This year, the 25th anniversary of the passing of Fr. Martin de Porres Maria Ward, OFM Conv., the first African American Conventual Franciscan, provides an excellent opportunity to reflect on his candidacy for beatification.
The “Cause” for Fr. Martin officially got underway in 2020 when local friars in the Diocese of São João del Rei in Brazil, where Fr. Martin served for many years as a missionary, received official permission from Bishop José Eudes Campos do Nascimento to put forth his name.
To generate support, the friars placed portraits of Fr. Martin in local parishes and proposed a prayer for his canonization to be recited at all of their Masses. A website to tell Fr. Martin’s story and support his cause was also established.
Born in Boston in 1918 as Matthias DeWitte Ward, Martin was the son of an interracial couple and was raised as Methodist, along with his 12 siblings. As a teen he and his family lived in Washington, D.C. and he began to attend St. Augustine Catholic Church, the center of the city’s Black Catholic Community.
At the age of 17, Ward converted to Catholicism and later he answered a religious calling and entered the seminary of the Salvation Fathers in 1942. Unfortunately, a pulmonary condition forced him to withdraw from the seminary. Eventually he moved to Brooklyn, New York where he later applied to the Conventual Friars Minor.
Although most seminaries in the U.S. at that time were closed to black candidates, Ward was admitted to the Conventuals in June of 1945, becoming the first African American in the order’s history. Soon thereafter, he took his religious name Martin Maria de Porres in honor of black Peruvian Dominican friar Martin de Porres, as well as Mary, the mother of Jesus, as he entered the novitiate.
Not only did he face discrimination because of his skin color, some members of his own family shunned him because of his conversion to Catholicism. Nonetheless, he was ordained a priest in 1955, with two of his sisters in attendance. He later baptized his father on his deathbed.
Shortly after his ordination, Fr. Ward volunteered to serve the friars’ missions in Brazil. His first assignment was at São Boaventura School where he learned Portuguese and became a teacher. He also served as a pastor, chaplain, and vocations director. He also worked in Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul and Goiás in Brazil and, all the while, caught the attention of his fellow black priests in the U.S., as his work was featured in a book by Fr. George Clements about African-American clergy, Black Catholic Men of God.
In 1985, while serving at Andrelândia as a spiritual director and teacher at a local seminary, Fr. Ward was known to entertain his fellow friars and students with his sharp sense of humor and storytelling. He often shared his vocation story and health issues as well as his struggle against anti-Black racism.
In 1995, Ward was awarded the honorary title “Citizen of Andrelândia” for his service in the region. Fr. Ward remained in service to the people of Brazil until his death in 1999. Despite suffering what appeared be a heart attack while celebrating Mass, Fr. Ward completed the liturgy. He suffered a second episode one day later while en route to the hospital and died on June 22nd. His gravesite is at the former São Francisco de Assis Seminary in Andrelândia, which has become a place a pilgrimage and the site of two reputed miracles as of 2022.
The cause for the canonization for Fr. Martin de Porres Maria Ward, OFM Conv. has been promoted by the Order’s Curia in Rome since the summer of 2022. At the 2022 Provincical Chapter of the Our Lady of the Angels Province, in 2022, Fr Julian Zambanini, OFM Conv. was appointed vice-postulator of the cause. In addition, a Historical Commission (HC), composed of two U.S. friars, Fr. James McCurry, OFM Conv. and Br. Douglas McMillan, OFM Conv., along with friars of the Brazilian Custody of the Immaculate Conception, Fr. Ronaldo Gomes, Fr. Marcelos dos Santos, Fr. Robson Malafaia and Fr. Carlos Charles, was formed.
This group is preparing a report on the life of Fr. Ward. Once the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints approves the cause presented by the Bishops of Brazil, the report of the Historical Commission will be sent to Rome where the final Positio, which is an extended analysis of the documentation presented in the HC report, will be written.
The Positio will be presented to the Dicastery of Causes of Saints by the Bishops of Brazil and to Franciscan Postulator General, Fr. Zdzislaw Kijas, OFM Conv. The Dicastery for the Causes of Saints (previously named the Congregation for the Causes of Saints), is the Dicastery of the Roman Curia that oversees the process that leads to the canonization of saints, passing through the steps of a declaration of “heroic virtues” and beatification. After preparing a case, including the approval of miracles, several of which have been presented in Brazil, the case is presented to the pope, who decides whether to proceed with beatification or canonization.
Prayer for the Canonization of Fr. Martin de Porres Ward
O Glorious Most High God, who deign to glorify in Heave the souls of those who served and glorified you on Earth, hear our prayers (petitions in silence), and according to the design of Your Divine Providence, deign to glorify your Servant Friar Martin Maria, who by his love desired to offer his life for the education and service of the youth, the poor and the sick, and like our “compadre” we too may progress in the service of the most needy. Amen!