THE Apostolate of St. Peter Claver is unique. If their depraved keepers were particularly cruel, they left the dead as they were, chained to the living, below the decks, where no fresh air could enter to relieve them even slightly. In despair over not being able to speak to the sick men, the frustrated priest called after her loudly, Magdalena, Magdalena, in the Name of God come back; these are or brothers, redeemed by the Blood of Jesus Christ. At these words the woman sighed a prayer for help and courageously returned. When he is overloaded, he is dumb. Always he spoke of God He was humble. Upon his reception into the novitiate, Claver inscribed these words into his notebook as to the reason motivating him to a religious life, to become a saint, he wrote, and a very great saint. When he is starved, he is dumb. Late in 1861, a sharp piece of iron bruised his chest, resulting in . Nor can the Africans themselves escape the blame. Clavers problem was that he was sensitive. The science of the school of Peter Claver was the art of dealing with pain, and of knowing its worth. Sometimes, Claver would spend almost the entire day in the great square of the city, where the four principal streets met, preaching to all who would stop to listen. FOR THE FEAST DAY OF ST. PETER CLAVER. He would also use pictures in his teaching, primarily images of the crucified Christ. Some were so debased as to sell their own children for gain. The vicar general of the diocese officiated at the funeral. After all, it is a lot easier to love those who are clean than to love those who are not. The Jesuits -Isaac Jogues, John de Brebeuf, Noel Chabanel and their companions have their blood soaked indelibly in American soil around the same time Claver was in Cartagena. 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. Finally, when they appeared sufficiently prepared, we declared to them the mysteries of the Trinity, the Incarnation and the Passion. That melancholic countenance was first stamped upon him when he was introduced to the real world of human misery. 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. His Mass, which followed, was deliberately short. Nothing in Clavers scholastic training, outside of a sincere heart, prepared him for what he would meet on the docks, in the holes of ships and in the slave markets. Well, the good influence proved too much. ); but the claim that he was its bishop is an anachronism. He was said to have the gift of prophecy as well as the ability to read souls. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. We laid aside our cloaks, therefore, and brought from a warehouse whatever was handy to build a platform. Claver was a man who knew pain and knew its value. We have before us a most extraordinary saint- unquestionably the most extraordinary saint who ever walked this earth. By far the greatest damage the devil suffered from Father Claver was in the confessional, though some of us may cringe when we consider his methods of extracting vice. Community Redevelopment Agencies have proven historically to provide distressed communities with a better economy through improved infrastructure . By this time the slave trade had been established in the Americas for nearly a hundred years and the port of Cartagena was one of its principal centers, being conveniently situated as a clearing house for auctions and sales. 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. The fleet of three galleons set sail on April 10, 1610. The Protestant Reformation fomented division, polemics and outright murder. Famous actor and producer, Mark Wahlberg, age 51, went on NBC's the Today Show to discuss Lent. I am sorry for having sinned against thee. Slavery is not a European import to a perfectly virtuous non-European world. Come to me, my Father! Claver, like the Good Shepherd, ran to embrace him, and, for a time, tears choked any words either tried to utter. A handsome supply of which was hung upon the back if his confessional; for others that the saint felt had enough of a penance to bear (the crippled, the lame, the aged, the destitute), he had more pleasant gifts: Rosary beads, or fruits, sweets, and similar delicacies. Pius IX, who beatified Peter Claver, branded the slave trade supreme villainy. The most vociferous of all was Pope Paul III. 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. 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. At the age of twenty he entered the Jesuit novitiate at Tarragona. There were some whose diseases were so repulsive that no one but Father Claver had the supernatural guts to nurse them. He studied the science of the saints at the feet of this lay brother. 1- Peter Heals the Crippled Beggar, Acts 3 1One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayerat three in the afternoon. Claver took to the country missions in the spring. In the past, when he came home from such missions, he was usually so reduced physically that he looked like a walking skeleton. After a difficult voyage of some months, the ships landed at the New Granadan port of Cartagena, just below Panama, in the Gulf of Darien. Clavers dearest benefactress, the Martha of his apostolate, Dona Isabel de Urbina, would prepare the dishes for these delightful festivals of charity. He had a steady confidence that God would care for them and, not his least worry were the slave owners whom he did not deem beyond the mercy of God. He informed his father of his intention to join the Society. After his ordination in 1616, he dedicated himself by special vow to the service of the Negro slaves-a work that was to last for thirty-three years. Book a Tour Virtual Tour Ways to Give Online Donations No time was too early for these faithful Cartagenians to unburden their souls to God. Holding up the crucifix on a staff for all to see, he let them behold what their sins had done to their Creator. As a student, he was noted for his intelligence . Scarcely can there be found in the annals of hagiography a story of a saint more honored in his demise. In all things he tried to imitate our holy Brother Alonso Rodriguez. A saint, a very great saint was in the formation. 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. And to save many souls.. Nevertheless, the routine was degrading enough to bring death at sea every year to about five thousand Negroes, and the infamous trade went on for about two hundred years. 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. His labors in the confessional for the holy season would increase threefold. People were patriotic, but color of a mans skin was just that and nothing more. 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. 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. Finally, the happy convert related a vision he had had of the deceased Dutchman, whom the good Father had just buried, with great ceremony. Then there were the black agents who, under the pay of whites, scoured the coasts with products to sell, often unsheathing concealed weapons in order to take the unsuspecting victims into captivity by force. 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. What sort of a man must I be, that I cannot do a little good without causing so much confusion? Claver would ask. 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. 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. One priest who loved Father Claver dearly and who longed to have his charity went with him to tend a poor afflicted slave. 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. 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. Then Jesus himself will say that he came into the world to make us, too, partake in the unity between him and the Father (cf. You know the story the conditions under which they were conveyed across the Atlantic were as foul and inhuman as to be beyond belief. Claver plunged himself, body and soul, into relieving the blacks in their dreadful circumstance. Category. Traveling in these areas Father Claver habitually refused as much as possible the hospitality of the planters and owners and instead lodged in the quarters of the slaves checking on conditions and speaking to their owners and masters, advocating for the slaves. While he was studying philosophy at Majorca in 1605, Alphonsus . 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. Not long afterwards, at two oclock, while the assembled community invoked the names of Jesus and Mary, he sweetly surrendered his faithful soul to God. He found employment in a local soap factory. One day, after offering a funeral Mass for one of these converts, he decided to visit the obstinate patient. 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. In this prison there were detained slaves, who re-lived the dark pagan rituals in the hot forest nights, side by side with certain clerics who would not keep their vow of chastity. He embraced lepers, kissed cancerous lesions, sucked out poison from running ulcers, washed the unclean and dined in their unsightly hovels, nor did he refrain even from eating food some despairing suicidals had rejected from their own mouths, in his determination to gain their confidence. 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. Everything to that time was old. Here in the solitude of his confinement he suffered not only physically but also mentally. The beauty of the world; that thus I may with joy and courtesy go on my way. These were bought in West Africa for four crowns a head, or bartered for goods and sold in America for an average two hundred crowns-a-piece. To me it is a miracle ! All he did for the ancestors aligned him with the God of love. His austerities, which will be described later, would make even holy Job shudder. We have always wondered about these individuals precisely because race prejudice and discrimination have appeared so endemic to the white race. St. Peter Claver (1580-1654) was a Spanish Jesuit missionary to Latin America. 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