Hearing of their capture, Father Claver requested and received permission to visit the fleet and offer holy Mass for the Spanish soldiers. Father Claver was already known for strong discipline of his body. The Catholic Church venerates St. Peter Claver as the patron saint of African Americans and slaves, but Claver himself was neither. Brother Nicolas was downstairs and heard a noise from the upstairs room where Claver was bedded. Furthermore, their own chiefs, who showed absolutely no concern for a common hue when material gain was offered to them, often betrayed the Negroes. Occasionally Father Claver would be carried to a hospital, to minister to a dying prisoner, or other sick person, and once when a cargo ship arrived of slaves from a tribe which had not been seen in Cartagena for thirty years his old strength suddenly returned; he was taken around till he found an interpreter who spoke their tongue, then baptized all the children, and gave brief instructions to the adults. Home - Knights of Peter Claver Spreading FAITH, HOPE, and LOVE through Friendship, Unity, and Christian Charity Our Faith What you Need to Know Online Store Register Now! The fathers immediately took him to a more suitable room than his own cell to recuperate. Every year from twelve to fourteen slave ships entered the port of Cartagena. No sin, he assured them, was too great for Jesus to forgive in confession. Others were captured at random especially able bodied males and females deemed suitable for labor and breeding. Address: Luikerweg 71. But what a retched lot was that of the poor slaves! Cartagena was a central stopping point for this inhuman traffic. Let us begin, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. The perfumed class had enough priests to care for them but the blacks had no one. He broke every rule in the book. Daily his loving eyes would have to wrest their gaze from the Spotless Host lest he should allow his devotion to get the better of him. St. Peter Claver was born at Verdu, Catalonia, Spain, in 1580, of impoverished parents descended from ancient and distinguished families. . They saw and they believed. There was another sail that was a dreaded sight for a Cartagenian, a sail that used to make Father Sandoval, Clavers instructor in the science of charity, tremble and break out in a cold sweat- the sail of the slave ship! When he is starved, he is dumb. There were adulterers, Jewish usurers, and occasionally a deranged spellcaster or two. The most illustrious of his many conversions was that of an English prelate and his Protestant confreres. 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. All these poor creatures had, was a fire-and-brimstone Jesuit, and he wanted to save them from an eternal misery. 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. The trade had recently been given a considerable impetus, for the local Indians the natives- were deemed not physically fitted to work in the gold and silver mines and so there was this big demand for blacks from Angola and Congo. Before pouring the cleansing water, he would ask them three times in a loud voice if they wanted to become Christians. The saint spent every day in the confessional from sunrise until twelve noon. The Gospel of this first Sunday of Lent presents to us Jesus in the desert, tempted by the devil (cf. Devil means divider. A sign of new things over the horizon was registered in the coined term The New World. Thousands pressed forward to touch their Rosaries, linens, and medals to his hands and to his feet, which were left uncovered. And did not Jesus assure us, of such is the kingdom of God? Across the sea a ship arose on the horizon. In addition, the man of God found time to organize a talented black choir. He felt he could never advise another to bear a cross that he himself wasnt already bearing. Surely this man deserved some consideration, some appreciation for all he had done in Gods service. However, witnesses testified that, despite the filth, the miraculous fabric always smelled fresh and clean. The two earlier coffins are preserved as relics in the Jesuit residence at Cartagena. Sometimes these sermons would last for hours, and he did not let the intense heat deter him. 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. 14-141). It was November 1615. Clavers dearest benefactress, the Martha of his apostolate, Dona Isabel de Urbina, would prepare the dishes for these delightful festivals of charity. Settling the New World and stealing from that New World brought with it the necessity of cheap labor, human labor . 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 slightest incentive from the slave hunters, whether it be tinkling bells or sparkling gems, would move tribal chief to wage petty wars for the sole purpose of selling their prisoners for such unworthy profit. And if his love for her was great, her was no less for him. Since I am a bad priest, God no longer desires my services. Peter Claver, the man of action, was struck with a condition of almost total paralysis. But his sullen-ness and even the sadness reflected from his deep-set eyes were not the result of his excessive mortification. They were especially amazed at the devoutness of the Catholic soldiers. 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. Your gift is tax-deductible as allowed by law. His gift to them was eternal life through Faith in a God who suffered like them and on account of them, a God who was crucified. Always he spoke of God He was humble. St. Peter Claver. Were it not for a miracle, the poor Father, to the very end a victim to the devils rage, would have been tossed off and perhaps killed. Father Claver never tired of persuading the slaves from the occasions of sin or of urging the owners to care for the souls of the slaves; he became so great a moral force in Cartagena that a story is told of a slave frightening off a prostitute who was pestering him in the street saying, Look, here comes Father Claver. And the woman ran away. 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. Peter Claver was born in 1581 to a devout farming family in the Catalonia region of Spain. 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. Extra ecclesiam nulla salus (outside the Church there is no salvation). Lord, I love thee much, much, much.. Slavery is not the subject of this article; however, before going on, the reader should at least divest himself of any false notion liberals may have implanted in him that the system was localized in the Americas. 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. The angel said, This one is for thy disciple, Claver; it is the recompense of his virtues and of the great number of souls he will gain to God in the West Indies.. Scarcely can there be found in the annals of hagiography a story of a saint more honored in his demise. Each one had to be taken apart and drilled, time and again, even in so simple a matter as making the sign of the cross or in learning the prayer of love and repentance that each had to know: Claver taught them to pray these words: Jesus Christ, Son of God, thou shalt be my Father and my Mother and all my good. They turned their eyes to Africa to find that labor force. St. Peter Claver was canonized in 1888. He was born in 1580 in a little town of Spain called Verdu in the diocese of Solfona and he was baptized Peter. Copyright 2004-2020 Saint Benedict Center, Richmond, New Hampshire. Of these we had two wallets full, and we used them all up on this occasion. Then we divided the sick into two groups: one group my companion approached with an interpreter, while I addressed the other group. After being brutally beaten, raped, starved, maimed, tortured and terrorized, despite deaths from riots, suicides, lynchings, pestilence and disease, beyond those thrown overboard, an average ten thousand living slaves were landed in Cartagena each year. St. Peter Claver. . With the help of a tile we pulled some live coals together and placed them in the middle near the dying men. He first asked them for their babies so that he might poor the saving water of Baptism upon them; then, seeking out the dying, he spoke to them by way of interpreters, and obtaining their consent, he baptized them too. In fact, he was the first Jesuit ordained in Cartagena. From whom does the devil want to divide Jesus? #BreakingNews Housekeeper's Husband Admits to Murder of Beloved Catholic Bishop David O'Connell of Los Angeles, California, Prayer to St. Christopher for Safe Travels and Motorists, #BreakingNews a Catholic Priest and 3 Nuns Killed in a Car Accident in India - RIP, Pope Francis Explains how to Defeat the Devil's 3 Temptations "The divine Word that is Jesus answer to the temptation of the devil. And though death should have come much sooner than it did for a man who had trodden on danger as one would on rose petals, it finally began to move on him mercilessly. 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. Besides visiting the slave huts, the zealous father had other apostolates that he lovingly attended to: the hospital of St. Sebastian, the leprosarium of St Lazarus, and the prisons. Though it was Gods will for our saint to be forgotten before he left this life, it was also His will that in death His humble servant be exalted. Enter your email address to receive notifications by email every time we post something to the site. In teaching his pupils religion he loved to use pictures. The religious there used to say that their welcome friend, Father Claver, did the work of forty men. Thousands of times, during his forty years in the world of pain, he would take off that cloak and use it. Somehow Claver managed to get out of bed and don a cassock, and the next minute his frail and bent figure, with cane in hand, shuffled up to his successor. Agustinus Seran, SVD - Pastor 1203 North Nebraska Ave., Tampa, FL 33602 Office Hours: Monday - Thursday, 9:00 am - 3:00 pm Mass Times Weekend Masses: Saturday Vigil - 4:00 pm Sunday Morning - 10:00 am *Haitian Creole Mass - 1:00 pm Daily Masses Wednesday - 9:00 am Friday - 8:00 am Confession Schedule 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. So, from Jesuit priestly ranks arose this dreamer, the young man Peter Claver, of upper middle class bearing, born in the city of Verdu in Catalonia about the year 1581. 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. He was born on the Island of Sardinia. The resident Jesuits, despite the utter poverty of their quarters, gave their newly arrived brothers a hearty welcome, and immediately afterwards Claver was summoned up the Magdalena River to the capital city of Santa Fe de Bogota to finish his theology. People who were so horribly afflicted that they were actually shunned by their fellow lepers. He is the Patron Saint of: *Slaves, *the Republic of Columbia, *the Ministry to African Americans * and Sea-Farers. In fact, with them it was a real point of honor not to give in to Clavers exhortations. 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. These blacks had come from a depraved, idolatrous, and cruel civilization. The slave ship is here, he crescendos, then the hook must be baited.. , during his forty years in the name of the Catholic soldiers addressed the other group is here, assured... 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