This Prayer to St. Martin de Porres is traditionally attributed to Pope St. John XXIII, who canonized him in 1962. It asks his intercession for our families, for unity and justice among people of every race, and for the coming of God’s kingdom.
To you, Saint Martin de Porres, we prayerfully lift up our hearts filled with serene confidence and devotion. Mindful of your unbounded and helpful charity to all levels of society and also of your meekness and humility of heart, we offer our petitions to you. Pour out upon our families the precious gifts of your solicitous and generous intercession; show to the people of every race and every color the paths of unity and of justice; implore from our Father in heaven the coming of his kingdom, so that through mutual benevolence in God men may increase the fruits of grace and merit the rewards of eternal life. Amen.
St. Martin de Porres, anonymous 17th-century portrait, Monastery of Santa Rosa de las Monjas, Lima. Public domain.
Pray it on November 3, his feast, or whenever illness, poverty or division among people calls for patient charity. Name the person or family you are praying for, close with “St. Martin de Porres, pray for us,” and if you can, follow the prayer with a concrete act of service, as he did. The text follows Catholic Culture’s copy of the prayer.
St. Martin de Porres (1579–1639) was a Dominican lay brother in Lima, Peru, the son of a Spanish nobleman and a freed woman of African descent. He served the sick in the priory infirmary, fed the poor at the gate and spent long nights in prayer. EWTN’s biography tells more of his life.
His feast is November 3. Pope St. John XXIII canonized him on May 6, 1962, and he is honored as a patron of interracial justice, of the sick and of those who care for them.
No. St. Martin de Porres was a Dominican brother in seventeenth-century Peru. St. Martin of Tours was a fourth-century soldier who became a bishop, honored on November 11.
