Interestingly enough, the vessel carrying Claver was named after his patron saint, the Prince of Apostles, San Pedro. About The Church of Peter Claver: The church that bears his name is open daily. Aiding and abetting slavery was the inability of the European mind-set to process and receive and deem worthy the dignity of black skin. The college was run by the Society of Jesus- a new order founded by Ignatius of Loyola, who had honored Catalonia as the land of his conversion and labors. When the Jesuits finally succeeded in establishing a proper place for the body in the church, the Augustinians came and took over the exhausting job of guarding the casket. A Sister of St. Peter Claver. St. Peter Claver (1580-1654), whose memorial we celebrate today, offers a timely witness as our nation reckons anew with the enduring scourge of racism. It contains many works of art. So zealous did he become after his conversion that he never ceased exhorting his ex co-religionist to enter the Catholic Church- outside of which, he told them no salvation could be hoped for. In due time the entire group of the imprisoned reformers followed the example of their spiritual leader and entered the Catholic Church with tremendous enthusiasm. Herbs, potatoes, a little rice, or a banana made up his diet; a mat on a board with a log for a pillow made up his bed; only three hours of the night were occupied in an attempt at rest; and then there were his penances. They then sent him to Barcelona for his theology studies and after two years were, at his further request, chosen to represent the province of Aragon at the mission of Spanish Jesuits being sent to New Granada. It behooves me, Claver once wrote, always to imitate the example of the ass. 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. . Nor can we overlook the heroic work of the eight Jesuit martyrs of North America, who were contemporaries of our South American saint, as were all the above mentioned, except for Francis Xavier. But after a week or two, hunger, sickness and disease numbed these kinds of outbursts. Spain of the 17th century proceeded with an unscrupulous imperialism, taking to the treacherous seas to pursue conquest in land, gold, silver, jewels, spices, sugar and tobacco. To cover the feverish and naked, to wash wounds, to shroud women penitents and to place upon it the abandoned sick, until he could procure them a mat for a bed. Another miracle is about a fierce and rebellious slave named Amete, who resisted the saint's efforts to baptize him for more than 30 years. However, it also drew pirates. And the saint prayed hard. Meanwhile, a man of importance ran through the streets, totally oblivious to human respect, and knocked forcefully at a door. The young Jesuit petitioned his superiors to be sent to the missions of the West. It was reckoned that there would be a loss in each cargo by death during the six or seven weeks voyage of a least a third. 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. In all he had eighteen. Geography would be forever altered. He felt it was too delicate a flavor for a religious. The saint would never complain. Another saint whom he had known at school in Majorca, Saint Alphonsus Rodriguez, revealed his road in life to him. So Claver gave it none- except what was absolutely necessary to sustain life. 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. 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. For two months, the slaves endured a fate worse than that of animals- hanging onto a life that seemed not worth the effort to preserve it- half dead, half insane, and reeking in the filth of their dysentery, vomit, and running ulcerous wounds. He had felt the nails, he had habitually endured the bitterness of lifes vinegar and gall, he had been mocked; but as yet Claver was never alone. But when he spoke to them he spoke exactly of what they would expect a priest to speak about: God, heaven and hell. When he slept, or tried to sleep, he removed only the neck rope and the crown of thorns. Once more, this time most likely to test his obedience, they denied it. . This extreme wealth passing in and out of the port was what attracted the avaricious entrepreneurs to settle there. 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 St. Peter Claver Roman Catholic Church records house the institutional records of the St. Peter Claver Roman Catholic Church of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Cartagena was a central stopping point for this inhuman traffic. Nothing could be done to keep them away. There were adulterers, Jewish usurers, and occasionally a deranged spellcaster or two. In Christianity, foremost of the apostles.His name was Simon but according to the gospels Jesus called him from his work as fisherman and gave him the name 'Cephas', the Aramaic equivalent of Greek 'Peter' (petra, 'rock').According to early tradition Peter visited Rome where he was martyred (1 Clement 5, etc. Catholic Online is a Project of Your Catholic Voice Foundation, a Not-for-Profit Corporation. Brother Nicolas was downstairs and heard a noise from the upstairs room where Claver was bedded. Heartfelt thanks for your prayers for our daughter during her recent serious illness. Not long afterward the venerable archdeacon fell grievously ill. As he was being carried to the hospital through the citys streets in a litter, he saw Father Claver and exclaimed It is time, Father; it is time for me to accomplish the promise I made to God and to you, embracing the religion of my ancestors. And so he did. After he had performed the sacred ceremony to the great joy of the young Negress and the whole household, she instantly dozed off in death to retrace the steps she had previously taken, this time clothed in the proper wedding garment. Sometimes he would have to yield to nature and collapse. 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. Thousands of times, during his forty years in the world of pain, he would take off that cloak and use it. Claver means keeper of the keys. The holy brother of Montesion kept the keys of the college, for he served as the porter. The likeness of St. Peter Claver is seen in stained glass at St. Mary's Cathedral in Peoria, Ill. Canonized in 1888, St. Peter Claver is now considered the patron saint of human. Little is known of his early years. Source: "Saint a Day" "St. Peter Claver (1581 A. D. - 1654 A. D.): by temperament, Father Peter Claver was shy. The following incident illustrates the struggle of the saint to overcome nature. This, of course, he had never done, except conditionally in cases of doubt, but he was nevertheless forbidden to baptize in the future. St. Peter Claver. 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. The future apostle of the slaves was the youngest in his family, so from the start he knew only how to serve. . Having finished this, his foremost priority, he turned his attention to the others. Their work resulted in a unique tunnel system that is well over 80 km . Many of the missionaries were tortured and flayed alive especially among the Iroquois nation. Today, we are a trilingual community with Masses in English, Spanish and French/Creole. Photo by Sid Hastings Sid Hastings A relic of St. Peter Claver in a. He was as Arnold Lunn puts it, a divinitarian. The gift he gave the poor slaves was a gift infinitely more precious than sympathy, or even a miraculous cure (which he was quite often the instrument of). In the history of God's Saints we read of heroic souls giving themselves as slaves in exchange for Christian captives. Author and Publisher - Catholic Online The masters complained that he wasted the slaves time with his preaching, praying and hymn-singing. Though the Inquisition had also been in operation since 1610 in Cartagena, that office dealt in the main with crimes against religion, such as blasphemy, witchcraft (and their was and still is plenty of it in the West Indies), and the preaching of heresy. Experiences like this were fairly common at the college with Brother Rodriguez, for his ecstasies were frequent and often public. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. The religious there used to say that their welcome friend, Father Claver, did the work of forty men. But what a retched lot was that of the poor slaves! Claver was less successful in his efforts to make converts among the Muslims who came to Cartagena to do business, but he managed to bring a number of Moors and Turks to the faith, though one held out for thirty years before succumbing, and even then a vision of our Lady was required to convince him. 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. He fought tirelessly against the heretics who denied the Divine Maternity of Mary and the abiding humanity of Jesus., Albany Diocese bans Latin Masses following new guidance from the Vatican, New report examines the state of priestly vocations in US, Hungary and the Holy See: Alone in Europe in Calling for Peace in Ukraine, Professor Stanisaw Grygiel, Longtime Friend of John Paul II, Dies at 89, Episode 365: Drudgery as a Means to Sanctity. We have here a man whose love knew no bounds, who had no fears except of offending God, a man who loved the unlovable. Facilitating this trafficking in human cargo was the reasoning that blacks were in most if not all instances culturally and essentially inferior. The saint spent every day in the confessional from sunrise until twelve noon. He felt he had no grace to encourage someone else to carry a cross that he himself wasnt carrying. His feast is observed throughout the Americas and other places around the world on the 9th of September. Episode 362: Virgo Post Partum: A Married Virgin? It was November 1615. Until death! the good father quietly responded. Spain brought a cease to trafficking in slaves in 1850. He had baptized and taught the faith to more than 300,000 slaves during his four decades in Cartagena. The son of a Catalonian farmer, was born at Verdu, in 1581; he died on the 8th of September, 1654. 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. The St. Peter Claver Place Apartments project will receive a $4 million rebate of the taxes generated by the project in yearly installments at a rate of 95% until the $4 million rebate is satisfied. One by one, having covered them with his own cloak, carried them from the boat to wheeled carts parked on the dock for the purpose of transporting the invalids to some miserable shanties. On that day Fr. The following prayer service is an adaptation of the Liturgy of the Hours, and can be prayed individually or with a group. In 1610, he landed at Cartagena (modern Colombia), the principle slave market of the New World, where a thousand slaves were landed every month. At the end of the Masses, a group of distinguished men approached the casket. In those days, there was hardly such a thing as racial prejudice. Nor can the Africans themselves escape the blame. No he didnt ignore the needs of whites; he just didnt give them priority. During Lent and on the major feat days, he would go about the city inviting all to a thorough house cleaning. Ad Rem A Fortnightly Email Message from the Prior, Saint David is the patron of Wales, where thousands and thousands of noble Catholics have lived and where many saints have been given to God., He was a Frenchman and the son of a nobleman. St Peter Claver worked for decades to help enslaved people. Ignatius Strecker came to America from Germany in 1853. His labors in the confessional for the holy season would increase threefold. Jesuits were already ministering in North America among the Great Lakes native peoples on up through Canada. 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. 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. 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. He served as the porter cloak and use it he would take off cloak! 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