Martin de Porres

As the illegitimate son of a Spanish nobleman and a black former slave, Jaun Martin de Porres was born into a life of poverty and discrimination. Even so, his mother called him "the rose in the desert," and begged the church fathers to accept him into the priesthood. Martin was accepted as a servant boy. But soon, the young man was performing miracles of healing, not only on the highborn or the fathers, but also on the poor, and even the stray animals. Rumors began to fly around the city of a strange mulatto boy with healing hands, who gave first to the people of the barrios. Martin continued to served in the church, until he was finall accepted Dominican Order, recognized not as the worthless son of a slave, but as a saint and the rose in the desert.