Reflection Question: What inspiration does St. Martin’s life of prayer and service offer to us after living with Covid-19 for almost three years and the other major issues in our society? St Martin de Porres 1579 – 1639 This humble Dominican lived fully in the present moment, anchored both in God through intense prayer and suffering, and in the very real world of the poor through acts of extraordinary kindness to the sick and suffering. The best history of Martin’s life is currently out of print (1992). San Martin de Porras by Juan Antonio del Busto Duthurburu. Many sections have been translated by Brian Pierce OP, a friar who has lived and ministered in Peru, Honduras and Guatemala. I am greatly indebted to him and his small volume, St Martin de Porres   A Saint of the America’s, 2004. This summary of Martin’s life is not for publication but does list Sources. In 1579, Martin de Porres was born in Lima, Peru, where he spent nearly all of his life of sixty years. He was born into a world that idolized power, violence and gold. The Kingdom of Spain had conquered the indigenous Indians who lost their freedom, their lands and their sovereignty. Lima was a boom town with some 2000 families of pure Spanish blood, about 25,000 South American Indians, some 40,000 Negroes of African origin and great numbers of mixed blood from all three races. Society was highly stratified. Peru was ruled from Spain, legally by the King and
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