How a Saint Martin de Porres Craft Taught Me Humility

Taryn DeLong found parenting perspective in an unexpected source: a homeschool craft about a humble saint.

I have the privilege of being able to homeschool my daughters and participating in a Catholic co-op. We recently learned about Saint Martin de Porres in our co-op and at home. He was a fairly new-to-me saint. I’d heard his name and knew that he’d been discriminated against due to his ethnicity. Other than that, I didn’t know anything.  

So imagine my surprise when he taught me a valuable lesson!  

Humble Beginnings  

Saint Martin de Porres had the kind of background that can either make you humble or make you resentful. I probably would have been resentful, but St. Martin was humble. He was the illegitimate son of a former enslaved woman of Black and Indigenous descent and a Spanish man.  

After his sister, Juana, was born, their father abandoned them, and Martin and Juana grew up in poverty in Lima, Peru. Martin did not have the opportunity to receive much in the way of formal education. However, he did learn a trade after being apprenticed to a barber surgeon.  

At that time in Peru, descendents of Africans and Native Americans were not allowed to be full members of religious orders. Instead, Martin became a donado at the Dominican monastery in Lima. Donados were volunteers who lived with the community and performed manual labor.  

Imagine essentially being a servant while feeling called to be a brother! But by all accounts, Martin performed his work with grace and humility. He finally was allowed to become a Dominican brother. However, he did not then pursue ordination, choosing to remain a humble brother. When the monastery had money troubles, he even offered to let them sell him into slavery to pay their debts.  

Many miracles were reported during Martin de Porres’ life. He loved animals and caring for the sick and poor. And today, he is the patron saint of people of mixed race, hair stylists, public schools, and public health workers. 

Teaching Children, Teaching Myself  

At our co-op, we did a craft from Colleen Pressprich’s Elevator to Heaven blog. The preschool children glued pre-cut shapes together to make St. Martin de Porres prayer cards. In the prayer card, he is holding a broom — as he frequently is in art, reflecting the work he did at the Dominican monastery.  

It was a fun craft, and the kids made some great prayer cards to bring home. But the final lesson, at least in our house, might have been for me, not for my daughter.  

The next day, I was sweeping the floor in my kitchen for what felt like the hundredth time that day. My one-year-old is not exactly a neat eater.  

“All I do all day is sweep,” I thought in a huff. Surely there was something more important I could be doing with my time. 

Immediately, the image of Saint Martin de Porres entered my mind. His healing gifts and piety could have made him a great leader in his lifetime. Instead, his birth and humility made him a servant in life. And he became a saint in death.  

Let’s just say that brought me down a peg. What a gift it is to have children to clean up after. It’s a gift that years ago I never thought I’d receive. What a gift to be their mother — and to be able to serve them every meal of their day. 

I’m grateful to the Church for giving us the saints. There really is a role model for every situation! Who’d have thought a celibate man who lived in Peru in the 1500s and 1600s would have a lesson to teach me, a wife and mother in North Carolina in 2025? And yet, he did! 

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Copyright 2025 Taryn DeLong
Images: (center) copyright 2025 Taryn DeLong, all rights reserved; all others Canva