Father Patrick A. Martin is a missionary priest who has been traveling the world for 30 years, spreading the word about human suffering. He was born in Caribou, Maine to David and Amanda Martin. The 17th in a family of 22 children, he grew up in nearby Limestone. He says his family was normally religious, they went to Mass every Sunday and had evening prayers.

     Struck with meningitis at the age of nine, he lost his sight, his memory and the ability to walk. Doctors told his parents he would never see his 10th birthday. His fourth grade teacher pushed him to relearn everything he had lost, and with the help of his siblings, he got the use of his legs back. However, even to this day, his balance is still a little off.

     "I weave back and forth," he said, "I've been accused of being drunk several times." He just laughs this off and says, "It's all part of the territory."

     He gets a little agitated, though, when talking about what it took for him to get where he is today. At the end of grade nine, Father Pat decided he wanted to become a teacher. He wrote to communities of brothers asking if he could go to their schools to continue his education, and was turned down because of his disability. That was until he was accepted at the Brothers of Christian Instruction in Alfred, Maine, but only because they weren't privy to the fact that he couldn't see.

     "I played football, soccer and baseball for three weeks," he said. "The brothers always thought there was something wrong with me, but I had nothing to lose."

     Although he stands in front of thousands of people at a time now, giving sermons all over the world, he said the scariest day of his life was his first day in front of a classroom. His dream of being a teacher ended there and he pursued the priesthood.

     It was in 1969 during a night class at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC that he first heard of the resources that were available for blind people. Even though no one had ever mentioned these materials to him, he wasn't upset.

      "Bitterness never crossed my mind," he said, "I went to the library and got recorded books. I read more that year than in my whole life."

     Father Pat has pinpoint vision. Although he is legally blind, he is able to see one letter at a time. He earned his undergraduate degree in English Literature reading his text books in this way. After graduating with a Master's Degree in Library Sciences, he secured a job with the City of New York, seeking out the people who would benefit from library resources for the disabled.

     "The greatest service these people needed was purpose," he said.

     As a brother, he began traveling in 1970. He now travels more than 500,000 miles a year helping people see the good in themselves.

     "We need to look at being handicapped not as a liability, but as a gift," he said. "I call God the master recycler; He takes the garbage in all of us, and turns it into something good." And it is this that has allowed Fathr Pat to move around the world and talk to both disabled and able-bodied people.

     At St. Anthony Daniel, Father Ed booked him two years ago because of the way he lifts people's spirits, and enables them to see the good in themselves in spite of any handicap, physical or not. "He has proven himself to be an exceptional parish minister. The parishioners thought the sermon was very spiritually uplifting."

     And because Father Pat is himself disabled, Father Ed believes his message is even more powerful.

     "His blindness has never been an obstacle, I think he works harder than I do," he said. "People are drawn to him because he is broken."

     According to Father Pat, many people thank him for his sermons, and commend him for rising above his disability. But he will always remember the time when a young man showed him that people don't pity him, they understand what his disability allows him to accomplish. In 1988 he was speaking to high school students in Burnaby, BC, and at the end of his speech a student took the microphone to thank him for coming.

     "I had spoken to them about our giftedness, not our liabilities," said Father Pat. "Then a kid came out and said, 'Father Pat, we want to thank you for being blind.' "

     "That was the best moment of my life."

Taken from a newspaper article by Kerry Thompson, June 2000