The devotion of Servant of God Martin Maria de Porres Ward, OFM Conv.

By Bishop John Stowe, OFM Conv.
Bishop President of Pax Christi USA
Diocese of Lexington, KY

For Black History Month 2025, Pax Christi USA will offer a weekly reflection focused on a well-known person or aspect of Black Catholicism in the United States.

---

But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, Jacob, and formed you, Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name: you are mine. Isaiah 43:1

It was a joyful surprise to learn that the newest African-American officially on the path to sainthood was also the first African-American to enter my order, the Friars Minor Conventual.

Servant of God Martin Maria de Porres Ward – birth name Matthias DeWitte Ward – was born in Boston into a biracial Methodist family in 1918. He discovered Catholicism at Saint Augustine Church in Washington, DC when his family was living there and was baptized there at the age of 17. In 1942 he entered the seminary of the Salvatorian Fathers in Wisconsin, but he left them because of illness and returned to Brooklyn where his family was then living. It was there that he met the Conventual Franciscans after an apparently quick recovery.

In 1945 he applied to the Conventual Franciscans. He mentioned that he was “colored” in his application and sadly mentioned that he would “understand” if he was denied admittance to the order because of his race. He was received at Saint Francis Seminary in Staten Island, NY (where I once lived as a novice). After novitiate, he pursued studies for ordination at Saint Anthony on Hudson Seminary in Rensselaer, NY and was ordained at the cathedral in Albany. Right after ordination he volunteered to be a missionary in Brazil where he had a fruitful ministry for 44 years. Friars who knew him suggest that he went to Brazil because of the difficulty of getting an assignment as a Black priest in the United States.

He nonetheless won the hearts and minds of the people he served in Brazil. He was known for his deep piety, love of the Blessed Virgin Mary and an infectious sense of humor. Friars, parishioners and the local clergy were saddened when he died on June 22, 1999, having just celebrated Sunday mass in the parish two days earlier. He is buried in Andrelandia, Brazil, where his cause for canonization began in 2015.

For reflection:

• How must it have felt to respond to a call to be a priest and yet know that his race might prevent him from joining the community he felt called to?
• What did the US miss out on by not providing a place for Father Martin Maria de Porres to exercise his ministry in this country?
• What depths of spirituality allowed him to minister in a foreign land and culture while maintaining a sense of humor that everyone admired?

Prayer

O God, You are the Loving Creator and Father of us all.

Help us your children to overcome our tendency to judge others based on our differences and help us to recognize that we are all sisters and brothers in you.

Bless all those who are discerning any vocation in your Church, especially those who feel the call to serve in a cultural setting different than their own.

May we learn faithfulness from your Servant Martin Maria de Porres and how to accept all of life’s challenges as opportunities to serve You and your people.  May he help us in our efforts to dismantle systematic racism in the Church and in society and may we share in his joyfulness.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

The official prayer for his canonization:

O Glorious Most High God, who deign to glorify in heaven the souls of those who served and glorified you on earth, hear our prayers (mention petitions), and according to the design of Your Divine Providence, deign to glorify your Servant Friar Martin Maria, who by his love desired to offer his life for the education and service of the youth, the poor and the sick, that like our “compadre” we too may progress in the service of the most needy. Amen.

---