Friar Martin de Porres Ward declared Servant of God

The Catholic Social Action Office has recognized Friar Martin de Porres Ward, O.F.M. Conv., as a Servant of God.

Born Matthias DeWitte Ward in Boston on March 20, 1918, he was raised in a Methodist family before converting to Catholicism. He was baptized at St. Augustine Church in Washington, D.C., in 1936. After attending the Salvatorian Seminary in Wisconsin from 1942 to 1945, he applied to the St. Francis Seminary of the Conventual Franciscans in Staten Island, New York.

In a May 1945 letter to vocation director Fr. Celestine Regnier, Ward identified himself as being of African descent. Fr. Regnier responded that while the Provincial Chapter had not previously accepted applicants of color, they were beginning to seek opportunities in mission fields such as Central and South America and Brazil. Ward went on to become the first African American Conventual Franciscan.