Roman Catholics pay tribute Wednesday, Nov. 3, to Saint Martin de Porres, the saint protector of mixed raced people.
The fifth of the nine-day novena mass/ Dalaw Patron will be held at 6:30 p.m. at the St. Martin de Porres Church in United Hills Village, Paranaque City.
On Sunday, Nov. 7, Bishop Jesse Mercado will preside over a high mass in honor of St. Martin de Porres at the church at 10 a.m.
Several towns, schools, medical facilities, and parishes in many parts of the country will hold holy masses in honor of the well-loved Peruvian lay brother of the Dominican Order and the first black American saint.
Known as the patron saint of social justice and inter-racial love, St. Martin was admired for his piety, charitable work, and love for the poor and the orphans, as well as for his great devotion to prayer and the Blessed Sacrament.
Also known as Martin of Charity, the popular saint was blessed with the gifts of healing, bilocation, and the ability to communicate with animals.
Born on Dec. 9, 1579 in Lima, Peru, to a Spanish nobleman and a black woman, St. Martin was said to have been abandoned by his father at birth because of his dark complexion. This painful rejection taught him compassion and generosity at a very young age. He died on Nov. 3, 1639 and was canonized on May 6, 1962 by then pope now Saint John XXIII who named him as the Saint Protector of the Mixed Race people. His major shrine is the Basilica of Santo Domingo in Lima, Peru.