The ways of God seem hard at times. There were fugitives of all sorts, despairing failures of fortune, pirates, bigamists who had abandoned wife and home, money-hungry merchants, retired soldiers, heretics, Mohammedans, all varieties of Europeans, Jews, Greeks, and of course, native Indians, mestizos, mulattos, and last and saddest of all, the black slaves. The saint entered, but he was at once so overwhelmed with the loathsome stench and the repellent sight that he recoiled and took a step back. . Needless to say, only the brave called this fortified city home, but even their courage could not dispel the natural fear that hung heavily in the hot air behind the thick walls. He never came down from it. So great was Clavers love for Tunga that he was prompted upon his deathbed to confer upon that monasterys novices his greatest treasure- the spiritual writings of good Brother Alonso- which he has guarded jealously though his arduous life. Leader: God, + come to my assistance. He studied the science of the saints at the feet of this lay brother. I am sorry for having offended Thee. 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. 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. He felt he had no grace to encourage someone else to carry a cross that he himself wasnt carrying. Catholic Online is a Project of Your Catholic Voice Foundation, a Not-for-Profit Corporation. But many more, rank-and-file citizens would seek Father Claver out in the confessional where he had sometimes to spend fifteen hours at a stretch, reproving, advising, encouraging, and absolving. 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. Pleased by the courtesy of the Catholic priest, the archdeacon asked him in Latin for a private interview. Clavers dearest benefactress, the Martha of his apostolate, Dona Isabel de Urbina, would prepare the dishes for these delightful festivals of charity. Founding Superior of Saint Benedict Center, N.H.: Brother Francis, M.I.C.M. He announced to Brother Gonzales that he would die on the next festival of the Blessed Virgin. Claver would say frequently: We must speak to them with our hands before we try to speak to them with our lips. When he came upon any who were dying he baptized them and then sought out all babies born on the voyage that he might baptize them. Falling down before him, the veteran apostle kissed his feet. Bot the saint knew it not. St. Peter Claver was born at Verdu, Catalonia, Spain, in 1580, of impoverished parents descended from ancient and distinguished families. 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. As one biographer put it, Like the Cid, even the dead corpse of Claver conquers the Moors.. He never complains in any circumstances, for he is only an ass. Our Saints upbringing carries nothing too spectacular about it. According to the research of Hugh Thomas, an estimated eleven million blacks were brought to the Americas for uncompensated labor in the course of the period, 1440-1870. The saint would never complain. He did such things not once, not twice, as some saints have done, but nearly every day for forty long toilsome years.Claver took care of Negro slaves. An institution, true- old as man himself- but, nevertheless, debasingly artificial and oftentimes cruel. As one writer puts it, Piety only offends when implies a censorious verdict on the impious, for it is preachiness, not preaching, that most people resent. Of course, at times Claver knew he had to be very direct, as he was on one occasion when he said to a man about to leave the city in the company of a loose-living woman, It bothers me to see you about to travel with the devil. The arrow struck fast and so tormented the sinners conscience that he returned that very night to the rectory, and in sobs unburdened his sinful life to the ears of the holy priest. Lima in Peru had five- Saint Rose, Saint Francis Solano, Saint Martin de Porres, Saint Turibius, and Saint John Massias. He gulped his final breath of air lying in the arms of his confessor. When there was time and opportunity he took the same trouble to teach them how properly to use the sacrament of penance and in one year is said to have heard the confessions of more than five thousand. Sept. 9: ST. PETER CLAVER, PRIEST. 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. They all had souls to save. If a baby had the misfortune to be taken with its mother, or born during the voyage, it usually died of malnutrition. 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. . Forts also lined the harbor. Peter Claver had another side to him that cannot be overlooked. . Whenever the saintly doorkeeper heard someone knock, his face would light up and he would utter this holy ejaculation, Lord, I shall open the door to You for love of You. And, with an enthusiasm that could be no greater if it were Jesus Himself waiting, he would keep repeating as his lean and bent body strode down the corridor, I go, Lord, I go, Lord.. The women, in particular, would shed abundant tears while embracing each other in great joy. Though the other young missionaries who were chosen along with our saint received Holy Orders before they departed, Claver decided not to take upon himself the awesome privilege. The Miracle That Led To St. Peter Claver's Canonization. Claver was 73 years old. Kind and patient to all, for some of his penitents he prescribed the remedy of hairshirts and scourges. They were especially amazed at the devoutness of the Catholic soldiers. She also happened to be from Biafara and Claver needed her as a translator. Often he would take mission trips into the thick of the country to look after his flock. . Weeks would go by, before this floating mortuary would relinquish its infectious corpses to the ocean. In fact, the saint used to spend hours just on the Sign of the Cross alone. Furthermore, he did not lose sight of his converts when they left the ships, but followed them to the plantations to which they were sent, encouraged them to live as Christians, and prevailed on their masters to treat them humanely. The medal had the Holy Name of Jesus on one side and of Mary on the other. Brother Rodriguez was an old man when he first laid eyes on the new student from Barcelona, but holiness knows no age; it matures and grows, but it is still the Presence of God in a soul. He was beatified 16 July, 1850, by Pius IX, and canonized 15 January, 1888, by Leo XIII. This life of St. Peter Claver is brought out in order to stimulate vocations to the Negro Missions, which even now have the characteristics of Claver's vocation. In the past, when he came home from such missions, he was usually so reduced physically that he looked like a walking skeleton. Photo by Sid Hastings Sid Hastings A relic of St. Peter Claver in a. St. Peter obtained his first degrees at the University of Barcelona. 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. Father Claver defied civil authorities who treated the Africans like animals: he went into the pens with . Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution - Share Alike License. Into this fire we tossed aromatics. The problem with many of the Moslems was that they were slaves, and consequently, they despised Christianity because it was the religion of their captors. After Easter Peter Claver was back on the road instructing newly-arrived slaves and tending the sick. 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. But then, America did not give up on the idea. There was hardly a Pope who had to face the problem when it surfaced after about a thousand-year dormation, that did not condemn it. On Ash Wednesday, Mark Wahlberg gave an interview to the Today Show about why faith is important to him, and working with the Catholic prayer app Hallow ( https://hallow.com/ ). 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. It was here at this holy sanctuary, high on a mountain in Catalonia that the founder of the Society of Jesus signified his complete conversion, by laying his soldiers sword down at the feet of the famous Madonna. There were times when he even raised the dead with it. This miraculous healing led to the canonization of Peter Claver as a saint of the Catholic Church. We have here a man whose love knew no bounds, who had no fears except of offending God, a man who loved the unlovable. Little is known of his early years. 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. 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. He shortly afterwards heard the confession of Doa Isabella, and told her it was for the last time, and on September 6, after assisting at Mass and receiving holy communion, Claver said to his dear friend, Brother Nicholas Gonzalez, I am going to die. That same evening he was taken very ill and became comatose. However, it also drew pirates. He and his wife Rhea (married in 2009) have four children: Ella, 19, Michael, 16, Brendan, 14, and Grace, 13. Due to the importance of this apostolate, Rome was willing to allow an exception to its canon forbidding clerics to own slaves. About The Church of Peter Claver: The church that bears his name is open daily. 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. We had to force our way through the crowd until we reached the sick. The Thirty Years War and the wars of religion was the backdrop for this chapter of history within which Claver lived. It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. Those who were baptized looked beautiful and happy, while those who were not, looked ugly and were about to be gobbled up by hideous monsters from hell. Strecker's healing was among the miracles attributed to Claver that led to his 1888 canonization by Pope Leo XIII. In this case, the dignitary was the governor himself, Don Jeronimo Zueso Cassola, the same man who raced to tell Father Claver the good news. But what made this Jesuit in Cartagena a saint was not only his detachment from the world and attachment to Christ, but along with that, an astounding ability to reduce potency to act. Her condition, thank God, suddenly improved and both she and the baby are well. But what a retched lot was that of the poor slaves! All they could muster was to protest and devote themselves to individual ministrations, physical, spiritual and material, to the tens of thousands of suffering human beings brought to these shores. Things would never be the same. M.J.K. Copyright 2022 Catholic Online. Once more, this time most likely to test his obedience, they denied it. In those days, there was hardly such a thing as racial prejudice. It was an era of expansion. (Fakhri B. Maluf, Ph.D.), RIP Prior: Brother Andr Marie, M.I.C.M. 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. Yes, I suppose it was. The slave ship is here, he crescendos, then the hook must be baited.. They saw and they believed. The priests carried Father Claver in his coffin from the Jesuit house to their main church. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. 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. Cannot charity traverse seas already opened by cupidity?. St. Peter Claver Peter was born of a distinguished family in Catalonia, Spain in 1581. However, witnesses testified that, despite the filth, the miraculous fabric always smelled fresh and clean. The bishop's housekeeper's husband, Carlos Medina, a 61-year-old man arrested by Los Angeles County Sheriff deputies as the prime suspect in the murder. The Saint is dying! Suddenly, the sad reality dawned on the multitude, who awakened as from a trance, and they all, black and white, rich and poor, made their way to the Jesuit house. Claver made use of pictures, in accordance with standard catechetical pedagogy of the time, showing our Lord suffering on the cross for them; above all did he try to instill in them some degree of self respect, to give them at least some idea that as redeemed human beings they had dignity and worth, even if as slaves they were outcast and despised. To conclude the sessions he would hold aloft the crucifix and have the slaves join in together with the prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Thou art my Father. 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