ST. MARTIN DE PORRES (1968)

Much of Boulder's recent growth has been on the south side, where the federal government, after World War II, established offices of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the Rocky Flats Weapons Plant, the U.S. Bureau of Standards, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Thousands of newcomers, including hundreds of Catholics, moved to Boulder to work for these installations. One of the largest new subdivisions on the south side is Martin Acres. William Martin, after striking paydirt in a Caribou silver mine, established a dairy and cattle ranch along the Denver to Boulder wagon road in 1872. His children sold the family ranch in the 1950s when it was platted as Martin Acres and annexed to Boulder. Foreseeing the need for a fourth Catholic church in Boulder, Archbishop Vehr, in 1956, paid the Martins $23,940 for 7.98 acres.

On May 23, 1968, Archbishop Casey appointed John Rae, assistant pastor at Immaculate Conception Cathedral, the founding pastor. Father Rae and his parishioners selected the name St. Martin de Porres, which seemed doubly appropriate as it commemorates both the original settler and the patron saint of interracial justice, a cause revived with the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

St. Martin de Porres was the illegitimate son of a Spanish grandee and an Indian woman. Born in Lima, Peru, on December 9, 1579, Martin had the dark complexion of his mother and was disowned by his father. At fifteen, he joined the Dominican Priory of the Holy Rosary in Lima, where he cheerfully served as a janitor, a profession commemorated by his attributes as a saint--a broom and a feather duster.

Martin also taught himself medicine and became a barber, nurse, and surgeon. When his daily tasks were completed at the priory, he went into the barrios of Lima to minister to the sick and poor. After becoming a Dominican brother, he founded a hospital and an orphanage that is still in existence. To help Martin serve the poor and needy, God blessed him with miraculous powers of bilocation, of being able to pass through closed doors, and of levitation, according to Butler's Lives of the Saints. Martin died on November 3, 1639, but the poor of Lima never forgot his work. In 1962, Pope John XXIII canonized this once scorned, half-breed, illegitimate Peruvian as the patron saint of worldwide interracial and social justice.

The 350 families initially registered in St. Martin de Porres parish held their first services in St. Paul Methodist Church and at Southern Hills Junior High School. Meanwhile, architect Keith J. Ames, a parishioner, was commissioned to design a multifunctional building. When fully opened up, this dramatic contemporary round structure seats as many as 650.

After Father Rae resigned in 1969, he was replaced by Leonard Alimena, who completed the $250,000 church, dedicated on June 6, 1971, by Archbishop Casey. After Father Alimena's appointment as pastor of St. Mary Church in Littleton, St. Martin's was guided by John Holloway (1975-1976), and Carl Longwill (1976-1978). Father Carl, an Irish-born priest, was cherished for his hospitality and his booming Irish brogue. Since 1979, the pastor of St. Martin's has been Albert E. Puhl, former pastor of Christ the King in Denver and of Holy Trinity and St. Mark's parishes in Westminster. Father Puhl noted in 1989 that:

St. Martin was a gentleman who cared for animals as well as people and, like St. Francis of Assisi, he is often portrayed with animals. So children are especially drawn to him. We now have over 500 families in the parish. But as St. Martin always felt, there's always room for more people.