Compendio della vita del b[eato] Martino de Porres
Subtitle: terziario professo dell' ordine de' predicatori nella provincia di S[an] Giovanni Battista del Perú
Publisher: Dalla Tipografia Salviucci-
Published: 1837
Place of publication: Roma
Language: ita
Number of pages: 127
Subjects: Christian saints; Biography; Racially mixed people
Other titles: Compendio della vita del beato Martino de Porres.
Notes: Imprimatur appears on p. [1], 2nd count.

Martin de Porres is considered the first black saint of the Americas. He was born in Lima in 1579 as the illegitimate son of a Spanish nobleman, Don Juan de Porress, and Ana Vèlzquez, a freed slave from Panama. As black and mixed-race persons were barred from entry into religious orders in colonial Peru, Porres found his calling as a donado, or volunteer who performed menial tasks in the local Dominican monastery. Finally he was admitted as a servant boy at the age of 15, and eventually despite his race was promoted to almoner, in charge of distributing alms to the poor. He was a good friend of another Dominican saint of Peru, Rose of Lima. His feast day is November 3 and he was canonized in 1962 by Pope John XXIII.

Signatures: [1]⁸ ([1]₁ verso blank) 2-8⁸

Engraved printer's ornament on title page.

Includes an engraved portrait of the saint following title page leaf.

Sabin, J. Dictionary of books relating to America from its discovery to the present time, 64175.

Purchase; 2017; 18-345.