Saints for November |
Saint Martin de Porres (1579-1639)
Whatever you did for the least of my brothers and sisters, you did for me (Matthew 25:40)
Martin de Porres was the illegitimate son of a Spanish grandee of Lima, Peru, and a freedwoman of Panama. He was treated with contempt by his father, who eventually did acknowledge him as his son, but never grew bitter. Instead, he devoted himself to serving the poor, first as a lay helper, eventually as a professed member of the Dominican order. As Pope John XXIII said at Martin’s canonization in 1962, “he tried with all his might to redeem the guilty; lovingly he comforted the sick; he provided food, clothing, and medicine for the poor.” Having endured so much prejudice himself, Martin helped others regardless of race or class, and even in his own time he came to be called ‘Martin of Charity.’
In His Words
When reproached by another brother for giving his bed to a filthy beggar, Martin said: “Compassion, my dear Brother, is preferable to cleanliness. Reflect that with a little soap I can easily clean my bed covers, but even with a torrent of tears I would never wash from my soul the stain that my harshness toward the unfortunate would create.”
I can do all things in him who strengthens me (Philippians
4:13)
As a child, Frances Cabrini longed to be a missionary, and to carry the Gospel to China. Though she never made it to China, Mother Cabrini, as she came to be called, carried the love of Christ to countless people in the Americas. In 35 years of active ministry, she founded 67 institutions. She came to Seattle in 1903, and turned one of the city’s most luxurious hotels, the Perry, into Columbus Hospital, and founded schools and orphanages as well. It was here in Seattle that she became a United States citizen, and she often prayed at St. James Cathedral. Mother Cabrini died in Chicago in 1917, and was canonized just 30 years later. Her feast day is November 13.
In Her Words
May Thy Spirit, O my God,
which once breathed over the chaos of the earth –
may it give life to all the powers of my soul!
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. (Colossians 3:16)
Little is known about the historical St. Cecilia other than that she was martyred during the persecutions of the Church in Rome. She has been traditionally associated with music because of the antiphon on her feast day, which says that “as sweet instruments were playing, Cecilia sang in her heart to God.” The first word of this antiphon—organum, meaning instruments—led to the legend of St. Cecilia as the inventor of the organ. We must be grateful for a legend that has inspired so much great art, music, and poetry over the centuries! St. Cecilia is the patron saint of musicians. Her feast day is November 22.
In Her Words
In the medieval collection of stories about the saints, The Golden Legend, Pope St. Urban utters this prayer when he hears of the wonderful deeds of Cecilia: “O Almighty God Jesu Christ, sower of chaste counsel and keeper of us all, receive the fruit of the seed that thou hast sown in Cecilia, for, like a busy bee she serveth thee.”