Catholics celebrate feast day of St. Martin de Porres

St. Mary parishioner Jaime Torpoco of Indianapolis, left, who is a native of Peru, and his mother, Jobita Oscorima of Lima, Peru, pose for a photograph beside an ornate, handmade banner honoring St. Martin de Porres after the saint’s feast day Mass on Nov. 3 at SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Indianapolis. The religious banner was created by one of their relatives as well as several Peruvian youths in Lima. (Photo by Mary Ann Wyand)

By Mary Ann Wyand

Peruvian Catholics were thrilled when an ornate, handmade banner from Lima, Peru, honoring St. Martin de Porres was presented to Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein at the conclusion of the saint’s feast day Mass on Nov. 3 at SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Indianapolis.

“We say ‘thank you’ [to the archbishop and the archdiocese] for celebrating the St. Martin de Porres Mass in Indianapolis,” St. Mary parishioner Jaime Torpoco of Indianapolis explained after the liturgy.

“It took about two months to make,” Torpoco said. “We [would] like to give it to the archdiocese.”

The banner features an image of St. Martin de Porres and was handmade by Juan Migel Diaz Carbajar, a Catholic from Lima who is related to Torpoco.

Several Peruvian youths helped Carbajar stitch hundreds of sequins on the intricate design before it was brought to Indianapolis in 2005.

Since then, the banner has been carried in the annual feast day procession during five archdiocesan Masses honoring the saint from Lima, Peru.

“It is a very special present,” Archbishop Buechlein said. “The banner is very beautiful. In the name of the archdiocese, I thank you.”

St. Martin de Porres was the son of a Spanish noble and a poor, freed black woman from Panama, who immigrated to Lima, where he was born in 1579. He was mistreated as a youth because biracial people were ostracized at the time.

Martin wanted to become a priest, but was denied his heart’s desire because of the color of his skin. At 15, he became a lay brother at the Dominican Friary in Lima.

He devoted his life to doing good works for others, and was known for his humility, forgiveness and concern for justice.

Martin founded an orphanage, raised money to help people in need and cared for the sick.

Because he was biracial, he is honored by Catholics as a patron for multicultural ministry who helps bridge the gap between two races and cultures.

St. Martin de Porres was known as “Martin of Charity,” and also is the patron saint of nurses and health care assistants.

He was canonized by Pope John XXIII on May 6, 1962, at the Vatican, and praised at the time for standing up to racism and injustice, comforting the sick, and providing food, clothing and medicine to the poor.

“The African-Americans, the Africans, the Hispanics and the Latino cultures [in the United States] bring a very beautiful richness to the expression of our faith,” Archbishop Buechlein said. “We come from different cultures, but we proclaim and embrace the same faith, … we celebrate the same sacraments, … [and] … we love the same God.”

About 300 Catholics from Peru now live in the archdiocese.

“This [Peruvian] community proudly presents this beautiful, beautiful banner to the archbishop and the archdiocese,” explained St. Monica parishioner Maria Pimentel-Gannon of Indianapolis, who is a member of the archdiocesan Multicultural Ministry Commission.

“It’s really been a labor of love,” she said. “They would like it to be … housed and displayed wherever the archbishop decides as a reminder of the ethnicity of our archdiocese.”

Pimental-Gannon said the annual bilingual celebration on the feast day of St. Martin de Porres “is an amazing opportunity for us to be one in Christ, and to come together and celebrate the life of this man through the Mass, through the Eucharist.”

She said the festive liturgy is “the one time that we know all the communities are going to come together—not just black and Latino or Hispanic, but also some Indians, Asians and Africans.

“… The Multicultural Ministry Commission believes that this event is important because St. Martin embodies what we as Church and as a society are trying to accomplish,” Pimental-Gannon said, “namely, the integration of the people of two major cultures—the Africans with the Hispanics and Latinos.”

In his homily, Father Todd Goodson, the pastor of St. Monica Parish in Indianapolis, told the gathering of several hundred Catholics from many countries that they must live out the instructions in the Ten Commandments every day.

“Everything you need to know to make the kingdom of God present here in the world and to get to heaven yourself is summed up in the two great commandments to ‘love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself’ ” (Lk 10:27), Father Goodson said. “If you were to pray these two commandments every day and dedicate your entire life to living them as best as possible, you have everything you need to live the Christian life. These two commandments could change the world.”

God calls us to “look for points of unity, for things we have in common,” he said. “… One of these points of unity that we have is our lived faith.”

We must see others as God sees us, Father Goodson said, because we are “his precious creations, saved by Jesus Christ, equal in status, dignity and recognition, … his precious creatures all equally in need of salvation.”

These two commandments lived daily help us to become a more Catholic and universal Church, he said. “The power of the Holy Spirit somehow brings millions of people together—with thousands of different languages, cultures and skin colors—into the one body of Jesus Christ with the same goal of bringing the whole world to [God’s] heavenly home.” †