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Saint Timothy

Timothy
Icon of Timothy
Bishop, Martyr
Born	c. AD 17 Lystra
Died	c. AD 97 (aged 79/80) Macedonia
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Church Oriental Orthodoxy Anglican Communion Lutheran Church
Feast	January 22 (Eastern Christianity) January 26 (Roman Catholic Church, Lutheranism) January 24 (some local calendars and pre-1970 General Roman Calendar)
Attributes	club and stones; broken image of Diana
Patronage	invoked against stomach and intestinal disorders

Timothy (Greek: Τιμόθεος; Timótheos, meaning "honouring God" or "honoured by God") was an early Christian evangelist and the first first-century Christian bishop of Ephesus, who tradition relates died around the year AD 97.

Timothy was from the Lycaonian city of Lystra in Asia Minor, born of a Jewish mother who had become a Christian believer, and a Greek father. The Apostle Paul met him during his second missionary journey and he became Paul’s companion and co-worker along with Silas. The New Testament indicates that Timothy traveled with Saint Paul, who was also his mentor. Paul entrusted him with important assignments. He is addressed as the recipient of the First and Second Epistles to Timothy.

Life

Timothy was a native of Lystra in Lycaonia (Anatolia). When Paul and Barnabas first visited Lystra, Paul healed one crippled from birth, leading many of the inhabitants to accept his teaching. When he returned a few years later with Silas, Timothy was already a respected member of the Christian congregation, as were his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice, both Jews. In 2 Timothy 1:5, his mother and grandmother are noted as eminent for their piety and faith. Timothy is said to have been acquainted with the Scriptures since childhood. In 1 Corinthians 16:10 there is a suggestion that he was by nature reserved and timid: "When Timothy comes, see that you put him at ease among you, for he is doing the work of the Lord".

Timothy's father was Greek, that is, not a Jew. Thus Timothy had not been circumcised and Paul now ensured that this was done, according to the text Acts 16:1–3, to ensure Timothy's acceptability to the Jews whom they would be evangelizing. According to McGarvey: "Yet we see him in the case before us, circumcising Timothy with his own hand, and this 'on account of certain Jews who were in those quarters'". However, Acts 16:4 makes clear that this action did not compromise the decision made at the Council of Jerusalem, that gentile believers were not required to be circumcised.

Rembrandt's Timothy and his grandmother, 1648.

Timothy became St Paul’s disciple, and later his constant companion and co-worker in preaching. In the year 52, Paul and Silas took Timothy along with them on their journey to Macedonia. Augustine extols his zeal and disinterestedness in immediately forsaking his country, his house, and his parents, to follow the apostle, to share in his poverty and sufferings. Timothy may have been subject to ill health or "frequent ailments", and Paul encouraged him to "use a little wine for your stomach's sake" (1 Timothy 5:23).

When Paul went on to Athens, Silas and Timothy stayed for some time at Beroea and Thessalonica before joining Paul at Corinth. Timothy next appears in Acts during Paul's stay in Ephesus (54–57), and in late 56 or early 57 Paul sent him forth to Macedonia with the aim that he would eventually arrive at Corinth. Timothy arrived at Corinth just after 1 Corinthians reached that city. The letter was not well received, and Timothy quickly returned to Ephesus to report this to Paul.

Timothy was with Paul in Corinth during the winter of 57–58 when Paul dispatched his Letter to the Romans (Romans 16:21). According to Acts 20:3–6, Timothy was with Paul in Macedonia just before Passover in 58; he left the city before Paul, going ahead of him to await Paul in Troas (Acts 20:4–5). "That is the last mention of Timothy in Acts", Raymond Brown notes. In the year 64, Paul left Timothy at Ephesus, to govern that church.

His relationship with Paul was close and Paul entrusted him with missions of great importance. Timothy's name appears as the co-author on 2 Corinthians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, and Philemon. Paul wrote to the Philippians about Timothy, "I have no one like him" (Philippians 2:19–23). When Paul was in prison and awaiting martyrdom, he summoned his faithful friend Timothy for a last farewell.

That Timothy was jailed at least once during the period of the writing of the New Testament is implied by the writer of Hebrews mentioning Timothy's release at the end of the epistle.

The apocryphal Acts of Timothy states that in the year 97, the 80-year-old bishop tried to halt a procession in honor of the goddess Diana by preaching the gospel. The angry pagans beat him, dragged him through the streets, and stoned him to death.

Veneration

Timothy is venerated as an apostle, saint, and martyr by the Eastern Orthodox Church, with his feast day on 22 January. The General Roman Calendar venerates Timothy together with Titus by a memorial on 26 January, the day after the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul. From the 13th century until 1969 the feast of Timothy (alone) was on 24 January, the day before that of the Conversion of Saint Paul. Along with Titus and Silas, Timothy is commemorated by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Episcopal Church on 26 January. Timothy's feast is kept by the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod on 24 January.

In the 4th century, the relics of Timothy were transferred from Ephesus to Constantinople and placed in the Church of the Holy Apostles near the tombs of St Andrew and St Luke. Later on in the 13th century, the relics seem to have been taken to Italy by a count returning from the crusades, and buried around 1239 in the Termoli Cathedral. The remains were re-discovered in 1945, during restoration works.

Patronage

Timothy is the patron invoked against stomach and intestinal disorders.

See also

• Eunice (mother)
• Lois (grandmother)
• Acts of Timothy
• First Epistle to Timothy
• Second Epistle to Timothy
• Clement of Rome

External links

• St. Timothy, Bishop and Martyr
• Saints & Blessed
• Saints
• Colonnade Statue in St Peter's Square

{{DEFAULTSORT:Timothy}} [[:Category:Seventy disciples]] [[:Category:17 births]] [[:Category:97 deaths]] [[:Category:Saints from Roman Anatolia]] [[:Category:People in the Pauline epistles]] [[:Category:1st-century bishops]] [[:Category:Early Jewish Christians]] [[:Category:Christian saints from the New Testament]] [[:Category:Biblical apostles]] [[:Category:Bishops of Ephesus]] [[:Category:Burials at the Church of the Holy Apostles]]

Martin de Porres

"St. Martin de Porres" and "Saint Martin de Porres" redirect here. For other uses, see St. Martin de Porres (disambiguation).

Saint Martin de Porres, O.P.
Portrait of St. Martin de Porres, c. 17th century, Monastery of Rosa of Santa Maria in Lima. This portrait was painted during his lifetime or very soon after his death, hence it is probably the most true to his appearance.
Martin of Charity Saint of the Broom
Born	December 9, 1579 Lima, Viceroyalty of Peru
Died	November 3, 1639(1639-11-03) (aged 59) Lima, Viceroyalty of Peru (modern-day Peru)
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church, Lutheran Church, Anglican Communion
Beatified	1837 by Pope Gregory XVI
Canonized	May 6, 1962, by Pope John XXIII
Major shrine	Church of Santo Domingo, Lima, Peru
Feast	November 3
Attributes	a dog, a cat, a bird, and a mouse eating together from a same dish; broom, crucifix, rosary, a heart
Patronage	Diocese of Biloxi, Vietnam, Mississippi, black people, hair stylists, innkeepers, lottery, lottery winners, mixed-race people, Peru, poor people, public education, public health, public schools, race relations, social justice, state schools, television, Mexico, Peruvian Naval Aviators

Martin de Porres Velázquez, O.P. (December 9, 1579 – November 3, 1639), was a Peruvian lay brother of the Dominican Order who was beatified in 1837 by Pope Gregory XVI and canonized in 1962 by Pope John XXIII. He is the patron saint of mixed-race people, barbers, innkeepers, public health workers, and all those seeking racial harmony.

He was noted for his work on behalf of the poor, establishing an orphanage and a children's hospital. He maintained an austere lifestyle, which included fasting and abstaining from meat. Among the many miracles attributed to him were those of levitation, bilocation, miraculous knowledge, instantaneous cures, and an ability to communicate with animals.

Life

Juan Martin de Porres Velázquez was born in the city of Lima, in the Viceroyalty of Peru, on December 9, 1579. He was the illegitimate son of a Spanish nobleman, Don Juan de Porres, and Ana Velázquez, a freed slave from Panama, of African or possibly part Native American descent. He had a sister named Juana, born two years later in 1581. After the birth of his sister, the father abandoned the family. Ana Velázquez supported her children by taking in laundry. He grew up in poverty and, when his mother could not support him, Martin was confided to a primary school for two years, and then placed with a barber/surgeon to learn the medical arts. He spent hours of the night in prayer, a practice which increased as he grew older.

Under Peruvian law, descendants of Africans and Native Americans were barred from becoming full members of religious orders. The only route open to Martin was to ask the Dominicans of Holy Rosary Priory in Lima to accept him as a donado, a volunteer who performed menial tasks in the monastery in return for the privilege of wearing the habit and living with the religious community. At the age of 15 he asked for admission to the Dominican Convent of the Rosary in Lima and was received first as a servant boy, and as his duties grew he was promoted to almoner.

Martin continued to practice his old trades of barbering and healing and was said to have performed many miraculous cures. He also took on kitchen work, laundry, and cleaning. After eight years at Holy Rosary, the prior Juan de Lorenzana, decided to turn a blind eye to the law and permit Martin to take his vows as a member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic. Holy Rosary was home to 300 men, not all of whom accepted the decision of De Lorenzana: one of the novices called Martin a "mulatto dog", while one of the priests mocked him for being illegitimate and descended from slaves.

When Martin was 24, he was allowed to profess religious vows as a Dominican lay brother in 1603. He is said to have several times refused this elevation in status, which may have come about due to his father's intervention, and he never became a priest. It is said that when his convent was in debt, he implored them: "I am only a poor mulatto, sell me." Martin was deeply attached to the Blessed Sacrament, and he was praying in front of it one night when the step of the altar he was kneeling on caught fire. Throughout all the confusion and chaos that followed, he remained where he was, unaware of what was happening around him.

A mid-twentieth century stained glass representation of Martin de Porres in St Pancras Church, Ipswich with a broom, rosary, parrot and monkey

When Martin was 34, after he had been given the religious habit of a lay brother, he was assigned to the infirmary, where he was placed in charge and would remain in service until his death at the age of 59. He was known for his care of the sick. His superiors saw in him the virtues necessary to exercise unfailing patience in this difficult role. It was not long before miracles were attributed to him. Martin also cared for the sick outside his convent, often bringing them healing with only a simple glass of water. He ministered without distinction to Spanish nobles and to slaves recently brought from Africa. One day an aged beggar, covered with ulcers and almost naked, stretched out his hand, and Martin took him to his own bed. One of his brethren reproved him. Martin replied: "Compassion, my dear Brother, is preferable to cleanliness."

When an epidemic struck Lima, there were in this single Convent of the Rosary 60 friars who were sick, many of them novices in a distant and locked section of the convent, separated from the professed. Martin is said to have passed through the locked doors to care for them, a phenomenon which was reported in the residence more than once. The professed, too, saw him suddenly beside them without the doors having been opened. Martin continued to transport the sick to the convent until the provincial superior, alarmed by the contagion threatening the friars, forbade him to continue to do so. His sister, who lived in the country, offered her house to lodge those whom the residence of the religious could not hold. One day he found on the street a poor Indian, bleeding to death from a dagger wound, and took him to his own room until he could transport him to his sister's hospice. The prior, when he heard of this, reprimanded him for disobedience. He was extremely edified, however, by his reply: "Forgive my error, and please instruct me, for I did not know that the precept of obedience took precedence over that of charity." The prior gave him liberty thereafter to follow his inspirations in the exercise of mercy.

Martin did not eat meat. He begged for alms to procure necessities the convent could not provide. In normal times, Martin succeeded with his alms to feed 160 poor persons every day, and distributed a remarkable sum of money every week to the indigent. Side by side with his daily work in the kitchen, laundry and infirmary, Martin's life is said to have reflected extraordinary gifts: ecstasies that lifted him into the air, light filling the room where he prayed, bilocation, miraculous knowledge, instantaneous cures and a remarkable rapport with animals. He founded a residence for orphans and abandoned children in the city of Lima.

Death and commemoration

The Basilica and Convent of Santo Domingo, where de Porres is buried, in Lima, Peru

Martin was a friend of both St. Juan Macías, a fellow Dominican lay brother, and St. Rose of Lima, a lay Dominican. By the time he died, on November 3, 1639, he had won the affection and respect of many of his fellow Dominicans as well as a host of people outside the priory. Word of his miracles had made him known as a saint throughout the region. As his body was displayed to allow the people of the city to pay their respects, each person snipped a tiny piece of his habit to keep as a relic. It is said that three habits were taken from the body. His body was then interred in the grounds of the monastery.

After De Porres died, the miracles and graces received when he was invoked multiplied in such profusion that his body was exhumed after 25 years and said to be found intact, and exhaling a fine fragrance. Letters to Rome pleaded for his beatification; the decree affirming the heroism of his virtues was issued in 1763 by Pope Clement XIII.

Pope Gregory XVI beatified Martin de Porres on October 29, 1837, and nearly 125 years later, Pope John XXIII canonized him in Rome on May 6, 1962. He is the patron saint of people of mixed race, and of innkeepers, barbers, public health workers and more, with a feast day on November 3.

Martin is also commemorated in the Calendar of Saints of the Church of England on November 3.

He is recognised as Papa Candelo in the Afro-Caribbean-Catholic syncretist religion, which is practised in places where African diaspora culture thrives such as Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, the United States, and his native Peru.

Iconography

Forensic facial reconstruction of Martin de Porres

Martin de Porres is often depicted as a young mulatto friar wearing the old habit of the Dominican lay brother, a black scapular and capuce, along with a broom, since he considered all work to be sacred no matter how menial. He is sometimes shown with a dog, a cat and a mouse eating in peace from the same dish.

Legacy

Martin's sometimes defiant attachment to the ideal of social justice achieved deep resonance in a church attempting to carry forward that ideal in today's modern world.

Today, Martin is commemorated by, among other things, a school building that houses the medical, nursing, and rehabilitation science schools of the Dominican University of Santo Tomas in the Philippines. A programme of work is also named after him at the Las Casas Institute at Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford. He is also the titular saint of the parish of St. Martin de Porres in Poughkeepsie, NY, and some elementary schools. A number of Catholic churches are named after him.

In popular culture

In the 1980 novel A Confederacy of Dunces, Ignatius Reilly contemplates praying to Martin for aid in bringing social justice to the black workers at the New Orleans factory where he works. In music, the first track of jazz pianist Mary Lou Williams's album Black Christ of the Andes is titled "St. Martin De Porres."

There are several Spanish and Mexican works regarding his life in cinema and television, starring Cuban actor Rene Muñoz, the most of them referring to his mulatto origin, his miracles and his life of humility. The most known movies are Fray Escoba (Friar Broom) (1963) and Un mulato llamado Martin (A mulatto called Martin) (1975).

In the Moone Boy episode "Godfellas", the character Martin Moon is shown to be named by his grandfather after San Martin De Porres. His grandfather is unable to actually remember any of San Martin's accomplishments, and simply refers to him as "one of the black ones" when asked about him.

See also

• Saint Martin de Porres (sculpture) by Father Thomas McGlynn

External links

• St. Martin de Porres website and image
• Saint of the Day, November 3: Martin de Porres
• Order of Preachers: Southern Dominican Province of St. Martin de Porres
• St. Martin de Porres Shrine & Institute • Memphis, Tennessee
• St. Martin De Porres, First Black Saint Of The Americas, Celebrated Nov. 3

{{DEFAULTSORT:Porres, Martin de}} [[:Category:1579 births]] [[:Category:1639 deaths]] [[:Category:People from Lima]] [[:Category:Peruvian people of African descent]] [[:Category:Peruvian Dominicans]] [[:Category:Peruvian people]] [[:Category:Canonized Roman Catholic religious brothers]] [[:Category:17th-century Christian saints]] [[:Category:Anglican saints]] [[:Category:People celebrated in the Lutheran liturgical calendar]] [[:Category:Incorrupt saints]] [[:Category:Peruvian Roman Catholic saints]] [[:Category:Dominican saints]]