Saint Martin de Porres

Saint Martin de Porres , 1579-1639, Peruvian Dominican lay brother, b. Lima. He was the son of a Spanish soldier and a black freedwoman from Panama. Apprenticed to a barber-surgeon, he later joined a monastery as a tertiary, or lay brother, in Lima and devoted himself wholly to the sick and unfortunate. He built an orphanage, founded several nurseries, and lived an extraordinarily ascetic life. He was canonized in 1962. Feast: Nov. 5.

Martin male forename, name of two saints.
St Martin de Porres (1579–1639), a Dominican lay brother, the illegitimate son of a Spanish grandee and a freed black slave from Lima in Peru. He was noted for his dedication to the poor as for his undiscriminating charity to those of all races. His feast day is 5 November.
St Martin of Tours (d.397), French bishop, a patron saint of France. When giving half his cloak to a beggar he received a vision of Christ, after which he was baptized. He joined St Hilary at Poitiers and founded the first monastery in Gaul. St Martin is often shown dividing his cloak with the beggar, or with a globe of fire above his head, seen one day when he said Mass. Another emblem, from the 15th century, is a goose, the migration of which often coincides with his feast. His feast day (Martinmas) is 11 November, and St Martin's summer is a season of fine, mild weather occurring about this time.