Born in Lima, Peru, in 1579 to a slave woman from Africa and a Spanish conqueror, Martín de Porres faced poverty and prejudice for much of his early life. Even after his father claimed him and he was apprenticed to a healer, he was scorned as a mongrel. He wanted to join a monastery but was accepted only as a laborer until his skill and compassion forced people to see beyond their prejudice. Stories spread about his healing abilities and his kind heart. He was in demand among Spanish royals, but they waited while he tended to the Indians and poor in the barrios. Gary D. Schmidt’s lyrical description of the life of the man who would become the first Black saint in the Americas is set against David Diaz’s lush mixed-media illustrations that capture moments of great tenderness and compassion that define this account of de Porres’s life. (Ages 5–8)

2013 Pura Belpre Award for Illustration

As the illegitimate son of a Spanish nobleman and a former slave, Martin de Porres was born into extreme poverty. Even so, his mother begged the church fathers to allow him into the priesthood. Instead, Martin was accepted as a servant boy. But soon, the young man was performing miracles. 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 serve in the church, until he was finally received by the Dominican Order, no longer called the worthless son of a slave, but rather a saint and the rose in the desert.