When he is evilly spoken of, he is dumb. Late in 1861, a sharp piece of iron bruised his chest, resulting in . The convicts had common morning and evening prayer, litanies and the daily Rosary. The faith was often perceived as a conduit of this evil. Protect Your Family Resources News VIDEO NOW AVAILABLE: Dismantling Systemic Racism in America February 27, 2023 He obtained his first degrees at the University of Barcelona. Missionary Sisters of St. Peter Claver of North America At the Service of the Missionary Church AN INTERNATIONAL CONGREGATION OF WOMEN RELIGIOUS Our Spirituality The most divine of divine things is to cooperate in the salvation of souls. Photo by Sid Hastings Sid Hastings A relic of St. Peter Claver in a. And suffering is to sin what medicine is to sickness. Federal Tax Identification Number: 81-0596847. He never came down from it. 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. Suddenly the bearded padre would appear like an avenging angel, whip in hand (the same one he applied unmercifully to himself), and he descended on the wicked party with wrath, terrifying the guilty, and carrying off the devils spoils- i.e., drums or other instruments. So repulsive was his sickness that no one dares to go near him, lest they contract the infection. We read in the gospels how the hem of our Lords garment cured, and by the same Divine Power, so did the very shadow of Saint Peter and the handkerchiefs of Saint Paul. In all this he found more opportunity to suffer. On this pilgrimage, something must have moved him very deeply as he knelt before the miraculous statue, for in later years, if anyone even mentioned the Virgin of Montserrat, he would be unable to withhold his tears, so overwhelming was his love for her. St. Peter Claver Sterling Silver Oval Pendant, Practical Practice of Fasting with Fr Dwight Longenecker, 10 important things to consider during Lent, The Happy Priest on Lent, Happiness and the Call to Selfless Love, Daily Readings for Tuesday, February 28, 2023, St. Hilary, Pope: Saint of the Day for Tuesday, February 28, 2023, Lenten Prayer: Prayer of the Day for Monday, February 27, 2023. Heartfelt Condolences to Fatima Sister Fr. There never was slavery more inhuman, more murderous and more complete over the souls as well as the bodies of its victims than what we have seen in our century in those countries swallowed up by the Communists. Alphonsus is accused of firing-up in Claver the idea of going to the help of unfortunates who were without spiritual ministrations in the colonies of the New World. 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.. Instantly his conscience accused him, and ashamed of his cowardice, he retired to a corner of the room and delivered himself a brutal scourging, confessing all the while his fault in not loving enough one who was redeemed by the Precious Blood of Christ. Shelter those, dear Lord, who bear my company from the evils of fire and all calamity.Teach me to use my car for others need; Nor miss through love of undue speed. But when he spoke to them he spoke exactly of what they would expect a priest to speak about: God, heaven and hell. . No sin, he assured them, was too great for Jesus to forgive in confession. Claver knew that the blacks were never going to see in their lifetime much, if any, material happiness on earth, certainly not the pie-in-the-sky utopias of Karl Marx and his disciple, Martin Luther King, Jr. The Church has always had a difficult time influencing the worlds of business and commerce. Cartagena was a central stopping point for this inhuman traffic. Peter, St. 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. Reports indicate that Medina was upset at O'Connell because he claimed he wasn't paid properl, Saint Christopher Prayer"Motorist's Prayer :" Grant me, O Lord, a steady hand and watchful eye, that no one shall be hurt as I pass by. Claver enlisted bands of assistants, cajoling these people whether by money, goods or services, and as soon as a slave ship entered the port Claver dropped everything and went to wait on its living freight. As he was being carried back to his room he said to one of the brothers, I am going to die; what do you desire of me in the next life? That you recommend this city and house to God, answered the brother. The perfumed class had enough priests to care for them but the blacks had no one. Many of the missionaries were tortured and flayed alive especially among the Iroquois nation. He was unable to take a step. The Mass was part of a nationwide Day of Fasting and Prayer called for by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to acknowledge the sin of racism and to seek racial justice and healing. Out from these massive bulwarks of stone peered formidable artillery batteries and sentinel boxes, where watchmen scoured the horizon for an enemy sail. Holding up the crucifix on a staff for all to see, he let them behold what their sins had done to their Creator. Claver came from an ethic of religious consecration where missionaries dared death, hardship, sickness and every conceivable challenge to bring the gospel to foreign lands. Give it the least bit of pampering and it will want more and more. So ugly was the business that eventually Englands conscience was so bothered by it that Great Britain abolished the slave trade in 1815 while America continued it for another fifty years, till Emancipation of the slaves by its 16th president, Abraham Lincoln. 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. 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. He was an early Pioneer for Human Rites and showed. All God wanted was their love in return. One day he happened to strike his breast against an angular piece of iron. The masters complained that he wasted the slaves time with his preaching, praying and hymn-singing. This was how we spoke to them, not with words but with our hands and our actions. Strangely enough, when the man saw the saint he called out to him, Oh my Father! We are all sinners. First, the governor Don Pedro de Zapata came, and with him the magistrates. 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. It was not an uncommon thing to see a man who had been a slave give Holy Communion to one who had been his master. He most probably also desired in this to imitate his spiritual father, the humble brother porter of Palma. Through his efforts three hundred thousand souls entered the Church. St Peter is known as the "Apostle to the Slaves." Tellingly, she named it after the Jesuit who tried to alleviate the suffering of African slaves transported to South America in the early seventeenth century, is estimated to have personally baptised around 300,000 people, and became the patron saint of slaves and seafarers. Things would never be the same. The U.S. bishops have invited Catholics to observe the day with fasting and prayer for an end to racism in the United States. Whether the saint could bilocate or not isnt known, but whenever the slaves got out of line in the city, the watchful shepherd inevitably showed up to put the fear of God back into them. Soon it was clear- no cause for alarm- it was only a slave ship. Brother Alonso, as the Spaniards called him, not only held the key to the college, but he also had the key to Peter Clavers heart. The holy man had no time to lose. 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. Even in sickness he would not ease up. It came very slowly. The young Jesuit petitioned his superiors to be sent to the missions of the West. Peter Claver was a man with a mission. 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. These slave needed a cause for joy real joy and now! St. Peter Claver (1580-1654) was a Spanish Jesuit missionary to Latin America. After receiving this wonderful grace, he spoke these remarkable words: There is no other law than that of Jesus Christ, in which I purpose to live and die. Of these we had two wallets full, and we used them all up on this occasion. He was beatified 16 July, 1850, Pius IX, and canonized 15 January, 1888, by Leo XIII. Address: Luikerweg 71. 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. The fleet of three galleons set sail on April 10, 1610. So horrible was the scene and revolting the conditions that a friend who came with Father Claver once could never face it again, and of Father de Sandoval himself it was written in one of the diary entries of his Jesuit province that, when he (Clavers friend) heard a vessel of Negroes was come into port he was at once covered with a cold sweat and death-like pallor at the recollection of the indescribable fatigue and unspeakable work on the previous like occasions. After the Mass the saint happily accepted an invitation to dine with them- for he recognized in so doing a tremendous opportunity to save souls. Saint Peter Claver,Priest and ReligiousMemorialSeptember 9th. As the suffering Negroes, who looked more like black skeletons than men, strained their eyes, they could see the figure of a white man in a black robe smiling at them and descending into their midst to welcome them with an embrace. 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. Only some fifty years before, another Jesuit, Francis Xavier, had set out on a similar mission to the East. He immediately made inquiry. The slave of the slaves believed in simplicity. 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. A Catholic priest who led one of New Orleans' best-known inner-city churches until being accused of sexually molesting a child has been reported to federal authorities for possible financial crimes. Episode 362: Virgo Post Partum: A Married Virgin? The crude picture graphically portrayed the Crucified Christ with His Precious Blood pouring from His Wounds into a basin. For sure, the last thing anyone would do to avoid a disease would be to kiss the contagious sores, suck out poison and vermin from them, and wash the infections with ones own handkerchiefs. It was there, at Seville, while waiting to leave for New Granada, that the soon-to-be apostle of the Negroes first laid his compassionate eyes upon the suffering slaves. Peter obeyed, and in 1610 landed at Cartagena, where for forty-four years he was the Apostle of the negro slaves. February 17th 1937 was a day upon which a miracle happened. Scarcely can there be found in the annals of hagiography a story of a saint more honored in his demise. After assuring them that they were not going to be slain, he held up high the crucifix and told them of the God-man and what He had suffered for them. With a precision-made-second-nature-through-routine, the good father gathered together his little army with their provisions and set out to battle. Always he spoke of God He was humble. Nor did he cease consoling them with kind words and gestures, for the Negroes all had one beautiful trait in common; they were extremely sensitive to a harsh word or a kind one. People who were so horribly afflicted that they were actually shunned by their fellow lepers. Worse still, kings encouraged rivals to crime so that they could be convicted and sold as criminals. 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. There were thirteen prisons in Cartagena. The laws of Spain at least provided for the marriages of slaves, forbade their separation from their families and defended them from unjust seizure after winning their freedom. Though Father Sandoval, the founder of the slave apostolate, had only just initiated his new assistant in the care of the blacks, the veteran missioner was shortly thereafter recalled to Peru; consequently, he had to bestow the entire apostolate upon Father Claver. But since his parents had dedicated Peter at birth to the ecclesiastical state, this tragedy only strengthened the youths conviction that he must not live for this world. And then, worse than the slave owners, were the slave traders themselves, hardened speculators in human flesh, who mercilessly hunted down their merchandise, like animals, along the equatorial African coasts and islands that they might auction them off at a handsome profit across the sea. Claver was a man who knew pain and knew its value. Returning from the pilgrimage, Peter took his first vows in the Society and was inspired to write the following prophetic act of oblation: I shall consider the great oblation assumed by one who has made the consecration of himself to God 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. They all had souls to save. The joy in their eyes as they looked at us was something to see. 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. The walls of Cartagena silently echoed the solemn news as it was piously whispered in every corner, The Saint is dying! The riches of those countries are prized whilst the peoples are despised. 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. 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. At the age of twenty he entered the Jesuit novitiate at Tarragona. He refused to be satisfied with a sloppy performance; each slave had to do it perfectly. In 1610, he landed at Cartagena (modern Colombia), the principle slave market of the New World, where a thousand slaves were landed every month. A witness testified to the Office of Inquisition in Cartagena that, on one occasion, he had seen several Negroes floating naked around the ceiling in a house at night after dabbling in this witchcraft. Extra ecclesiam nulla salus (outside the Church there is no salvation). Leader: Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: All: as it was in the beginning, is now . Website powered by MemberLeap. With his familiar face no longer visible in the market and byways, people soon began to forget about the man they had so short a time ago nearly worshiped. Of course, more often than not he made use of much more religious means of intercession, such as relics, holy water (a sacramental that the saint never tired of sprinkling everywhere) and a rough-hewn cross of maple. From a letter written by Peter Claver, priest, to his superiors, written in the Spanish language, 31 May, 1627. epist. Personal and occupational duties stood in the way of the man being then reconciled but he took ill and was removed to St. Sebastians hospital where before he died he was received into the Church by Father Claver. 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