His outstanding charity led him to fulfill everyone's spiritual needs and combat their moral misery. With his familiar face no longer visible in the market and byways, people soon began to forget about the man they had so short a time ago nearly worshiped. It was a face that betrayed the worn-out condition of his entire body. He made a court appearance, was charged, and has allegedly confessed to the crime. There was nothing artificial about Peter Claver. Seddity women complained that after the Africans had been to Mass it was impossible to enter the church for their bodily odor left behind the slaves, understandably, did not have exactly perfumed waters to bathe in daily. Most of the more difficult inmates were pirates or sailors who ended up their profligate careers afoul of the law in the golden city of the Indies, although the local element of Spaniards and slaves contributed a fair share to the hands of justice. Here he met Saint Alphonsus Rodriguez, the man who was to thoroughly inspire him and send him on his lifes mission. When he is overloaded, he is dumb. September 9 marked the Feast of St. Peter Claver, a Jesuit priest who ministered to African slaves in Colombia in the 17th century. Our patron, Peter Claver was a Spaniard, from Spain. When this fact was safely determined, the Christians were separated from the pagans, and they received a Rosary and a medal to be put around their necks. 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. Everything to that time was old. However, witnesses testified that, despite the filth, the miraculous fabric always smelled fresh and clean. The entire house, having been informed of Father Clavers condition, came silently into the infirmary. Colonization and exploration was, in all parts, viewed an evil specter descended on pristine lands. The Story of Saint Peter Claver, Apostle of Slaves A disciple of Saint Alphonse Rodriguez, Peter Claver became a slave of the slaves in order to take them to heaven. 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. Amen Many miracles were attributed to his intercession. To counter the Protestant revolt, the Jesuits, founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola, had emerged from among the most talented of religious leaders for their time sworn to allegiance to their superior general and to the pope in Rome. For fourteen years the man of God served one such helpless old man, visiting him three or four times a week and bringing him food and consolation, until at last he passed away in the blessed arms of his benefactor. The Africans and Indians arranged for a Mass of their own to which the Spanish authorities were invited; the church was ablaze with lights, a special choir sang and an oration was delivered by the treasurer of the church of Popayan, where the diaries say of the speaker no other preacher was more diffuse on the virtues, holiness, heroism and stupendous miracles of Father Claver.. Peter Claver reached stature as a saint of God having watched closely a leader in this work, Father Alfonso de Sandoval, a great Jesuit missionary who spent forty years in the service of the slaves, and after working under him, Peter Claver, having reached a spiritual pinnacle in his own self-understanding, declared himself "the slave of the Thank you. He became the apostle of Cartagena as well as of the Africans and in so huge a work was aided by God with those gifts that particularly pertain to apostles, of miracles, of prophecy and of reading hearts. The Gospel thus presents us the three divine Persons joined in love. Claver died fifty years later on the feastday of the Black Virgin, which is also her birthday, September 8th. People who were so horribly afflicted that they were actually shunned by their fellow lepers. It is a fact as marvelous as it was true, that while Father Claver labored in Cartagena, not one Moslem went to his grave without first embracing the Catholic Religion. In 1610, he landed at Cartagena (modern Colombia), the principle slave market of the New World, where a thousand slaves were landed every month. The very sight of these adandoned lepers was enough to send chills up ones spine. The doctors recognized such a miracle and it was later authenticated by the Vatican in 1887, leading to Peter Claver's canonization in 1888. He was canonized at the same time as his friend St. Alphonsus Rodriguez in 1888 and he was declared by Pope Leo XIII patron of all missionary enterprises among blacks in whatever part of the world. 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. Like an angel of mercy, the black-robed friar would arrive at the colony with the gifts that he had begged in the market place: oranges, bananas, preserves, sweet cakes, and soothing medicines. Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution - Share Alike License. The saint suddenly startled everyone by crying out her name: Agustina, Agustina, while sprinkling her with holy water. A number of other Englishmen followed his example. Enter your email address to receive notifications by email every time we post something to the site. Saint Peter Claver,Priest and ReligiousMemorialSeptember 9th. Near the confessional he also had holy books with pictures of the Passion, which he insisted that all the people ponder before they confessed. In the forty years of Saint Peter Clavers labor, this ecclesiastical office only sentenced two men to death, and sad to say, only one of these incorrigibles died repentant; the other departed the world uttering vicious blasphemies. Then we divided the sick into two groups: one group my companion approached with an interpreter, while I addressed the other group. His order had already achieved amazing success in its missions, its schools, and in its ability to produce saints. 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. Once the authorities woke up to this situation when a complaint was brought forward that Father Claver was in the habit of re-baptizing Negroes! Settling the New World and stealing from that New World brought with it the necessity of cheap labor, human labor . Peter Claver was seventy-one years old. The family Rosary was an essential part of the typical sixteenth century pious Catalonian rearing in which Ana and Pedro Claver, our saints parents schooled their four children. The kindly works of Father Claver section just short of forty years of this period. In the shanties, his first concern was to pick up the dying off the mud floor onto which many had collapsed, and to place them on mats. The healing occurred at St. Joseph's parish in. It was not an uncommon thing to see a man who had been a slave give Holy Communion to one who had been his master. With him were the merchant and some curious companions. St. Christo, A Catholic Priest and 3 Nuns were Killed in a Car Accident in India. Taking his beloved pupil aside, the humble teacher of saints (many great missionaries were guided by Rodriguez) spoke with authority: I cannot express to you the sorrow that I feel at seeing that God is unknown to the greater part of the world. A sign of new things over the horizon was registered in the coined term The New World. Though Father Sandoval, the founder of the slave apostolate, had only just initiated his new assistant in the care of the blacks, the veteran missioner was shortly thereafter recalled to Peru; consequently, he had to bestow the entire apostolate upon Father Claver. Many an ivory cheek ran with tears as the Spaniards listened in wonder to the angelic voices of the slaves resounding from the walls of the Jesuit Church with an incomparably touching rendition of the Dies Irae or a triumphant Gloria. The Jesuits were delighted to receive their new novice, as he had already merited for himself distinctive recognition for exceptional scholastic achievements at Barcelona. One Turkish galley slave had resisted Clavers pleadings for over twenty years when the saint heard that a sickness had put him at deaths door. To care for the slaves he must totally subject his own flesh and subdue it. We ask this through Our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. 14-141). He joined the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), and after his novitiate in Taragona was sent to the college of . 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. black labor. When by their answers to our questions they showed they had sufficiently understood this, we went on to a more extensive instruction, namely, about the one God, who rewards and punishes each one according to his merit, and the rest. Even in sickness he would not ease up. . Play Ep. We are a Special Conference of the St Vincent DePaul Society serving Central Florida. Late in 1861, a sharp piece of iron bruised his chest, resulting in . Many a despairing man who had been confined to bed due to the physical consequences of an irregular life would find the supernatural peace through the encouragement and charity of good Father Peter. Sometimes two men chained together would be from warring tribes, and horrifying scenes of rage would take place. In the year 1650, Father Claver went to preach the Churchs jubilee year among the Africans working in the mines and plantations along the coast, but sickness attacked his weakened body, and he was recalled to the residence at Cartagena. He was no egotistic eccentric who delighted in doing daring things for the sake of being unique! Brother Nicolas was downstairs and heard a noise from the upstairs room where Claver was bedded. We made every effort to encourage them with friendly gestures and displayed in their presence the emotions which somehow naturally tend to hearten the sick. They lay there together, in fear, like sardines, naked and bleeding in the cold damp of winter or the excruciating heat of summer, with but one daily feeding of corn and water to sustain them. It was this very notebook the dying apostle clasped to his breast on his deathbed, only releasing it for the benefit of novices at the Jesuit Novitiate in Tunga in the mountains of Colombia. With their help, he was able to teach the Gospel with words that could be understood. Her condition, thank God, suddenly improved and both she and the baby are well. Claver treated their needy souls almost the same way he treated afflicted bodies. Civil authorities, among his harshest critics, who had looked askance at his solicitude for mere slaves and the clergy who had called his zeal indiscrete now vied with one another to honor his memory. During Lent and on the major feat days, he would go about the city inviting all to a thorough house cleaning. He felt it was too delicate a flavor for a religious. He would then wash them with his own hands and dress their wounds with medicines that he previously begged for in the market place. Top SEO sites provided "Novena to god the father" keyword . Pope Leo XIII sent a golden coffin for his remains along with a pipe organ which sits in the choir loft of the Church to this day. 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. The fatigue of this Lenten routine was aggravated unmercifully by the excruciating heat, the bite of mosquitoes, and the stinging itch of a full ankle length hairshirt that the holy confessor wore beneath his cassock next to his body. He is known as the "Apostle of the West Indies" and the "Slave to the Slaves." Peter Claver was born in Verdu, Catalonia, on July 26, 1580, of prosperous parents. Clasping his feet in their hands, they bade him farewell amid a profusion of sighs and tears. 1615, he was ordained a priest of God at Cartagenas Cathedral, at the side altar at the right side of the sanctuary that remains to this day. Saint September 9 : St. Peter Claver a Miracle Worker and the Patron of Racism, Slaves and African Americans September 08, 2022 The son of a Catalonian farmer, was born at Verdu, in 1581; he died on the 8th of September, 1654. Our Saints upbringing carries nothing too spectacular about it. In some cases, their terror was so grave that the victims hearts literally froze and they died from shock. Answered Prayers The magnificent Main Altar is the result of a pledge made by grateful parishioners who made a promise to St. Joseph. Claver did all he could to provide for the observance of these laws, and every spring after Easter he would make a tour of those plantations nearer Cartagena in order to see how his Africans were fairing under their masters. It was during these scourges that the holy mans heroic charity was such a spectacle for even the angels to behold. To keep from fainting, he applied periodically a handkerchief dipped in wine to his sweaty face. He was later exhumed for purposes of the canonical examination and was placed in a cedar coffin and re-interred in the great upper church built to honor his remains. He performed no important negotiations, established or reformed no religious order, made no brilliant changes of places or circumstances. He was received into the novitiate of Tarragona at the age of 20 and was sent to the college of Montesione at Palma in Majorca, Spain. In addition, African chiefs easily bartered away to the white traders their criminals, those captured in war, the mentally unstable, and the sick and other social misfits. His memorial is celebrated on September 9. It was necessary for him to taste the abandonment of the cross. His Lenten sermons were so moving that, due to them hundreds of young men, ex-libertines, and widowers, sought entry into the different orders that served the spiritual and corporal needs of the city. His apostolate was over, and dark thoughts tried to upset his peace he was useless, a burden to others, and deservedly was cast aside by God. There were others who could solve the problem of slavery; Claver was concerned about the slaves. Many of the lepers could not speak at all; they could only look at him, if they had eye, and touch the tears on his cheeks while they moaned some sort of guttural, Thank you.. Then he would go unperturbed into a more remote area in order to console the more pathetic cases. Another saint whom he had known at school in Majorca, Saint Alphonsus Rodriguez, revealed his road in life to him. Lifting his hands, they watered them with tears, crying out that they had lost their greatest friend and protector. As a student, he was noted for his intelligence . Meanwhile young Clavers desire was growing more and more forceful within him to go to the Indies where God was calling him. Fr John Asare-Dankwah, who was removed from ministry at St Peter Claver New Orleans in January following a child sex abuse allegation, has countersued his accuser for defamation. The faith was often perceived as a conduit of this evil. Food and water were given to each, and many had to be hand fed, so weak and sickly had they become. Through his prayer help us to see the true dignity of the human family, all children of one father and to spend ourselves for their salvation. After receiving Baptism from John in the Jordan, Jesus was called by the Father my beloved Son (Mt 3:17), and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in the form of a dove (cf. In all this he found more opportunity to suffer. Claver plunged himself, body and soul, into relieving the blacks in their dreadful circumstance. In fact, with them it was a real point of honor not to give in to Clavers exhortations. Saint Melania, a wealthy Roman matron, freed her 8,000 slaves at once. The tortured body of Father Claver, which the saint never ceased to submit to the hairshirt and discipline, could barely contain the ghost. The son of a Catalonian farmer, was born at Verdu, in 1581; he died 8 September, 1654. 2023 Knights of Peter Claver The miracles, the sermons, the labors in the confessional, the work with all the poor and the sick, the charity for all the Negroes, seemed to be temporarily forgotten by all as the saint silently prayed for death to come. Finally, the happy convert related a vision he had had of the deceased Dutchman, whom the good Father had just buried, with great ceremony. He felt he had no grace to encourage someone else to carry a cross that he himself wasnt carrying. St. Peter Claver was canonized in 1888 by Pope Leo . SoundCloud Ep. Into these yards Peter Claver plunged with medicines and food, bread, brandy, lemons, tobacco to distribute among them, some of whom were too frightened, others too ill to accept them. sriverview@bne.catholic.edu.au College Phone Numbers. 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. The saint spent one more year in the Novitiate at Tunga, high in the mountains of Colombia. Having baptized the dying and given his first attentions to the sick, the black-robed angel of mercy gathered all the slaves together and begun to speak to them of God. We have here a man whose love knew no bounds, who had no fears except of offending God, a man who loved the unlovable. His troops- eighteen Negro interpreters, a Jesuit brother, a pious woman or two, and usually some prominent Cartagenian official. The laws of Spain at least provided for the marriages of slaves, forbade their separation from their families and defended them from unjust seizure after winning their freedom. Claver had a team of seven interpreters, one of whom spoke four African dialects, and with their help he taught the slaves and prepared them for baptism, not only in groups but individually; for the language difficulty was too great for him to make himself understood otherwise. St. Alphonsus Rodriguez, SJ (1533-1617) In every possible was he tried to help them, whether by procuring them good lawyers, or even by speaking to judges, in order to win them lighter sentences. The missionaries expenses were paid for by the Catholic King, Philip III, who had requested from all his provinces at least one priest to be sent to the recently established kingdom of New Granada (Colombia) across the ocean. He did not know the full story of the treatment meted out to the slaves till his own arrival here. During his life he baptized and instructed in the Faith more than 300,000 negroes. 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. Your gift is tax-deductible as allowed by law. 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. slavery is gone but many of its effects remain; remain not only on the Blacks but also on the Whites. In youth his piety and love of study won general admiration, and every preferment was open to him, but zeal for his neighbor's salvation led . Again the gruesome routine began, washing their infections, kissing their sores, bandaging their wounds, even sweeping up their hovels. There were times when he even raised the dead with it. One priest who loved Father Claver dearly and who longed to have his charity went with him to tend a poor afflicted slave. He became a bishop and instituted a feast in honor of Our Ladys Immaculate Conception., He was the forty-eighth Pope. The hospital, run by the religious of St John of God, was almost always overcrowded, due to the scourge of frequent epidemics and continual warfare. To me it is a miracle ! The two earlier coffins are preserved as relics in the Jesuit residence at Cartagena. They knew he meant what he said and what he said was true. Nor did he cease consoling them with kind words and gestures, for the Negroes all had one beautiful trait in common; they were extremely sensitive to a harsh word or a kind one. Was Performed at the Shrine of St. Joseph in St. Louis, MO. How many more miracles have taken place in connection with this church over the past 150 years, no one knows. Father Claver defied civil authorities who treated the Africans like animals: he went into the pens with . Hence, the nefarious exploitation and commerce of slavery, for there was no industry to speak of, only raw human labor for which the royals and their cohorts deemed themselves unworthy. He, his wife, and daughter settled in St. Josephs Parish in St. Louis, Missouri. Let us begin, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. The medal had the Holy Name of Jesus on one side and of Mary on the other. A contemporary description of our saints character at that time was given by a fellow student in a letter to a superior at the latters request years later: Modest, gentle, and friendly, he edified us all, trying to please and help everyone. But heaven could not resist the sighs of the saint as he stormed the throne of grace to melt their hearts. In the autumn Claver would go among the traders and seamen, who landed at Cartagena in great numbers off supply ships and well as slave ships. That melancholic countenance was first stamped upon him when he was introduced to the real world of human misery. Nor was the saint known to into ecstasies at the altar. The Negroes were especially affected; Peter Claver had been a real father to them. Peter Claver, SJ (Spanish: Pedro Claver y Corber; Catalan: Pere Claver i Corber; 26 June 1580 - 8 September 1654) was a Spanish Jesuit priest and missionary born in Verd (Catalonia, Spain) who, due to his life and work, became the patron saint of slaves, the Republic of Colombia, and ministry to African Americans.. During the 40 years of his ministry in the New Kingdom of Granada, it . Three solemn funeral Masses were sung, one of which was under the auspices of the Negroes themselves and their choir; while three orators from different orders tried to outdo one another in extolling the virtues of the man who had so inflamed the city. And he delighted in good music. This was his main thesis: the flesh could not rebel if the flesh knew only pain. Immediately he set out to help them, taking with him a free Negress named Magdalena, who used to collect alms in the city for the saint to distribute. Of course, more often than not he made use of much more religious means of intercession, such as relics, holy water (a sacramental that the saint never tired of sprinkling everywhere) and a rough-hewn cross of maple. Baptism was received with such an emotion of joy as to move the hardest heart. Like a mother, he would press their deformed frames to his, encouraging them to endure their purgatory here so that they might cross directly to heaven at death, for paradise was so close. Lima in Peru had five- Saint Rose, Saint Francis Solano, Saint Martin de Porres, Saint Turibius, and Saint John Massias. Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! THE Apostolate of St. Peter Claver is unique. Creative Commons Attribution - Share Alike License. In the summer of 1654, Father Diego Ramirez-Farina arrived in Cartagena from Spain with a commission from the king to work among the Negroes. Instantly his conscience accused him, and ashamed of his cowardice, he retired to a corner of the room and delivered himself a brutal scourging, confessing all the while his fault in not loving enough one who was redeemed by the Precious Blood of Christ. He avoided food, rest and recreation and other pleasures popularly considered, lest such should divert him from his spiritual path. But after a week or two, hunger, sickness and disease numbed these kinds of outbursts. We read in the gospels how the hem of our Lords garment cured, and by the same Divine Power, so did the very shadow of Saint Peter and the handkerchiefs of Saint Paul. The diocese writes: Dear Frs & Srs, Sr. Milagrine Dantas Fatima Sister from Sawantwadi, Sindhudurg along with two other Fatima Sister and their Parish Priest and other two persons met with an fatal accident as truck rams into their four wheeler at Shillong. Built between 1580 and 1654, the structure features an imposing stone facade, yet the interior glows with the rich colors filtered through its stained glass windows. Our Present . Truer to his own biography, what might we learn from Claver . He is the patron saint of Colombia, slaves, missionary work to Africans, and seafarers. One day close to his very last, as he lay in his cell, the saint heard a great deal of rejoicing in the residence. Robert J. Miller in his 2007 Book, Both Prayed to the Same God, researched that: The Africans came from a vast region of Western Africa stretching inland for two to three hundred miles. St. Peter Claver Church maintains its position as a beacon of hope in the Treme Area and is one of the largest Black Catholic parishes in Louisiana. For the Christian women he had dresses. The Mohammedans, however, cost the saint much more effort to win to the true religion. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free; there is neither male nor female; For you are all one in Christ Jesus. Gal 3:27-28. The priest watched as the saint caressed the ulcerous patient like a mother, and then put his lips to the most pestiferous of his sores. There were thirteen prisons in Cartagena. Until death.. Heartfelt Condolences to Fatima Sister Fr. Often the skin on the backs and shoulders of those too weak to help themselves would be worn to the very bone from the constant motion of the waves and rubbing of their flesh on the damp planks.Apparently these slave hustlers were the very dregs of Christian Europe. The entire city came out to pay him their respects. So Claver gave it none- except what was absolutely necessary to sustain life. Oddly enough, these men whom Claver used as interpreters were his own slaves. In truth, it was a blessed form of servitude for those eighteen Negroes. England, Spain, Portugal, Holland and France fought over what they found here while they each set up shop here in hostile territory, in instances, owned and operated by the original peoples they found here. Few saints carried out their active work in more repulsive conditions than did Claver, but these privations were not enough; in accordance with the popular pious practices of Catholics of that time Claver was known to continuously use penitential instruments of a severe description and would pray alone in his room with a crown of thorns pressed to his head and a heavy cross weighing down his shoulders. But Claver was not deterred, not even when the ecclesiastical authorities lent too willing an ear to the complaints of his critics. . It would be a tangent too labor-some for the continuity of this article to demonstrate at any length how forcefully and wisely the Catholic Church has handled the slavery problem throughout its history. This army was a militia of charity; its commander-in-chief was Father Peter Claver, a Jesuit, the hero of our story. Yes, I suppose it was. But it would be inaccurate to label Father Claver as some kind of humanitarian. 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