The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s spiritual journey passed through Boston when he studied for a doctorate in theology at Boston University, and his legacy was honored yesterday in speeches, concerts, and service projects across the region.

“I am proud that Dr. King’s personal history is rooted in our city,’’ Mayor Thomas M. Menino said at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center in South Boston, where organizers estimated that about 800 people filled the ballroom for the annual King Day breakfast filled with song, prayer, and praise.

King’s embrace of faith and action, and his pursuit of economic and social justice for all, offers a continuing challenge to people today, Governor Deval Patrick told the crowd as he stood flanked by screens with images of the civil rights leader and the new memorial in Washington, D.C., that honors him.

“There are countless, countless ways to serve, especially for people of faith,’’ Patrick said. “Faith is about more than what we say and believe. Faith is about what we do, how we act, whom we touch.’’

He saluted hundreds of Bay State eighth-graders who took part this year in Project 351, a statewide day of community service that Patrick initiated. The project takes place on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and draws students from all 351 cities and towns in the Commonwealth.

The example set by the eighth-graders, Patrick said, will lead to what King often referred to as “a beloved community,’’ filled with people who take responsibility for each other.

Senator Scott Brown called King’s devotion to service a powerful message that could be an inspiration to those trying to end the bitter partisan divide in Washington.

“He had the ability to bring people of all walks of life together’’ for the common good, Brown added.

Walter Fluker, the Martin Luther King Jr. professor of ethical leadership at the Boston University School of Theology, was yesterday’s keynote speaker. He called on the audience to find inspiration in the memorial to King that was dedicated last fall on the National Mall in Washington.

Fluker traveled to Washington for the dedication, and noted that because it is located between the Lincoln Memorial, where King delivered his “I Have a Dream’’ speech, and the memorial to Thomas Jefferson across the tidal basin, “it’s as if King’s gaze stretches across the basin and it’s fixed on Jefferson. Maybe he’s thinking about the promise of equality and freedom that is written into the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.’’

In the audience at yesterday’s breakfast was Robert Cooper of Cambridge, who brought his 6-year-old son, Robert Jr., to the event for the first time.

“It’s important for kids at a very young age to celebrate Dr. King’s life and his vision,’’ said Cooper, a senior vice president and general counsel at OneUnited Bank, a minority-owned bank based in Boston.

Dressed in blue suits and ties, father and son talked about the lessons young Robert has learned about King in first grade this year at Fayerweather Street School in Cambridge.

“He taught people to use your words, not your fists,’’ Robert Jr. said. “He stood for justice and equality.’’

At Boston University in the afternoon, hundreds gathered for Manifest Your Destiny, the theme for this year’s annual program that celebrates King’s legacy through poetry, music, and dramatic performances.

King “is definitely a man who tried to help somebody, and in turn, he helped the entire world,’’ said Stefan A. Jones, 23, of Kansas City, Kan., a fine arts graduate student who sang in the program. “We sometimes ask, ‘Is King’s message still relevant today?’ I strongly affirm, yes.’’

Theater students dramatized the Occupy movement by reciting speeches from King, Mahatma Gandhi, and Nelson Mandela, and others.

Kenneth Elmore, dean of students, estimated the crowd at 1,000 and said the annual celebration is a special moment for BU. “When Dr. King was here, he was in his 20s, the same age as these kids,’’ he said after the program. “It’s important for us to all stop and take time to remember him.’’

In Waltham, the Newton-based Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries sponsored projects, offering meals and a presentation on King for homeless families at Home Suites Inn, and the same for homeless men at the Community Day Center shelter.

And last night at the Arlington Street Church, the Occupy Boston movement dedicated its weekly gathering to exploring King’s legacy.

“We see Martin Luther King as in the tradition of Occupy in that he occupied segregation, he occupied racial injustice, and he occupied discrimination,’’ said Brian Kwoba, 29, of Cambridge.

Among other projects yesterday, volunteers weatherized the buildings for Temple Beth Israel and Christ Church Episcopal. Among those participants were people from Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Hindu faith communities, said Alexander Levering Kern, executive director of Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries.

Try BostonGlobe.com today and get two weeks FREE. Bryan Marquard of the Globe staff and Globe correspondent Marjorie Nesin contributed to this report. Kathy McCabe can be reached at kmccabe@globe.com.