PORRES, SAINT MARTN DE

born 1579, Lima died Nov. 3, 1639, Lima; canonized 1962; feast day November 3 Peruvian national patron of social justice. Born of a liaison between a Spanish grandee and a free black woman, Martn de Porres became a Dominican oblate, or lay monastic, in 1601. Although it was not customary then to receive a mulatto into a religious order in Peru, Martn was considered an exception and became a Dominican lay brother in 1610. As a friar, he was noted for his kindness, his nursing of the sick, his obedience, and his charity. For the youth of Lima he established a school, considered by some to be his monument. He was beatified in 1837 by Pope Gregory XVI and canonized by Pope John XXIII.