The Boston-born Black missionary to Brazil died 25 years ago this summer (June 22, 1999) and was the first African-American to join the Conventual Franciscans.

A devotee holds a Portuguese prayer card of Servant of God Martin Maria de Porres Ward at his grave on June 22, 2024, in Andrelândia, Brazil.

The sainthood cause for Servant of God Martin Maria de Porres Ward has received approval from the Vatican to proceed to its next stages, according to the Order of Friars Minor Conventual.

Br Douglas McMillan, OFM Conv., shared that an official biography of the late African-American friar is now underway, part of the Roman Phase of the canonization process. Ward, a Boston-born missionary who spent his ministry in Brazil, died 25 years ago this summer and in 2020 became the seventh Black Catholic sainthood candidate from the United States.

“As of July 1, we received notice, through the Brazilian Historical Commission, that we have official approval from the Dicastery of the Causes of Saints,” McMillan told BCM. “We are now in the process [of] working on putting together the final copy of the positio for the dicastery.”

The positio is an official dossier on the life of a sainthood candidate that, if approved by Rome, allows the pope to issue a decree of heroic virtues, granting the title “Venerable.” There are currently four African Americans to have reached that stage—the most recent being Venerable Mary Lange, who founded the nation’s first order of Black nuns.

Raised in Massachusetts and Washington, D.C.,  Ward converted to the Catholic faith as a teenager and felt a call to religious life thereafter, first to the Salvatorians before a health condition precipitated his exit from the seminary. He followed his call in an era when African Americans were typically barred from entering formation for the priesthood in the United States, save for a few religious communities.

Ward later overcame the obstacles of American racism to become the first African-American member of the Conventual Franciscans and was ordained in 1955 in upstate New York. He is revered as a uniquely holy figure in Brazil, where he worked for more than four decades as a missionary teacher, pastor, vocations promoter, spiritual director, and chaplain.

He was christened a “Citizen of Andrelândia” in 1995, an honor named after the municipality in Southeast Brazil where he worked for most of his priesthood. Four years later, Ward suffered a series of heart attacks and died at the age of 81.

On June 22 of this year, the local province of friars marked the 25th anniversary of Ward’s death with a special Mass and procession, the latest in a series of regular celebrations honoring his legacy of service and holiness.

“For many of the faithful, his simplicity and joy were a sign of the presence of God,” the province shared after the event, where devotees prayed for Ward’s intercession at his tomb.

Ward’s cause for sainthood is headed by the Diocese of São João del Rei, with the Brazilian research commission aided by friars in the U.S., including McMillan. The Archdioceses of Washington and Boston, where Ward lived before becoming a priest, are not expected to officially join the cause.

Should the efforts succeed, and with a miracle approved by the Vatican, Ward could become the first beatified African-American in history. He would also be the second in Brazil, after Blessed Francisco de Paula Victor, a formerly enslaved man who later became a priest and was beatified in 2015.