From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   Zeal in Amending our Lives  (9)   
      
    If there were nothing else to do but praise the Lord God with all   
   your heart and voice, if you had never to eat, or drink, or sleep, but   
   could praise God always and occupy yourself solely with spiritual   
   pursuits, how much happier you would be than you are now, a slave to   
   every necessity of the body! Would that there were no such needs, but   
   only the spiritual refreshments of the soul which, sad to say, we   
   taste too seldom!   
   Thomas a Kempis--Imitation of Christ--Bk 1, Ch 25   
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   November 3rd - St. Martin de Porres, Mystic and Healer.   
      
   Born at Lima, Peru, on November 9, 1579; died November 3, 1639;   
   beatified in 1837; canonized on May 5, 1962, by Pope John XXIII; feast   
   day formerly November 5.   
      
   Martin was born to Juan de Porres, a Spanish knight (hidalgo) from   
   Alcantara, and Anna Velasquez, a free Panamanian mullato. Martin   
   inherited his mother's features and dark skin, which upset his father,   
   but John acknowledged his paternity of Martin and his sister while   
   neglecting them. He was left to the care of his mother, and at 12 he   
   was apprenticed to a barber-surgeon, who taught him the healing arts.   
   Martin's prayer life was rich even in his youth. He had a deep   
   devotion to the Passion of Our Lord, and continually prayed to know   
   what he could do in gratitude for the immense blessings of redemption.   
      
   Deciding upon the religious life, at the age of 15, Martin received   
   the habit of the Third Order of Saint Dominic and was admitted to the   
   Dominican Rosary Convent at Lima as a servant. He gave himself the   
   lowliest duties of the house. Finally, his superiors commanded him to   
   accept the habit of a lay brother— something Martin felt was too great   
   an honor for him--and he was professed.   
   He served in several offices in the convent--barber, infirmarian,   
   wardrobe keeper--as well as in the garden and as a counselor. Soon   
   Martin's reputation as a healer spread abroad. He nursed the sick of   
   the city, including plague victims, regardless of race, and helped to   
   found an orphanage and foundling hospital with other charities   
   attached to them. He distributed the convent's alms of food (which he   
   is said sometimes to have increased miraculously) to the poor. Martin   
   especially ministered to the slaves that had been brought from Africa.   
      
   He cured as much through prayer as through his knowledge of the   
   medical arts. Among the countless many whose cures were attributed to   
   Martin were a priest dying from a badly infected leg and a young   
   student whose fingers were so damaged in an accident that his hopes   
   for ordination to the priesthood were nearly quenched.   
      
   Martin spent his nights in prayer and penance, and he experienced   
   visions and ecstasies. In addition to these gifts, he was endowed with   
   the gift of bilocation; he was seen in Mexico, Central America, and   
   even Japan, by people who knew him well, whereas he had never   
   physically been outside of Lima after entering the order. One time   
   Martin was on a picnic with the novices and they lost track of time.   
   Suddenly realizing that they would be late for their prayers, Martin   
   had them join hands. Before they knew what happened, they found   
   themselves standing in the monastery yard, unable to explain how they   
   travelled several miles in a few seconds.   
      
   He passed through locked doors by some means known only to himself and   
   God. In this way he appeared at the bedside of the sick without being   
   asked and always soothed the sick even when he did not completely heal   
   them.   
      
   Even sick animals came to Martin for healing. He demonstrated a great   
   control of and care for animals--a care that apparently was   
   inexplicable to the Spaniards--extending his love even to rats and   
   mice, whose scavenging he excused on the grounds that they were   
   hungry. He kept cats and dogs at his sister's house.   
      
   Great as his healing faculty was, Martin is probably best remembered   
   for the legend of the rats. It is said that the prior, a reasonable   
   man, objected to the rodents. He ordered Martin to set out poison for   
   them. Martin obeyed, but was very sorry for the rats. He went out into   
   the garden and called softly--and out came the rats. He reprimanded   
   them for their bad habits, telling them about the poison. He further   
   assured them that he would feed them every day in the garden, if they   
   would refrain from annoying the prior. This they agreed upon. He   
   dismissed the rodents and forever after, they never troubled the   
   monastery.   
      
   His protege, Juan Vasquez Parra, reveals him to have been a practical   
   and capable man, attending to details ranging from raising his   
   sister's dowry in three days, to teaching Juan how to sow chamomile in   
   the manured hoofprints of cattle. He was eminently practical in his   
   charities, using carefully and methodically the money and goods he   
   collected. He was consulted on delicate matters by persons of   
   consequence in Lima. Martin's close friends included Saint Rose of   
   Lima and Blessed John Massias, who was a lay-brother at the Dominican   
   priory of Saint Mary Magdalene in Lima. Although he referred to   
   himself as a "mulatto dog," his community called him the "father of   
   charity." They came to respect him so much that they accepted his   
   spiritual direction, even though he was but a lay brother.   
      
   He died of quatrain fever at Rosary Convent on November 3. The Spanish   
   viceroy, the count of Chinchón, came to kneel at his deathbed and ask   
   his blessing. Martin was carried to his grave by prelates and   
   noblemen.   
      
   The startling miracles, which caused Martin to be called a saint in   
   his own lifetime, continue today at his intercession. He lived a life   
   of almost constant prayer, and practiced remarkable austerities. He   
   worked at hard and menial tasks without ever losing a moment of union   
   with God. His charity, humility, and obedience were   
   extraordinary--even for a saint. Such was the veneration for Martin   
   that the canonical inquiry into his cause was begun in 1660 (Attwater,   
   Cavallini, Delaney, Dorcy, Farmer, Walsh, White).   
      
   He is the patron saint of interracial relations (because of his   
   universal charity to all men), social justice, public education, and   
   television in Peru, Spanish trade unionists (due to injustices workers   
   have suffered), Peru's public health service, people of mixed race,   
   and Italian barbers and hairdressers (White).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   Compassion is preferable to cleanliness: with a little bit of soap I   
   can clean my bed, but think of the flood of tears I would require to   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)