NOVEMBER 3RD: SAINT MARTIN DE PORRES, THE SAINT OF LIMA

my source: Order of Preachers

Miamoto was part of an anthropology and dentistry group that spoke at a Nov. 3 presentation on the reconstructed face of the Peruvian saint.
The presentation coincided with the unveiling of the face, constructed by a team of specialists from research based on the saint’s skull.
Thousands of the faithful packed the Basilica of the Most Holy Rosary in Lima for the event.
A Solemn Mass was celebrated by Auxiliary Bishop Raúl Antonio Chau of Lima, and concelebrated by Dominican priests. In the homily, the bishop emphasized St. Martin’s humble service and recalled the words of St. John XXIII, who called him “Martin of Charity” at his canonization Mass.
A team of researchers using 3D technology reconstructed the Black saint’s face, and found it strikingly similar to the depiction of unknown Peruvian artists from his time.
A new reconstruction of the face of St. Martin de Porres reveals the face of the Dominican brother as he was in life, as well as his physical suffering: the saint had trouble eating toward the end of his life, due to the fact that he was missing most of his teeth.
When St. Martin died, he had only two teeth left, and would have had great difficulty chewing, said Dr. Paulo Miamoto, pointing to the distortions in the saint’s upper jaw.
Once the Eucharistic celebration was over, Father Luis Ramírez, prior of St. Dominic Convent where Martin lived, introduced the specialists from the NGO Ebrafol, a Brazilian forensic anthropology and dentistry team that headed up the study.
The specialists gave details on how they were able to reconstruct through digital 3D imaging the face of the famed Black saint.
For his part, 3D designer Cicero Moraes explained that when he made the graphic representation of the saint’s face, the result coincided closely with an old painting and a statue of the saint by unknown artists that are kept at St. Dominic’s convent.
The research on the project was a collaborative effort between the NGO Ebrafol, St. Dominic’s Convent and the universities of St. Martin de Porres and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega in Peru. The group has previously recreated and unveiled the faces of St. Rose of Lima and St. Juan Macías.
The son of a Spanish nobleman and a black slave woman, St. Martin de Porres was born in Lima, Peru in 1579. A talented medical apprentice, he sought to enter the Dominican Order, but was initially prevented from becoming a religious brother due to a Peruvian law at the time that prevented people considered of “mixed race” from joining religious orders.
Instead, he lived with the community and did manual work, earning the nickname “the saint of the broom” for his diligence, and care in cleaning the Dominicans’ quarters. Eventually, he was permitted to join the order despite the Peruvian law, and he worked with the sick in the infirmary.    He died on November 3rd, 1639.

MY COMMENTARY

The Saint That Came In 

From The Cold

Even though Martin de Porres became very popular among the poor during his life, and his holiness was recognised by some of the community, including the prior, at the same time, the almost constant demands to see "Brother Martin" at the door was a continual trial to others.  It took a good hundred years after his death for the Dominicans to show any united enthusiasm for his cause; but, since then, devotion to the saint has been widespread among the poor  in countries as far from Peru as Ireland, due to the preaching of Dominican friars. 

The Dominicans were not united in their appreciation of St Martin in his life time.

Those who opposed him  were not indifferent to his zeal for justice and his strong desire to  set slaves free: the Dominicans had an honourable history of condemning the slave trade.   One prior of Santo Domingo's Priory where St Martin lived even refused communion to the Viceroy for possessing slaves.

Nor was there any lack of miracles: indeed, St Martin worked miracles with such frequency at one time that he was distracting the community from its duties and causing divisions between those who supported him and those who wanted him to fade into the background.  There were those who were jealous of him and who believed that, in a community of such well known and intelligent Dominicans, the attention of the outside world should not be centred on the man that swept the floors.  The prior forbade him to work miracles, and he obeyed.

Of course, even at an ordinary human level, St Martin was much more than someone who swept floors.   He was a highly gifted pharmacist and, once in vows, he was placed in charge of the health of the Dominican community and of the workers on its estates, as well as of the queues of people who came to the door.

His greatest characteristics were his charity during the day, his hours of prayer at night, and his utter obedience to his superior and brethren.  No wonder the poor have recognised his holiness and have confidence in his prayers.

St. Martin de Porres was born in Lima, Peru on December 9, 1579. Martin was the illegitimate son to a Spanish gentlemen and a freed slave from Panama, of African or possibly Native American descent. At a young age, Martin's father abandoned him, his mother and his younger sister, leaving Martin to grow up in deep poverty. After spending just two years in primary school, Martin was placed with a barber/surgeon where he would learn to cut hair and the medical arts.

As Martin grew older, he experienced a great deal of ridicule for being of mixed-race. In Peru, by law, all descendants of African or Indians were not allowed to become full members of religious orders. Martin, who spent long hours in prayer, found his only way into the community he longed for was to ask the Dominicans of Holy Rosary Priory in Lima to accept him as a volunteer who performed the most menial tasks in the monastery. In return, he would be allowed to wear the habit and live within the religious community. When Martin was 15, he asked for admission into the Dominican Convent of the Rosary in Lima and was received as a servant boy and eventually was moved up to the church officer in charge of distributing money to deserving poor.

During his time in the Convent, Martin took on his old trades of barbering and healing. He also worked in the kitchen, did laundry and cleaned. After eight more years with the Holy Rosary, Martin was granted the privilege to take his vows as a member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic by the prior Juan de Lorenzana who decided to disregard the law restricting Martin based on race.

However, not all of the members in the Holy Rosary were as open-minded as Lorenzana; Martin was called horrible names and mocked for being illegitimate and descending from slaves.

Martin grew to become a Dominican lay brother in 1603 at the age of 24. Ten years later, after he had been presented with the religious habit of a lay brother, Martin was assigned to the infirmary where he would remain in charge until his death. He became known for encompassing the virtues need to carefully and patiently care for the sick, even in the most difficult situations.

Martin was praised for his unconditional care of all people, regardless of race or wealth. He took care of everyone from the Spanish nobles to the African slaves. Martin didn't care if the person was diseased or dirty, he would welcome them into his own home.

Martin's life reflected his great love for God and all of God's gifts. It is said he had many extraordinary abilities, including aerial flights, bilocation, instant cures, miraculous knowledge, spiritual knowledge and an excellent relationship with animals. Martin also founded an orphanage for abandoned children and slaves and is known for raising dowry for young girls in short amounts of time.

During an epidemic in Lima, many of the friars in the Convent of the Rosary became very ill. Locked away in a distant section of the convent, they were kept away from the professed. However, on more than one occasion, Martin passed through the locked doors to care for the sick. However, he became disciplined for not following the rules of the Convent, but after replying, "Forgive my error, and please instruct me, for I did not know that the precept of obedience took precedence over that of charity," he was given full liberty to follow his heart in mercy.

Martin was great friends with both St. Juan Macías, a fellow Dominican lay brother, and St. Rose of Lima, a lay Dominican.

In January of 1639, when Martin was 60-years-old, he became very ill with chills, fevers and tremors causing him agonizing pain. He would experience almost a year full of illness until he passed away on November 3, 1639.

By the time he died, he was widely known and accepted. Talks of his miracles in medicine and caring for the sick were everywhere. After his death, the miracles received when he was invoked in such greatness that when he was exhumed 25 years later, his body exhaled a splendid fragrance and he was still intact.

St. Martin de Porres was beatified by Pope Gregory XVI on October 29, 1837 and canonized by Pope John XXIII on May 6, 1962.

He has become the patron saint of people of mixed race, innkeepers, barbers, public health workers and more. His feast day is November 3.

MAMA MAGGIE GOBRAN, "MOTHER TERESA" OF CAIRO

Mama Maggie: the 'Mother Teresa of Cairo' inspires Coptic Christians

By Lauren Green  Published April 03, 2015  FoxNews.com

The brutal beheadings of 21 Coptic Christians at the hands of ISIS terrorists shocked the world. But almost as worldview shattering was the strong faith of the victims, even in the face of certain death. Now we know where their faith may have came from.
Her name is Mama Maggie. She's a Coptic Christian who, though she has never taken formal vows, is known as the Mother Teresa of Cairo. For two decades she has served the children in Egypt's slums through her organization, Stephen's Children, named after the first century Christian martyr.
Seven of the men who were beheaded came out of her schools. Five of them she knew by name.
In an interview on FoxNews.com’s “Spirited Debate,” the diminutive Mama Maggie said that when those young men were children growing up in her schools, she ate with them and prayed with them.
"Yes,” she said, “they are my boys."
The men were in Libya, looking for work to support their families in Egypt, when they were captured. As they faced death, they were said to have called on the name of Jesus. Mama Maggie explained how these simple men had such faith.
"From Him, firstly, because they experienced a real touch of love."
Then she pointed out the stark contrast between those who were killed and those who did the killing — and how their demeanors spoke volumes about what they believe.
“If you look at the picture you find the one who is trying to kill is covering his face,” Mama Maggie said. “He's afraid to face the world with who he is. And [the 21 Copts] have their identity, their self-respect and self-esteem clear. And they are looking up knowing they are going to live forever. I think it's a huge difference."
Unlike Mother Teresa, Mama Maggie came from upper-middle-class beginnings. Born Maggie Gobran, she became a professor at the American University in Cairo, a socialite and a successful businesswoman.
But she gave up her career after she saw children living in abject poverty and decided to help them, said Dr. Marty Makary, co-author of a biography on Mama Maggie.
"She visited a young child that was the same age and looked like her own daughter,” Makary said. “She couldn't sleep, and over months began to go back on her own and bring friends and sell some of her own things to generate money to help this child.”
"When the child took her back to the child's family, Mama Maggie saw the home and eight other kids living there, she realized she got more happiness out of serving that family than she did her job and traditional wealth."
Now 65 years old, Mama Maggie has served and educated some 30,000 low-income families in overwhelmingly Muslim Egypt, where Coptic Christians struggle as second-class citizens.
Stephen's Children is named after St. Stephen, one of the deacons of the early Christian Church whose martyrdom was not unlike today's Copts. When he was stoned to death for his beliefs, he was said to have looked calmly toward the heavens and saying he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God. As he was dying, he's said to have uttered the words, "Lord Jesus receive my spirit."  
"He fell to his knees and begged God not to punish his enemies for killing him."
But Stephen's story didn’t end there, and perhaps the same will be said of today's Coptic martyrs someday. Among those encouraging the stoning of Stephen was Saul of Tarsus, a Pharisee, who was a zealous persecutor of the early Christians. Later, Saul would encounter a risen Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus and be transformed into Christianity's chief witness and teacher — Paul, who wrote nearly half the books of the New Testament.

If there turns out to have been a Paul among the Sauls of ISIS, Mama Maggie may have had a hand in it.If there turns out to have been a Paul among the Sauls of ISIS, Mama Maggie may have had a hand in it.

please click on the following title:

A FOX NEWS INTERVIEW WITH "MAMA MAGGIE"

Lauren Green currently serves as Fox News Channel's (FNC) chief religion correspondent based in the New York bureau. She joined FNC in 1996.

MAMA MAGGIE, HER LIFE AND MESSAGE

http://www.stephenschildren.org/

OCTOBER 28th DURING THE PURPLE MONTH - EL SENOR DE LOS MILAGROS - THE LARGEST CATHOLIC PROCESSION IN THE WORLD.

It is said that this procession is the largest Catholic procession in the world.  According to  Raúl Porras Barrenechea, it was painted by a freed Angolan slave called Pedro Dalcon , also called Benito.  Later God the Father, the Blessed Virgin nd Mary Magdalene, were included in the picture.  The icon is called "the Brown Christ ",(el Cristo Moreno) because its first devotees were predominantly of African descent.  According to the historian Maria Rostworowski, it replaced devotion to the idol of "Lord Pachacamac" who protected the population from earth tremors.

According to the legend, the African Benito painted the image on an adobe wall of his own home.  The wall had a rough surface, and Benito had no training whatsoever in painting. He died after finishing it.  His neighbours were attracted to house by the sound of heavenly choirs and, on entering, found his body and the finished painting.   The house became  the meeting place for the "confraternity" which slaves and ex-slaves formed to give them their own space in an alien Spanish world, as well as to pray. 

 A few years later, on the 13th November 1655, at quarter to three in the afternoon, Lima and the port of Callao were hit with an extremely strong earthquake, and churches, mansions, as well as street after street of ordinary dwellings crashed to the ground, including the house of Benito.   However, miracle of miracles, the poor, unstable adobe wall  which depicted the image of Christ Crucified was standing firm and untouched, all by itself.   The devotion to "Señor de los Milagros" was born.

African slaves and ex-slaves came together on a regular basis in large numbers, and they were joined by crowds of native American Indians to pray to their new Protector.   It just happened that a large part of the population in this slum was made up of native Indians who had been displaced by the Spanish from Pachacamac in the south of Lima, a place where there was an enormous temple complex to the god Pachacamac who protected the population from earthquakes.  The adobe wall with its painting that had stayed up when all else was flattened made  "Señor de los Milagros" a good candidate to replace Pachacamac.

Perhaps now is the time to explain the place images like the "Lord of the Miracles" have in Hispanic America.  When I first came out, I was a little shocked - a shock tempered with interest and a little wonder - at the place images had in the Christian lives of the common people.  One day, I met a peasant who was highly articulate and intelligent, even though is formal education was poor. I took the opportunity to ask him.   He paused for a moment, and then said, "When an image is blessed by the Church, it becomes a point of contact between God and ourselves."  Think for a moment; we are baptised into the presence of Christ, Our Lady, the angels and the saints, united by Christ through the Holy Spirit with them in the presence of the Father.  When we live in this dimension, we are intimately united to them through the Spirit, and they are all around us.   Images pinpoint to us that presence and help us in our weakness to live in their company.

Peru: the festival of the Señor de los Milagros (Lord of Miracles)

Marco Simola

2008-11-21 14:38:00

my source: Religioscope

The festival of the Señor de los Milagros (Lord of Miracles) is one of the most important religious phenomena of popular Catholicism in Peru. Each year the procession of the Lord of Miracles is bigger and more beautiful. Marco Simola tells the story of the festival, illustrated by beautiful photographs he took this year. [To be seen here]

In the middle of seventeenth century, Lima, which today has more than eight million citizens, had only 35,000 residents. This number increased steadily from that point onwards with the arrival of thousands of people driven by the desire for a better standard of living in the Peruvian capital.

Most of these immigrants were from the Atlantic coast of western Africa, which in these days contained Portuguese colonies. These groups consisted of tribes such as Congos, Mantengas, Bozales, Cambundas, Misangas, Mozambiques, Terranovas, Carabelíes, Lúcumos, Minas and Angolas.

The Angolas were members of brotherhoods who venerated different images, carrying out related religious acts in which they remembered their freedom and nostalgically sang the songs of their ancestors in their own languages; they also tended the sick, and gave their members a decent burial through the payment of small subscriptions by the brothers.

In 1650 the various groups of Angolas united and created a joint brotherhood in the Pachacamilla district, where indigenous people from Pachacamac had previously lived, and where stands the church and monastery of Nazarenas and the building of the brotherhood of the Señor de los Milagros (Lord of Miracles). Their life conditions were those of absolutely poverty.

In the brotherhood's house there were large mud walls; on one of these, situated in a room where the brothers used to gather daily, one of the Angolas created an image, done in tempera, of Christ on the cross. 

On the afternoon of 13 of November 1655, at 2:45 in the afternoon, a terrible earthquake changed the face of Lima and Callao, destroying churches and homes, and leaving thousand of dead and homeless. The earthquake strongly affected the Pachacamilla district, and all the Angolas' houses collapsed, including that of the brotherhood; but miraculously, the wall containing the image of Christ on the cross escaped unharmed. 

As a result of the earthquake, the Angolas move to another area, leaving the wall with the sacred image in a state of dereliction. Fifteen years later, Antonio León, an inhabitant of the San Sebastian parish, saw the image of the Christ on the cross painted on this wall. Even though the wall was very damp and the building that had housed it was in ruins, the Christ image was still in the same perfect condition as the first day it was painted.

Truly astonished at what he saw, Leon tidied up the place and built an altar, until he was obliged to stop work due to a strange pain that affected him. By a miracle, the pain disappeared after some days and he returned to the religious image in order to honour it with harps, cajones and musicians. According to the reports of the period, Leon was the first to take care of the place, little knowing that from that point onward intense devotion to the sacred image of the Pachacamilla Christ would start. Leon was therefore the member of the Lord of Miracles cult as we know it today.

Among the believers who made up this growing cult, coloured people were predominant. They gathered each Friday night to sing prayers to the Christ, helped by the sound of the harps, cajones and vihuelas, a sort of little guitar.

Because so many people attended these gatherings, more for the novelty than out of devotion, often official Catholic religious practices were not followed. So civil and ecclesiastic authorities forbade the gatherings and ordered that the image of the Christ and of the other saints present on the wall should be erased. This order was to be carried out in the period 6-13 September of 1671 by a group of people among whom were a representative of the local archbishop, a notary, an Indian painter and the captain of the Viceroy army, Don Pedro Balcázar, escorted by two groups of soldiers in case of trouble from the curious people who crowded the place.

The legend says that, when the painter climbed up a ladder placed against the wall, he immediately started to experience tremors and shakes in his entire body, and was obliged to climb down, helped by his companions. After a while, he tried again to climb up and erase the image, but became so fearful that he could not start the job, so he rapidly climbed down and disappeared. Another man, a soldier of Balcázar, climbed up a ladder, but immediately climbed down, saying that he saw the image become more and more beautiful, while the crown turned green. For that reason, he did not obey the order to erase the image.

Because of these strange events, people started protesting loudly and threatening the group sent to erase the image, obliging them to run away. Once the Viceroy knew what had happened and had reflected carefully on the incident, he decided to cancel the order to erase the image and granted people the right to venerate it instead.

On 14 September 1671 the first mass was celebrated in front of the crucified Christ of Pachacamilla, and from that day onward the number of devotees grew steadily. Soon the image started to be called the 'The Lord of Miracles or of Wonders'.

During October 1687 a seaquake razed the city of Callao and part of the city of Lima and destroyed the chapel built in honour of the Christ image. But by a miracle, the wall containing the image of Christ remained undamaged [again].

After this terrible event, a three-dimensional image of the painting was made in the form of a statue and was carried shoulder high through the streets of Pachacamilla district, an act that was performed each year.

The Lord of Miracles is one of the most important religious phenomena of popular Catholicism. However, although the first mass was celebrated in 1671, organized by the new brotherhood of the Lord of Miracles of the Nazarenas, it was only in 1940 that religious historians started to be interested in it, due to the number of devotes and the interest it had generated.

Each year the procession of the Lord of Miracles is bigger and more beautiful. The old litter has been replaced by a sterling silver one, which is cared for by particular staff in a dedicated room in the monastery that now stands on the site of the original painting. During the procession, male devotees organized into squads of 36 bearers carry the icon through the streets of Central Lima. They are the cargadores, or 'carriers', a brotherhood charged with transporting the heavy statue. The spiritual significance of carrying the image is so great that to enter the fellowship one must have a patron and pass through a long period of trial and spiritual apprenticeship. The procession attracts hundreds of thousands of devotees and celebrants, who crowd through the streets of the city, singing and dancing, while vendors sell spiritual trinkets and medallions, together with a wide variety of typical dishes and sweets, including Turrón de Doña Pepa, a delicious soft and sweet paste made with eggs, butter, flour, anis and fruit syrup.

The sterling silver litter that bears the statue is borne on the shoulders of believers who set out on the traditional 24-hour procession from the church of Las Nazarenas, crossing downtown Lima until it reaches the church of La Merced in Barrios Altos. Each of the 4,300 carriers bears on his shoulder a weight of 50 kg, and must walk for a period of 15 minutes to cover a distance of 80 metres. 

In front of the image march the sahumadoras, a group of 244 Catholic sisters clad in the purple robes that mark devotion to the Lord of Miracles and waving incense burners. Immediately behind them walk the 'cantadoras', the 320 women singers who intone the hymns and devotional songs that accompany the procession. Many other minor figures, including penitents, musicians, vendors and peddlers, have become fixtures of the procession. Anyone interested should look out for the civilians in purple clothes, many of whom wear them as a sign of gratitude for a received miracle; some wear these clothes for up to a year.

Believers or not, no one forgets to join the procession in purple clothes. In June people start to buy or prepare the purple clothes, and normally between 700 and 950 outfits for men, women and children are sold by the little shops around the Nazarenas Church. These shops also sell religious articles such as candles of different sizes, religious images of Christ and the saints, incense, etc.

Marco Simola

Senor de los Milagros and Food

my source: Journal Peru

So, what does this have to do with food? Well, as to be expected, there are special foods associated with such an important religious occasion. Three of the most traditional Peruvian foods eaten at this time are turrón, anticuchos, and picarones.

No one really knows the origin of the sweet layered pastry popularly called turrón de Doña Pepa. Legend has it that was invented by the lady in a wealthy Lima family, although others claim that its origins are with a cook of African descent known as ‘ña Pepa.

What is known about this unique style of turrón (since there is a similarly named dish in other Spanish-speaking countries, although all are different from one another) is that it has long been associated with the celebrations in honor of El Señor de los Milagros, when this sweet is consumed with almost religious devotion.

Anticuchos, grilled meat on a skewer, is another popular food during the month of October. According to researchers, the name comes from the Quechua word antikucho, meaning ‘Andean cut’ or ‘Andean mix’. Prior to the arrival of the Spanish, these types of brochettes were made with llama or other local meats. In the 1500s, the Spanish began preparing something similar to the modern day anticucho, substituting beef for llama.

Once again the influence of Africans resonates in Peruvian culinary and cultural history.

The Spanish would give their African slaves the parts of the cow they wouldn’t eat themselves. This included the beef heart. The slaves took the beef heart and seasoned it heavily prior to marinating it and then grilling it in imitation of their masters. Over time, the beef heart anticuchos would become the Peruvian favorite. They are still one of the most popular street foods available in Peru, and during El Señor de los Milagros, anticucho sellers set up grills in the late afternoon, tempting passersby with the aromatic smells of seasoned grilled meats.

Finally, picarones are pumpkin fritters that are also eaten as late-afternoon street food during El Señor de los Milagros celebrations. This is another dish that has its origins in the colonial period. Some believe they are a local adaptation of Spanish buñuelos. Picarones are made of squash or pumpkin dough and sweetened with chancaca, raw cane sugar melted into a syrup. I have a post about picarones which includes a recipe for this tasty dessert.


During el mes morado, the purple month, Peruvians demonstrate their loyalty not only to their religious beliefs but also to their culinary traditions