This final presentation in the series on the Saintly Seven, from the Catholic Social Action Office, looks at the life of Servant of God, Friar Martin de Porres Ward, O.F.M. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on March 20, 1918, into the bi-racial family of William Henry Ward and Clara Iorby, who named him Matthias DeWitte Ward and later moved their family to Washington, D.C.

His family were Methodists, however, Matthias attended Holy Mass with a friend for the first time at age 17 and was touched by grace, which began his conversion to Catholicism. From 1935-1939, he attended Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C., and he was baptized into Catholicism at St. Augustine Church in 1936.