September 9th is the Memorial of Saint Peter Claver (1580-1654), a Spanish Jesuit priest and missionary to Columbia who served 40 years of ministry as a slave of the slaves for ever, personally baptizing 300,000 people. His heroic love and self-sacrifice for the African slaves is unparalleled in the history of the Church. Peter was born to a devout and prosperous farming family in the village of Verdú about 54 miles from Barcelona, Spain. Colonial slavery had begun 70 years prior by King Ferdinand of Spain, so he was accustomed to the concept of the life of a slave. Later when he studied at the University of Barcelona he wrote in his diary which he kept throughout his life: I must dedicate myself to the service of God until death, on the understanding that I am like a slave, wholly occupied in the service of his master and in the endeavor to please and content him in all and in every way with his whole soul, body, and mind. Completing his studies, Peter entered the Society of Jesus at the age of 20. After his formation in the community he was sent to study philosophy at Palma, Mallorca where he came to know a simple Jesuit lay brother who served as the doorkeeper of the college, Alphonsus Rodriguez, known for his holiness and gift of prophecy. He was eighty years old and Peter only twenty-five but they became friends, sharing about the spiritual life. Although Peter spent only three years in Mallorca, these were the most formative years of his interior life in which he incorporated Alphonsus program of the spiritual life into his own daily life. After prayer, Alphonsus received the insight that Peter was to spend his life in service in the Spanish colonies and urged him to go and save millions of perishing souls. Thus, Peter volunteered for the Spanish colonies and was sent to the country now known as Colombia. There while preparing for the priesthood he witnessed and was deeply disturbed by the harsh treatment and living conditions of the 10,000 black slaves who poured into the port yearly, crossing the Atlantic from West Africa, with an estimated one-third having died in transit. Once ordained, Father Peter Claver joined Father Alonso de Sandoval, S.J., who had served the slaves for 40 years. He became Fr. Peters mentor and inspiration in continuing this ministry. Fr. Sandoval had learned the customs of 40 different “races” and 15 different languages of the slaves, which he recorded in a book. Fr. Peter urged his religious superiors to have it published to help missionaries relate to the slaves. Fr. Sandoval visited the slaves where they worked, but Peter Claver preferred to board the slave ship as it entered the port, where he entered cargo pit to treat and minister to the mistreated and terrified African survivors of the several-months voyage and the horrible conditions. In addition to the slaves, Peter preached and ministered to sailors, traders, well-to-do members of society, visitors including Muslims and English Protestants, and criminals preparing for execution and the sick in the citys hospitals. He worked unceasingly for the abolition of the slave trade, while advocating with the masters to treat the slaves humanely. Most of all St. Peter Claver labored for the salvation of the African slaves, as revealed in his own writings: This was how we spoke to them, not with words but with our hands and our actions.... After this we began an elementary instruction about baptism, that is, the wonderful effects of the sacrament on body and soul. When by their answers to our questions they showed that 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 asked them to make an act of contrition and to manifest their detestation of their sins. Finally, when they appeared sufficiently prepared, we declared to them the mysteries of the Trinity, the Incarnation and the Passion. Showing them Christ fastened to the cross, as he is depicted on the baptismal font on which streams of blood flow down from his wounds, we led them in reciting an act of contrition in their own language. In the last four years of his life being too ill to leave his room, St. Peter Claver lingered, largely forgotten and neglected, physically abused and starved by an ex-slave who had been hired by the Superior of the house to care for him. He never complained about his treatment, accepting it as a just punishment for his sins. He died on 8 September 1654, at which time the people of the city upon hearing of his death, remembered all that St. Peter had done. They forced their way into his room and stripped whatever they could to obtain relics of a man known to have been a saint. Even the magistrates, who had previously considered St. Peter a nuisance for his persistent advocacy on behalf of the slaves, ordered a public funeral and buried him with pomp and ceremony at the expense of the state. He was canonized by Pope Leo XIII in 1888, along with the holy Jesuit porter Alphonsus Rodriguez, who was his mentor in the spiritual life. In 1896 Pope Leo declared St. Peter Claver the patron of missions to all African peoples. His body is preserved and venerated in the Church of Saint Peter Claver in Cartagena, Colombia. One of the parishes of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in Simi Valley, CA is named St. Peter Claver. Visit their webpage: saintpeterclaver.org Let us pray, O God, who made Saint Peter Claver a slave of slaves and strengthened him with wonderful charity and patience as he came to their help, grant, through his intercession, that, seeking the things of Jesus Christ, we may love our neighbor in deeds and in truth. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. St. Peter Claver, pray for us.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 13:17:42 +0000
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