The Saint Who liked Mice

Once upon a time there was a Spanish nobleman who was in love with his slave-girl, and had two children by her, called Martin and Juana. However he did not much like babies, and when Juana was born he had had enough, and ran off.

Martin and Juana’s mother, Ana, who was brave and beautiful, took in washing to support herself and her two children, but it was a great struggle. In spite of this she taught her children to love God and to pray every night and morning. After he was seven Martin went off toa boarding school, which helped a bit. Martin studied really hard, and after two years he was clever enough and old enough –at nine – to get a job helping out in a barber’s shop.

Barbers in those days did not just cut hair, but also did surgery, and Martin saw a lot of people suffering from cuts and wounds that his master tended to. Martin was touched by the suffering he saw and learnt carefully all his master could teach him. He also prayed for many hours for guidance in how best to help people. His father noticed that Martin seemed to be pretty bright, and paid for Martin to have some more education. So he met the Dominican fathers.

Martin was impressed by the Doinnicans, and wanted to join them, but there was a problem: children of slaves, descended from Africans and Native American Indians were not allowed to enter religious orders in Peru. ‘Well maybe I can be your servant’ said Martin, who was pretty determined to do what he wanted . In returnfor working at the dirtiest jobs in the priory he was allowed to enter the Priory and to wear the habit of a lay brother of the Order. It took a long time: Martin started to work for the priory when he was fifteen, but he was only allowed to become a lay brother when he was in his twenties. Meanwhile every chance he got to study he did. The other brothers were cruel to him – they mocked him for not having a proper father, and for being black. Sometimes heshowwed them up – one day two novices were aguing about where a text in St Thomas Aquinas came from, and they were walking past Martin who was scrubbing the floor. He looked up from his scrubbing and told them exactly which chapter the text they were looking for was in.

One day the priory ran out of cash and they were in great troble. Martin said ‘Well, you could sell me as a slave if you like’ but the brothers were not quite that bad!

He prayed even more than ever, and when he was praying he noticed nothing else – once there was a fire in chapel when he was kneeling in front of the Blessed Sacrament, and Martin just didn’t notice everybody rushing round and pouring water on the fire and shouting –he just carried on praying as if none of it was happening!

Because of his early training, when finally Martin became a full member of the community they put him in charge of the infirmary, which was where the friars and other people went when they got sick. Martin was really goodat this- and somme of hiscures were so extraordinary that people think they were miracles. He did not care what kind of person the sick people he cared for were – great lords, slaves and beggars alike. One day one of the brothers saw him carrying in a revoltingly dirty, nearly naked beggar covered in sores and smelling awful. ‘You can’t bring him in’ said the brother roughly – ‘he’ll mess the bed up, we’d have to burn it after. Martin said never a word, but carried the man to his own be and laid him there. ‘That’s just disgusting’said the otherfriar angrily. Martin replied: "Compassion, my dear Brother, is preferable to cleanliness."

Another time there was an epidemic that hit Lima, and Martin had a lot of work on his hands – sixty sick brothers, all at the same time. Martin seemed to be everywhere at the same time, working day and night to get them well, but when they did get better they were just as bad as before – Martin wanted to go on helping the sick in Lima, but the prior was having none of it ‘We’ve had one bout of sickness here – I don’t want it happening again. NOMORE SICK HERE!’ he shouted.

Poor Martin did not know what to do, and went off and cried in the chapel. Soon a brother came to find him ‘Your sister is here’ He whispered.

Martin went to meet his sister and he tried to pretend that everything was all right, but she saw the tracks of tears on his face. ‘What’s wrong?’ She asked, and she would not shut up until he had told her the whole story. ‘Well father gave me a house’ She said ‘they can come there.’ Martin was overjoyed, and soon the hospital was up and running, caring for many sick every day.

One day when Martin was coming home late at night and was nearly home he heard a groan from the side of the road. He looked about and there there lay a poor Indian man who had been mugged. He was bleeding froma kmnife wound. Martin saw it was urgent – no time to lose! Forgetting what the prior had said he carried him to the prior, which was nearest, put him in his own bed and tended to his wounds. In the moorning the prior heard about it and he was very angry: ‘You disobeyed my direct command’ he said. Martin replied very gently that he was very sorry. ‘I didn’t know that obedience was more important than love.’ The prior was cut to the heart. ‘Brother Martin’ he said ‘You are a better man than I am –from now on you can do what you like to help people.’

He should have known that was a dangerous thing to say! Martin set about feeding the poorand hungry – he fed about 160 people a day, set up an orphanage for children, and continued caring for the sick - and he got the food and money to do this just by begging! He did this all alongside the work he still had to do in the friary kitchen, laundry and infirmary.

But the biggest problem for the other friars was the animals – Martin loved them and they followed him about. Birds and cats were bad enough, but he also encoourageed mice! Finally th prior had another word with him, and Martin went to the kitchen sadly. ‘Mice, he said’ you have to go out - but I will feed you outside’ the other brothers laughed at him, but the mice obeyed.

Martin died when he was 59 years old. When he died everyone wanted a relic, and came along to see his body as it lay in Church with a pair of scissors to snip off a bit of his habit (That’s what you call the clothes that monks friars and sisters wear). Three whole habits were snipped to bits before he was finally buried in a fourth one… He had cured many people in life, but he went on doing the same after he got to heaven.

Pope Gregory XVI beatified Martin de Porres on October 29, 1837, and nearly 125 years later, Pope John XXIII put him in the list of saints (Canonised) He is the patron saint of people of mixed race, and of innkeepers, barbers, public health workers and more, with a feast day on November 3. Statues of him are usually found in kitchens, and he usually still has his mice with him!

#Saints #MartindePorres