A special collection of Alms for the Poor will be taken up at ALL Masses at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish on Ash Wednesday.  Money collected will be given to Mission Outreach for distribution.  Students are also invited to participate.  Contributions from their allowances or money they have earned would be most appropriate.  Thanks for your consideration.

ST. MARTIN DE PORRES  
Directly across the church from our statue of our patron, St. Thomas Aquinas, stands his brother in the Dominican order, St. Martin de Porres (notice they both wear the same religious habit). St. Martin de Porres was a great saint with humble beginnings. Born in Lima, Peru in 1579, his father was a nobleman from Spain, while his mother was a freed black slave. Growing up in poverty, as a young boy Martin served as an apprentice to a barber-surgeon, from whom he learned many skills in the medical field. Dedicated to the service of his neighbor, Martin himself would beg to provide assistance for the poor and sick of Lima, to whom he also provided medical care. Martin entered the Dominican order in 1603 as a lay brother, caring for the needs of slaves, along with the sick and poor, orphans and children. Miraculous cures are attributed to him, including the raising of a man from the dead. St. Martin is especially known for his heroic life of sanctity: denying himself through fasting, conforming himself to Christ through acts of penance, and spending much time with our Lord present in the Most Holy Eucharist. St. Marin de Porres was canonized by Pope John XXIII on May 6, 1962 and the Church celebrates his feast on November 3. The statue of St. Martin de Porres, which adorns our parish church, was donated by the family of Fr. Philip Allen, the pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas at the time our church was built.