[Jesus said,] True greatness is in loving God and in humility. - Diary of St Faustina, 424
He levitated. He bilocated. He won miracles through prayer, even raising the dead. And he's the first black saint from the Americas.
But all those extraordinary biographical details aren't the most important aspects of his life.
Saint Martin de Porres (1579-1639), a Dominican Friar from Peru whose feast we celebrate on Nov. 3, matters most because he humbly loved God and his neighbor as Jesus did.
Our friends at CatholicCulture.org tell us:
He was born in Peru of a Spanish knight and a Negro woman from Panama. Martin inherited the features and dark complexion of his mother, and for that reason his noble father eventually turned the boy out of his house.
After a turn as a surgeon's apprentice, the young man joined the Dominicans as a laybrother and was put in charge of the infirmary of a friary in Lima. Soon he was caring for the sick of the city and the slaves brought to Peru from Africa — not to mention the animals with which he is often pictured.
Martin had a great desire to go off to some foreign mission and thus earn the palm of martyrdom. However, since this was not possible, he made a martyr out of his body, devoting himself to ceaseless and severe penances. In turn, God endowed him with many graces and wondrous gifts, such as aerial flights and bilocation.
Martin had the gift of miracles; and although he had no formal training, he was often consulted on theological questions by great churchmen of his day. St. Rose of Lima and St. Juan Macias were among his close friends. He is unofficially called the patron of social justice.
Open the floodgates
The secret behind the extraordinary signs and wonders of the saints is love. Relationships of love with other people, both human and divine, open the floodgates of God's providential action, allow His grace to come into the world and transfigure it, bringing light into darkness, healing into hurts, and making brethren out of strangers.
"If we look to the saints, this great luminous wake with which God has passed through history, we truly see that here is a force for good that survives through millennia; here is truly light from light," said Pope Benedict XVI.
Light from Light; love from Love; sanctity from the All-Holy God. Saints matter because they put God in His rightful place in their lives and hearts. When you live life that way, everything changes.
Let us ask St. Martin de Porres' intercession that we might love God as God, casting aside all idols that get in the way. Let us ask his prayers for all our needs and intentions, trusting in the power of the intercession of the Body of Christ to obtain everything from the Father.
You have been told, O mortal, what is good, and what the LORD requires of you: Only to do justice and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God. - Mic 6:8
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