Education
Osmond Peter Martin studied for the Catholic priesthood at Kenrick Seminary in Saint Louis, Missouri, and was ordained a priest on April 3, 1959, in his home parish of Sacred Heart in Dangriga.
Osmond Peter Martin studied for the Catholic priesthood at Kenrick Seminary in Saint Louis, Missouri, and was ordained a priest on April 3, 1959, in his home parish of Sacred Heart in Dangriga.
He was assigned to Corozal, then to San Ignacio in the Cayo District. He returned to Corozal to help with the new school, Saint Francis Xavier, and subsequently served as pastor at Sacred Heart parish in San Ignacio and Saint Joseph parish in Belize City. Martin was consecrated bishop on October 7, 1982, at Saint John's College.
Principal consecrator was Bishop Robert Louis Hodapp, Society of Jesus (Jesuit), of Belize and co-consecrators were Archbishop Gordon Anthony Pantin, C.S.Sp., of Portuguese of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, and Archbishop Samuel Emmanuel Carter, Society of Jesus (Jesuit), of Kingston, Jamaica.
Martin served as auxiliary bishop until Bishop Hodapp’s retirement on November 11, 1983, when he was appointed Bishop of the Diocese of Belize City-Belmopan with Holy Redeemer in Belize City his home parish. The Diocese had been newly named in recognition of the new capital city of Belmopan.
Martin was the first native Belizean to be appointed bishop of Belize. He welcomed three more religious congregations to Belize.
From 1985 to 1994 Dominican sisters (OP) from Saint Catherine in Springfield, Kentucky, labored in Belize.
In April 2001, in Belize City next to Holy Redeemer Cathedral, Bishop Martin inaugurated the Monsignor Facundo Castillo Diocesan Center, home to nearly all of the diocesan apostolic ministries. The voice of the diocese goes out from here through radio, television, and the monthly Christian Herald newspaper. On April 4, 2002, French
Dorick M. Wright was ordained to be auxiliary bishop to Martin, and he succeeded Martin to the episcopacy after Martin’s retirement November 18, 2006.