Deacon Mateus de Oliveira Martin Pilot file photo
This is the sixth article in a series profiling the six men who will be ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Boston at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross on May 17, 2025.
CHESTNUT HILL -- When Deacon Mateus de Oliveira Martin came to Boston from Brazil in December 2013, he felt like he had been stuffed into a freezer.
His home city of Curitiba, Brazil, "wasn't a warm place," he said, but he had never experienced anything like the Boston winter, with its bitter cold and short days. He quickly discovered that the U.S., like Brazil, is a land of many cultures. Northern Brazilians tend to be open and extroverted, while Deacon Martin is from the more reserved south.
"I identified myself very easily here for the culture," he said in February.
The 34-year-old is a seminarian at Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Chestnut Hill and a transitional deacon at Immaculate Conception in Marlborough, a parish with a large Brazilian population. Deacon Martin's time at Redemptoris Mater has developed both his faith and his identity. He was a churchgoing Catholic before entering the seminary, but daily Mass, praying the Liturgy of the Hours, and rigorously studying Scripture brought a new level of intensity.
"From the moment I came in here, everything for me was a formation, especially how to interact with people that I never, never saw in my life before," he said.
"Little by little, I saw many things started also developing about myself, about my vocation, giving clarity to the call to the priesthood, and gave clarity about the many, many things in my history, in my background," he added.
Deacon Martin is the youngest of six children born to a father who worked as a chemist manufacturing paint and varnish. He was born outside of Sao Paulo but moved to Curitiba, a city of almost 2 million people, with his family when he was five years old.
Deacon Martin said that growing up with four older brothers was "fun and challenging at the same time."
"I was never alone in the house," he recalled. "I always had the company of them in daily life, eating, relating to them. They were concerned about me in the basic needs."
He credits them with making him into the man he is today. He looked up to them, and they helped him understand more about himself. They would wrestle a lot, too.
"I didn't win all of them," Deacon Martin joked.
He attended public school and spent his free time dining and watching movies with his brothers and friends. He learned how to play guitar and would jam with one of his older brothers. His parents, who were active in the Neocatechumenal Way, passed their faith on to him.
"I see that the Catholic Church has helped my parents a lot in their marriage, in their disagreements, and their challenges, many of the challenges that they face together," he said.
When he turned 18, however, he no longer saw much meaning in going to Mass. He "brushed off" his faith and went to university to study mechanical engineering, a lifelong interest. As a child, he and his older brother would take apart household electronics to see how they worked.
After two years, Deacon Martin left engineering school to become a seminarian. His journey back to the faith began with a local pilgrimage in his home parish.
"I saw that the church never abandoned me," he said, "and that during that time, I was not happy. I was not getting the same support, the same source of life that they would get in the church, and that brought me back to the church."
Before that pilgrimage, his faith was the product of his upbringing. Now, Deacon Martin had taken ownership of his faith. In 2013, he attended World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro and heard Pope Francis speak. The pope's homily inspired him.
"I started thinking, what am I doing with my life?" he recalled. "What is the purpose of my life now as a Catholic man?"
The following day, he attended a meeting sponsored by the Neocatechumenal Way for men considering a vocation to the priesthood.
"And from that moment on I said, 'Why not?'" he said. "I'm open to that, to see what is it about the priesthood, something that called a lot of my attention during that time."
The priests around him seemed like happy, joy-filled men. He wanted to be happy like they were. Looking back, he is at peace with his choice.
"In spite of the challenges at the beginning, and the daily challenges, I see that the Lord has made me very happy here in Boston," he said.
In his spare time, Deacon Martin enjoys hanging out with his friends, reading books, and watching movies. His favorite movie of all time is "Back to the Future," because it brings back childhood memories of watching it with his siblings. He also enjoys cartoons -- he's a big fan of "Dragon Ball Z." Lately, he's been counting down the days until his ordination to the priesthood. He is excited to work with young people, visit the sick, and administer the sacraments.
"Now that it's getting closer to the ordination, I feel like a bridegroom waiting for the wedding," he said.