, 1639. Accounts of his life
in the Dominican house tell,
side by side, of lowly work
in kitchen, laundry and in
firmary, and of ecstacies
that lifted him into the air,
heavenly lights filling the
room in which he prayed, and
instantaneous cures of the
hopelessly ill. There is even
mention of bringing the dead
to life, and of instantaneous
transoceanic trips to help
those in need.
A sworn statement of a
witness to his holy life said:
“The servant of God, Brother
Martin de Porres, attended
to many offices: barber, sur
geon, wardrobe-keeper and
infirmarian. Each of these
jobs was enough for any one
man, but he filled them all
with great generosity,
promptness and care, without
being overburdened with any
of them.”
The very year of Martin’s
death Archbishop Felician de
Vega of Mexico, who had
fallen deathly ill while visit
ing the lay Brother was no
where to be found.
One priest suggested that
the Father Provincial com
mand the undiscoverable
Brother Martin to come im
mediately in the name of holy
obedience. Hardly had the
Provincial consented when
Martin appeared. The Pro
vincial ordered him to go to
the ill Archbishop and obey
him as he would his Domini
can superiors.
The prelate was in great
pain. He asked Brother Mar
tin to put his hand where the
pain was, but Brother Mar
tin read his intention and
refused. He would not be re
garded as a wonder-worker.
When the Archbishop com
manded it, Martin complied,
and the pain fled. Immediate
ly the Archbishop made plans
for his return to Mexico, and
got permission from the
Provincial to take Brother
Martin with him as his com
panion.
But Martin was not to go.
A few days later he was seen
wearing a new habit, a sight
so remarkable that the con
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vent procurator asked him
about it. Martin had worn
nothing but patched habits
throughout his life as a
Dominican.
“It is the habit I shall be
buried in,” Martin replied.
Before the Archbishop could
set out for Mexico, Martin’s
prophecy had come true. He
died with a terrible fever.
To the Dominicans who
crowded around his death
bed, Martin confided that he
was tormented by demons. A
priest theologian urged Mar
tin not to argue with the
enemy but merely to cling
to the Faith through confi
dence in the merits of Christ.
“Satan is too proud,” he
replied,” summoning his cha
racteristic wit and humility,
“to use any subleties against
a poor, ignorant lay Brother
like me.”
Yet Martin had settled sev
eral arguments among the
Dominicans on theological
matters by pointing to solu
tions offered by St. Thomas
Aquinas, prince of theologi
ans. He even cited the very
volume and paragraph of the
great Dominican theologian’s
many works.
The Archbishop of Mexico
remained in Lima to be a
pallbearer at Brother Mar
tin’s funeral. Among others
who carried the remains of
the mulatto lay Brother on
their shoulders were the
Viceroy of Peru and the fu
ture Bishop of Cuzco.
Martin’s charity extended
to the beasts of the field and
even the vermin of the
dtchen. He excused the de
predations of rats and mice
on the ground that the poor
little things were underfed.
He kept a refuge for cats and
dogs at his sister’s house.
He founded what is be
lieved to be the first public
orphanage in the New
World.
Generous himself, he in
spired such generosity in
others that he became a for
midable fund-raiser obtain
ing the equivalent of thous
ands of dollars for each of
numerous doweries that he
gave to poor girls to enable
them to marry or enter a
convent.
The former president of the
United Nations General As
sembly, Victor Andres Bel-
aunde, summed up Martin’s
role in subsequent history.
‘Martin de Porres is the
enduring answer to race pre
judice,” he declared.
“This man of the highest
moral perfection, this
example of the most perfect
type of manhood in Ameri
ca, was not the product of
the race which is considered
superior, the dominant race.
He was a mixture of two,
that he might be the living
symbol of the necessity of
concord and understanding.”
Martin was beatified in
1837.
Since 1939 Martin has been
patron of social justice in his
native Peru by presidential
decree. The government call
ed him “forerunner in Peru
and all the Amreicas of works
of social service.”
The first of the authenti
cated cures required for can
onization took place in 1948.
when Dorotea Cabollero oi
Paraguay was instantaneous
ly healed of an intestinal oc
clusion. The second was tha1
of Antonio Perez, who suf
fered a foot injury in 1956
at Tenerife in the Canary
Islands,-when a wall collaps
ed. He developed gangrene,
but was healed instantan
eously.
Bishop Stresses
Importance Of
Church Music
WASHINGTON, D. C. (NC)
— Music is the universal
language and the cultivation
of that language will be of
immense value to the ecu-,
menical spirit, Auxiliary
Bishop Philip M. Hannan of
Washington told the dele
gates to the National Catho
lic Music Educators conven
tion here.
Bishop Hannan delivered
the keynote address (April
28) to the convention. He em
phasized the need to develop
sacred music.
“The riches of faith can be
made available to all by the
universal language of music,”
the Bishop said.
Music is a means of par
ticipating in the liturgy, es
pecially the Mass, the Bishop
told the delegates.
“Because music is so flex
ible, has so many nuances, it
is capable of giving signifLn
cant expression to all the
different mentalities and nat
ural dispositions in glorifying
God,” he said.
Although proper attention
is being given to popularizing
religious music, he said, the
great and complex works
should be performed occas
ionally. “The splendor of
such works stimulates inter
est in religious music,” he
said.
Bishop Hannan said there
is no option in regard to de
veloping sacred music. Not
only would neglect be a re
fusal to be true to the wis
dom of tradition and an ex
plicit command of the Pope,
he stated, but it would turn
also the great talent of music
to the service of the enemy.
Modern music often is an
instrument of sensuality;
very often it is the instru
ment of vulgarity and of
fense, the Bishop said. “We
must come back to that abil
ity given by the Creator,” he
added.
Nomination Approved
WASHINGTON, (NC) — The
Senate Foreign Relations Com
mittee has ordered favorably
reported the nomination of
Father Theodore M Hesburgh,
C.S.C., president of Notre Dame
(Ind.) University, to be one of
nine members of the U.S Ad
visory Commission on Inter
national Educational and Cul
tural Affairs.
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