Martin de Porres
Martín de Porres Velázquez OP (December 9, 1579 - November 3, 1639) was a Peruvian Dominican lay brother who was beatified in 1837 by Pope Gregory XVI and canonized in 1962 by Pope John XXIII. He is the patron saint of mixed-race people, barbers, innkeepers, public health workers, and all those seeking racial harmony. He is regarded as one of the most important historical figures in Peru.
He was known for his work on behalf of the poor, including the establishment of an orphanage and a children's hospital. He led an austere lifestyle that included fasting and avoiding meat. Levitation, bilocation, miraculous knowledge, instantaneous cures, and the ability to communicate with animals were among the many miracles attributed to him.
Martin's sometimes defiant attachment to the ideal of social justice resonated deeply in a church attempting to carry that ideal forward in today's modern world.
Martin is remembered today, among other things, by a school building that houses the Dominican University of Santo Tomas' medical, nursing, and rehabilitation science schools in the Philippines. He is also the titular saint of the parish of St. Martin de Porres in Poughkeepsie, New York, and some elementary schools, as well as the Las Casas Institute at Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford. A number of Catholic churches bear his name. His name is also associated with the Dominican Southern Province in the United States.
