The Catholic Church venerates St. Peter Claver as the patron saint of African Americans and slaves, but Claver himself was neither. No, the saint was moved by nothing less than the love for Christ whom he saw reflected in the least of his brethren. This extraordinary apostle was attracted to the beautiful things of Gods creation, like anyone else. With its ideal natural harbor, Cartagena became a stopping point for ships, or galleons, as they were called, on their way to and from the homeland. A witness testified to the Office of Inquisition in Cartagena that, on one occasion, he had seen several Negroes floating naked around the ceiling in a house at night after dabbling in this witchcraft. Community Redevelopment Agencies have proven historically to provide distressed communities with a better economy through improved infrastructure . Perhaps their dissatisfaction with themselves was the underlying cause of their cruelty, much like a man who has been a failure takes out his resentment on a dog. Again the gruesome routine began, washing their infections, kissing their sores, bandaging their wounds, even sweeping up their hovels. After three years, the time had come for Rodriguez to speak more clearly to Claver in regard to his vocation, as the Divine Master had done with His Apostles after His three years with them. Miracles (2) Montessori education (2) New Year (2) O . Too bad todays social experts werent around in the seventeenth century to help the slaves. Cartagena was a central stopping point for this inhuman traffic. To the cynical mind the trust of this extraordinary priest in the goodness of human nature must have seem nave and no doubt could he have known he would have been far more often disappointed than not. St. Peter Claver was canonized in 1888. Despite all Clavers exhorting, the archdeacon would only respond by requesting the prayers of the priest, and with many signs of mutual affection the two parted company. Missionary Sisters of St. Peter Claver of North America At the Service of the Missionary Church AN INTERNATIONAL CONGREGATION OF WOMEN RELIGIOUS Our Spirituality The most divine of divine things is to cooperate in the salvation of souls. Today one can visit the room and window from which Father Claver peered out to be ready once ships arrived with captured and bartered blacks. Nothing could be done to keep them away. Church law forbade a master to hold a slave who wanted to become a priest. Africans at that time were abused because they were backward and exploitable, not because they were black. An angel of mercy to the sick, Father Claver was also a seraph of consolation to prisoners. No time was too early for these faithful Cartagenians to unburden their souls to God. Others were lured like animals into anchored galleons by novel gadgets, bells, magnets, beads, and such gimmicks, only to see the huge vessels glide away from shore. Thousands of times, during his forty years in the world of pain, he would take off that cloak and use it. St Peter Claver Prison Ministry is a faith-based mentorship program empowering the incarcerated, ex-offenders and their families obtain self-sufficiency and reduce recidivism. Here he had more opportunities, even than in the slave pens, to satisfy has craving to love the unlovable. Besides visiting the slave huts, the zealous father had other apostolates that he lovingly attended to: the hospital of St. Sebastian, the leprosarium of St Lazarus, and the prisons. Arrange a private group tour by clicking the link below or by calling (314) 231-9407. Yesterday, May 30, 1627, on the feast of the Most Holy Trinity, numerous blacks, brought from the rivers of Africa, disembarked from a large ship. In 1610, he landed at Cartagena (modern Colombia), the principle slave market of the New World, where a thousand slaves were landed every month. Yet he seemed destined to drink the chalice of Christs Passion to the bitter end. To feel the bite of chains clasped upon them and to be shoved into the dark belly of a floating monster, not knowing what fate awaited them. Let us begin, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. He stayed there, except to attend to the missions nearby, like Our Lady on Calvarys hill. Cartagena needed a saint. The young student at Barcelona decided to do more than just to benefit from the Jesuits education. People were patriotic, but color of a mans skin was just that and nothing more. And for the longest time no one but God and the saints of heaven knew what the holy man was going through. He was unable to take a step. There never was slavery more inhuman, more murderous and more complete over the souls as well as the bodies of its victims than what we have seen in our century in those countries swallowed up by the Communists. Again at two oclock he would return after a scanty meal and a meditation. Or, again, with women who were in a habit of dressing immodestly, excusing themselves on account of the excessive heat, he would hand them pictures of a woman similarly garbed amid the torments of the fire and demons in hell. They were especially amazed at the devoutness of the Catholic soldiers. St. Peter Claver. The future apostle of the slaves was the youngest in his family, so from the start he knew only how to serve. It behooves me, Claver once wrote, always to imitate the example of the ass. His troops- eighteen Negro interpreters, a Jesuit brother, a pious woman or two, and usually some prominent Cartagenian official. And he delighted in good music. top of page. Clavers reputation for enduring the unendurable prompted many a curious admire to accompany him on his visitations to see for themselves if what they had heard of him was true. These kinds of individuals stood out from among the rest. He felt he had no grace to encourage someone else to carry a cross that he himself wasnt carrying. In all, Sandoval had baptized over thirty thousand slaves; his successor would baptize over three hundred thousand.His face aglow with a supernatural joy, Father Peter would board the slave ship while it was anchored in the harbor, and with the help of his interpreters he would greet the suffering newcomers. Once for the Negroes, when having heard of the arrival of a slave ship laden with blacks from a notoriously barbaric area, he had himself carried in a litter to the dock to greet them. Reports indicate that Medina was upset at O'Connell because he claimed he wasn't paid properl, Saint Christopher Prayer"Motorist's Prayer :" Grant me, O Lord, a steady hand and watchful eye, that no one shall be hurt as I pass by. The slave ship, having been anchored in the harbor, suddenly had its hatch yanked open and the light of the sun flooded in upon the prisoners wretchedness. In Claver, however, was found a representation of the other side of the Spanish conscience, namely, an abiding affection for humanity especially Gods dark children whom he heard early on were ill-treated with this despicable trade. In 1853 Ignatius Strecker had brought his family from Germany to the United States, and in 1861 he was working at St. Louis in a soap factory. But heaven could not resist the sighs of the saint as he stormed the throne of grace to melt their hearts. The experience and practice of years never accustomed him to it.. As for his meals, even these meager refreshments were half devoured by the ungrateful wretch before the saint ever received them. One might say that Saint Alphonsus Rodriguez has at that moment planted his own soul into Saint Peter Claver. But what a retched lot was that of the poor slaves! They also had souls to be saved, no less than the slaves. The fever of discovery proved, unfortunately, the beginning of the extermination of the native peoples. An institution, true- old as man himself- but, nevertheless, debasingly artificial and oftentimes cruel. Outside the harbor in the Bay of Cartagena, the Spaniards were at one time holding on ships some six hundred English and Dutch Privateers whom they had captured on one of their Granadan island colonies which suffered a temporary takeover at the pirates hands. "No, no. The very day that the Holy Virgin, to whom he was so tenderly devoted, entered time, the slave of Mary and of the Negroes entered eternity. The Negro nurse who was supposed to take care of him was a crude hard-hearted man who had no appreciation for what this great and burdensome invalid had done for his race. Finally he approached the man, heard his confession, kissed his wounds, and applied his own tongue to the most offensive. It was necessary for him to taste the abandonment of the cross. The Reformed churchmen looked on in a kind of curious awe as they watched the majesty of a ceremony they had heard so reviled. The ship would then be loaded up with the extracted gold and silver and other new-world products destined for Spain. Finally, before departing, he sprinkled them with perfume. There he graduated with distinction and after receiving the minor orders of the Church, determined to offer himself to the Society of Jesus (SJ) or popularly known as, the Jesuit Order. Then we divided the sick into two groups: one group my companion approached with an interpreter, while I addressed the other group. The magnificent Main Altar is the result of a pledge made by grateful parishioners who made a promise to St. Joseph. Whereas many of the Negroes used to kneel before the saint and kiss his hand if they chanced to meet him on the street, this savage resented his job and took out his hatefulness on his unwanted charge. He became almost entirely inactive, but would sometimes hear confessions, especially of his dear friend Doa Isabella de Urbina who had always generously supported his work with her money. Claver went to the door of the room in which the man was quarantined. The girls' school, called the St. Joseph's School For Girls (or the Spanish Indian Residential School for Girls), relocated to a 400-acre piece of land next to the St. Peter Claver School in Spanish, Ontario, in 1913; construction of St. Joseph's would not be completed until the following year, however.. Arriving at the shack where the men lay writing in the mud, the gentle doctor lifted them up one by one onto some dry mats. Then they would learn the Our Father and the Hail Mary. Prizes were given to those who learned their prayers first. This extreme wealth passing in and out of the port was what attracted the avaricious entrepreneurs to settle there. St Peter Claver College. Which had not? At the age of twenty he entered the Jesuit novitiate at Tarragona. The angel said, This one is for thy disciple, Claver; it is the recompense of his virtues and of the great number of souls he will gain to God in the West Indies.. The trade had recently been given a considerable impetus, for the local Indians the natives- were deemed not physically fitted to work in the gold and silver mines and so there was this big demand for blacks from Angola and Congo. When the saint received his commission to pack his things, he burst into tears and kissed the document as if it were the most precious relic. The saint refused to rest until he had thoroughly expurgated these unholy interferences which, among the slaves, were always connected with the sin of drunkenness. Brother Alonso, as the Spaniards called him, not only held the key to the college, but he also had the key to Peter Clavers heart. He studied at the Jesuit college of Barcelona, entered the Jesuit novitiate at Tarragona in 1602 and took his final vows on August 8th, 1604. His bedroom and the room where he died are also preserved to this day in the same place. Boarding the slave ships as they entered the harbor, he would hurry to the revolting inferno of the hold, and offer whatever poor refreshments he could afford; he would care for the sick and dying, and instruct the slaves through Negro catechists before administering the Sacraments. It was a face that betrayed the worn-out condition of his entire body. FOR THE FEAST DAY OF ST. PETER CLAVER. Once, when commended for his apostolic zeal, he replied, It ought to be so but there is nothing but self indulgence in it; it is the result of my enthusiastic and impetuous temperament. Unlike many, even among some of the clergy, Claver did not consider that ignorance of their African languages absolved him from the obligation of instructing them in the truths of religion and morals and bringing to their degraded spirits the consolation of the words of Jesus. The Catholic Church enjoyed an uneasy peace throughout Europe in the 1600s. Before parting from his beloved teacher, Claver was given a unique privilege, a privilege not granted to any other student, of keeping the spiritual notes that Brother Alphonsus had personally written for him. . On this pilgrimage, something must have moved him very deeply as he knelt before the miraculous statue, for in later years, if anyone even mentioned the Virgin of Montserrat, he would be unable to withhold his tears, so overwhelming was his love for her. Claver was buried in the floor off the sacristy of the chapel of the Jesuit residence. Home - Knights of Peter Claver Spreading FAITH, HOPE, and LOVE through Friendship, Unity, and Christian Charity Our Faith What you Need to Know Online Store Register Now! The methods this apostle used to restore life or health was often quite out of the ordinary. They saw and they believed. Silently, with watery eyes, they picked up the saint and laid him to rest.Months later, a certain Mohammedan whom Father Claver had spent years trying to convert, walked into the Jesuit Church where the body of the saint lay in repose, and falling down before the Saints remains, shed tears of sorrow and promised to enter the true Church. Suddenly the girl who had been dead sat up and vomited a large quantity of blood. It was an era of expansion. He would also use pictures in his teaching, primarily images of the crucified Christ. Though there was a time when his fellow Jesuits criticized Father Claver for his childlike methods of catechetics, nevertheless, for the childlike slaves, the basic-ness of Claver usually hit its mark fast. Saint Christopher's Protection Prayer Dear Saint Christopher, protect me today in all my travels along the road's way. Lord, for love of you St. Peter Claver became the faithful servant of slaves. The Mass was part of a nationwide Day of Fasting and Prayer called for by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to acknowledge the sin of racism and to seek racial justice and healing. It was 1602 when he entered their Novitiate in Tarragona. Peter Claver was born in 1581 to a devout farming family in the Catalonia region of Spain. Of these we had two wallets full, and we used them all up on this occasion. Claver felt as if the Holy Ghost had descended on them as He had at Pentecost. But the criminals came from all over. The Jesuits were delighted to receive their new novice, as he had already merited for himself distinctive recognition for exceptional scholastic achievements at Barcelona. Leo Landoll stood at the altar of God and spoke the words of consecration and for the first time Jesus Christ, body and soul became present in a small white church that had recently been a private home. He was a shining light in a dark time. The gentle waves of the blue Caribbean sparkles in the sun as anxious eyes riveted on the distant vessel to read some clue as to its identity. To remain a heretic, a pagan, or a bad Catholic, and live in the same city as Peter Claver, was quite an accomplishment in obduracy. 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