WHAT WERE THE MIRACLES OF SAINT MARTIN OF PORRES? - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The best known miracles of San Martín de Porres are: his almost clairvoyant knowledge about the procedure or medicine necessary to treat a disease, the instantaneous healing of patients both in person and with the use of the gift of bilocation and his famous ability to communicate with the animals.

An example full of humility, devotion to God and total altruistic dedication to helping the poor and hopeless, San Martín de Porres, the first black-skinned saint of the American continent, spiritually touched an entire people in his time. His veneration has been extended throughout the Catholic world.

He is also known as the saint of brooms and is considered the patron saint of the poor, people of mixed race, racial harmony, and social justice.

Miraculous Events of San Martín de Porres

1- Bilocation

Although the gift of bilocation cannot be called a miracle in itself, the simple fact of being in two places at the same time and interacting to some degree in both attracts enough attention. Given the personality and fame of San Martín de Porres, it was easy for the people of the time to attribute a divine nature to this ability.

It is claimed that Fray Martín was seen several times in places like Mexico, China, Japan, Africa, the Philippines and perhaps in France; knowing that he always worked from the monastery and never left Lima.

Saint Martin wanted to be a missionary but he could not fulfill that dream, but that did not prevent him from appearing mysteriously to the missionaries when they were going through some difficulty during their services in distant lands.

Being inside the convent and without having keys to the locks, it is said that he visited seriously ill people directly in their beds, giving them comfort or healing them. The people of Lima wondered how he could get through closed doors, to which he graciously replied: "I have my methods of getting in and out."

Some stories

Mexico

A merchant friend of Fray Martín went to visit him before leaving on a business trip, asking him to pray for his success. Upon arriving in Mexico, he fell into bed ill. In the midst of suffering he remembered his friend Fray Martín and surprisingly appeared at his side.

She took care of him and prescribed a medicinal drink for him to recover quickly. Already enjoying health, the merchant went to the city to look for his friend to thank him thinking that he was visiting Mexico.

He looked for him in the Dominican monastery in Mexico, in the archbishop's house, in hotels and inns throughout the city without finding him. It was only upon his return to Lima that he understood the nature of the miracle.

Asia

A native of Peru also had a face-to-face conversation with Fray Martín while in China, specifically at the customs office. In the conversation he received a detailed description from the friar about the location of a Dominican brother living in Manila whom he had also mysteriously met in the Philippines.

France

Another account tells the story of a patient who suffered agonizingly from erysipelas and resisted with disgust the friar's treatment, which was the application of rooster's blood to the infected skin. Fray Martín assured that it was an effective way to alleviate his pain, adding that "I have seen it being used successfully in the Bayonne hospital in France."

Africa

One of the most substantial cases of bilocation of the friar comes from the account under oath of a man named Francisco de Vega Montoya, who claimed to have seen him in North Africa while he was a prisoner of war in Barbary.

He saw the friar many times tending to the sick, giving them support, dressing the naked and motivating the prisoners not to lose their faith. After regaining his freedom he traveled to Spain and then to Lima.

Once there he went to the Dominican monastery to look for Fray Martín to thank him for his work in Africa, to which the friar asked him not to mention his presence in Africa to anyone.

Due to the stories that circulated among the fellow brothers of the order about the bilocation of Fray Martín, Francisco finally understood that what he experienced were supernatural visits from that holy man and enthusiastically began to tell people about the grace of the miraculous works of the friar in Africa.

2- Healing the sick

His skill and fame as a surgeon and healer of the sick was well known. Determining whether his healing works were the acts of an expert physician or the miracles of a holy man has been difficult, since the recovery of the sick in the stories is always consistent with immediacy or speed.

On many occasions, with his mere presence the suffering of a patient disappeared. He once cured a priest who was on the verge of death from a badly infected leg. Another account tells that he cured a young student of the order, who damaged his fingers, so that he could continue his career to the priesthood.

These types of miracles also happened quite a bit with the use of bilocation. A common phrase said by the friar at the time of his healing act was "I heal you, God saves you."

3- Clairvoyance

According to the accounts, this gift, most of the time, went hand in hand with his miraculous cures. Despite having had knowledge of medicine, it was quite impossible to believe that he would always be right about the medicine or treatment to use to cure a disease.

It was common to see him approach a person who was secretly suffering and advise him what to do, drink, and eat to improve his health. He could even arrive with the precise medicine and materials necessary to attend to a needy, without the latter having even notified his condition or requested any remedy.

With the use of bilocation it is also said that he prescribed exactly what the patient needed to heal. Then it simply disappeared and the patient recovered miraculously by following the treatment to the letter. It is believed that he knew the moment of his death accepting his departure in peace.

4- Communication with animals

As with bilocation, communication with animals is not the miracle itself. It was what she managed to do with this gift that really counts as a miracle. It is said that he once made a dog, a cat, and a mouse eat from the same plate without attacking each other.

On one occasion some novices brought a pair of bulls to the monastery. When they started fighting, the friar managed to calm them down and even managed to get them to eat together. He asked the older bull to allow the younger one to eat first as was the custom within the order.

Another episode talks about a rat infestation in the monastery. Fray Martín spoke to the rodent population in the garden telling them that he would bring them food once a day if they promised to stay outside. From that moment on, the monastery had no more rat problems.

Miracles after his death

By the time of his death, on November 3, 1639, he was already a fully recognized and loved character in Lima. His veneration began almost immediately and accounts of his miracles as a holy man circulated throughout the country.

The collection of these accounts was initiated in 1660 by the Archbishop of Lima to petition for beatification, but the colonial structure of the society did not allow it. It was around 1837 that the prejudices of the time were overcome and his beatification with Pope Gregory XVI was finalized.

Pope John XXIII elevated the friar Martín de Porres to the altars of the church in 1962. This long and awaited canonization was supported by two miracles that were taken as indisputable intercessions of Martín.

The Miracle of Paraguay by Dorotea Caballero Escalante (1948)

An 89-year-old woman was given a few hours to live later after an intestinal blockage and a severe heart attack. The family then began arranging her funeral for the next day. His daughter, who was in Buenos Aires very heartbroken, prayed tirelessly to Martín de Porres for her mother's health.

The next night, unable to sleep, she got up at two in the morning to pray the entire holy rosary, asking above all to see her mother alive again in Paraguay. Upon returning, she found her home full of happiness.

Her mother had miraculously improved at the precise moment of her prayers and prayer of the rosary in the early morning. In two or three days old Dorotea was on her feet and healed as if nothing had happened.

The Miracle of Tenerife by Antonio Cabrera Pérez (1956)

A boy of just four and a half years suffered from his seriously injured left leg. He had gangrene and his fingers were blackened. After a week, the boy thundered yellow and the doctors urged the amputation.

A friend of the family gave a relic and an image of Martín de Porres to the mother. She passed both objects over the boy's leg and placed the image between her blackened fingers.

Both mother and son prayed to Martín de Porres not to have to amputate. The prayers were accompanied by the nuns of the hospital and by visitors.

After two days the leg regained its natural color. 23 days later Antonio returned home and after three months he was able to wear a shoe again and play soccer with his friends without the greatest feeling of discomfort.

The life of the friar

Martín de Porres was born in Lima on December 9, 1579, in the colonial Viceroyalty of Peru; Illegitimate son of a Spanish nobleman and a freed Panamanian slave. As a child he showed sincere devotion to God and a very humble and kind heart.

He learned the medicine of the time from his barber-surgeon mentor from the age of ten. This path allowed him to come into contact with many sick people in the town, developing an empathy for people that ended up becoming his vocation until his deathbed.

He fervently wanted to enlist as a religious man in the church, but his status as an illegitimate, mixed-race son did not allow it. His only option was to enter as "donated" in the monastery of the Dominican Order of the Holy Rosary in Lima.

He was placed in the infirmary thanks to his prior knowledge of medicine and his sincere and compassionate dedication to the sick, a job he continued to perform efficiently until the end of his life in his sixties. He became a friar of the Dominican Order at the age of twenty-four.

References

1. Pior Dengler Giorgio (2013). Big Miracles, Not Tall Tales. Dominican Journal. Recovered from dominicanajournal.org.
2. Aquinas & More. St. Martin de Porres, the Saint of the Broom. Recovered from aquinasandmore.com.
3. Mysteries Marvels Miracles. Saints - Bilocation. TAN Books & Publishers. Saint Miracles Blog. Recovered from catholicmystics.blogspot.com.
4. Two miracles through the intercession of St Martín de Porres. Recovered from prayers4reparation.wordpress.com.
5. Zajac Jordan (2016). Of Mice and Martin. Dominican Journal. Recovered from dominicanajournal.org.
6. Dorcy Jean Marie (1983). St. Martin de Porres. Dominic's Family. Tan Books and Publishers. Dominicancontributors Friars website. Recovered from opsouth.org.
7. New World Encyclopedia (2016) Martín de Porres. New World Encyclopedia Contributors. Recovered from newworldencyclopedia.org.