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. Many of the narratives both of the heroism and extraordinary wonders worked by Peter Claver concern his nursing of sick and diseased slaves, in circumstances often no one else, black or white, could face. Taking his beloved pupil aside, the humble teacher of saints (many great missionaries were guided by Rodriguez) spoke with authority: I cannot express to you the sorrow that I feel at seeing that God is unknown to the greater part of the world. He studied the science of the saints at the feet of this lay brother. In addition to celebrating the Eucharist, our various ministries include Black Catholic Concerns, Women's Fellowship in English and . Play over 320 million tracks for free on SoundCloud. Hearing of their capture, Father Claver requested and received permission to visit the fleet and offer holy Mass for the Spanish soldiers. Alphonsus intuited the capabilities of the young scholastic and saw in him a man fit for new, arduous and neglected work up to now unattended to, namely working among blacks in bondage. Then he and his aides would distribute foods, biscuits, preserves, fruits, tobacco, liquors, and such like gifts to win their confidence and rouse them from their lethargy. Another saint whom he had known at school in Majorca, Saint Alphonsus Rodriguez, revealed his road in life to him. 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. The very sight of these adandoned lepers was enough to send chills up ones spine. They turned their eyes to Africa to find that labor force. Claver was 73 years old. Some were so debased as to sell their own children for gain. Most of the soldiers went so far as to voluntarily enlist in the Spanish army, or in some other way subject themselves to the Spanish crown, rather than to return to their anti-Catholic homelands. There were two hospitals in Cartagena, one for general cases, served by the Brothers of St. John of God; this was St. Sebastians hospital; and another, of St. Lazarus, for lepers and those suffering from sexually transmitted disease. He labored unceasingly for the salvation of the African slaves and the abolition of the Negro slave trade, and the love he lavished on them was something that transcended the natural order. Claver would never recover from this illness. He shortly afterwards heard the confession of Doa Isabella, and told her it was for the last time, and on September 6, after assisting at Mass and receiving holy communion, Claver said to his dear friend, Brother Nicholas Gonzalez, I am going to die. That same evening he was taken very ill and became comatose. The faith was often perceived as a conduit of this evil. At three oclock in the morning he entered the church. Such demonic phenomena were not uncommon among the uncivilized races. For the Christian women he had dresses. 1615, he was ordained a priest of God at Cartagenas Cathedral, at the side altar at the right side of the sanctuary that remains to this day. In fact, he was the first Jesuit ordained in Cartagena. So great was Clavers love for Tunga that he was prompted upon his deathbed to confer upon that monasterys novices his greatest treasure- the spiritual writings of good Brother Alonso- which he has guarded jealously though his arduous life. St. Peter Claver. In those days, there was hardly such a thing as racial prejudice. slavery is gone but many of its effects remain; remain not only on the Blacks but also on the Whites. During his life he baptized and instructed in the Faith more than 300,000 negroes. This miraculous healing led to the canonization of Peter Claver as a saint of the Catholic Church. What! One can hear the experts on the psychology of the underprivileged gasp- How dare he arouse guilt complexes with these victims of white racism!. Episode 364: What Is the Point of Lent? Author and Publisher - Catholic Online Thousands of times, during his forty years in the world of pain, he would take off that cloak and use it. 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. Give your warning sign if danger is near so that I may stop while the path is clear. With him were the merchant and some curious companions. There they stood looking at a man they knew so well, whose holiness, ecstasies, and extraordinary virtues had so inspired them, and yet perhaps not a few accused themselves of not having profited enough by his presence among them. The ceremony was initiated with a rosary then a mass blessing of the. They had no charitable funds at their disposal, no plaudits from well-disposed audiences; they were hampered and discouraged by the owners and often rebuffed by the slaves themselves. Meanwhile, a man of importance ran through the streets, totally oblivious to human respect, and knocked forcefully at a door. However, the monarchs, principally in Spain, did often lash out against the horrid abuses of a greedy and ugly system that they should never even have tolerated. 36 St Peter Claver by Shining Light Dolls on desktop and mobile. 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. He became the prophet and miracle worker of New Granada, the oracle of Cartagena, and all were convinced that often God would not have spared the city save for him. St. Peter Claver Parish St. Peter Claver Catholic Church 485 W. Fourth St. Lexington, KY 40508 859-254-0030 SPC Liturgical Art & Environment Update Updated building July 2022 Due to construction on the St. Peter Claver Church property we have addressed the following issues: Jn 17:11). Both these hospitals Claver visited each week, waiting on the patients in their material needs and bringing hardened sinners to penitence. Large numbers of the sick were lying on the wet ground or rather in puddles of mud. Smallpox, scurvy, and other deadly plagues spread like wildfire below the deck, due to the lack of any sanitation. At the end of the Masses, a group of distinguished men approached the casket. At fourteen, he left home to pursue his vocation at the college in Barcelona. 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. Nor would he give them back until their owners promised, after confession, to make alms to the leper hospital. He brought them anything they desired: tobacco, sweets, good books, cakes, even paper and a pen to write letters with. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. 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's work came to an end with his death on September 8, 1654. The fever of discovery proved, unfortunately, the beginning of the extermination of the native peoples. Only some fifty years before, another Jesuit, Francis Xavier, had set out on a similar mission to the East. Claver treated their needy souls almost the same way he treated afflicted bodies. The beauty of the world; that thus I may with joy and courtesy go on my way. 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. 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. The supreme charity of our saint was most vividly portrayed in his solicitude for the sick; and Cartagena, in its infant years, had plenty of sick and very sick people. The religious there used to say that their welcome friend, Father Claver, did the work of forty men. Under the chaplaincy of this unique man, whose astounding charity to the slaves had been talked of even behind cell walls, the prisons were transformed into virtual monasteries. In college, Claver met Alphonsus Rodriguez who was a porter at the college and that meeting was to set the direction of Peter Clavers life thereafter. In fact, he would refuse to allow the good Brother Nicholas to dress him when he offered to do so, but asked rather for his nurse. ". The whites were also affected. I love Thee very much. 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. Saint Peter's Mount consists of limestone, which is called 'mergel' in Limburg. . All he did for the ancestors aligned him with the God of love. Claver made use of pictures, in accordance with standard catechetical pedagogy of the time, showing our Lord suffering on the cross for them; above all did he try to instill in them some degree of self respect, to give them at least some idea that as redeemed human beings they had dignity and worth, even if as slaves they were outcast and despised. St. Peter obtained his first degrees at the University of Barcelona. Why? The first principle in his instructions to his helpers was centered in the corporal works of mercy. Worse still, kings encouraged rivals to crime so that they could be convicted and sold as criminals. Apostolate This extreme wealth passing in and out of the port was what attracted the avaricious entrepreneurs to settle there. Sitting on a rock, he would put his cloak over their shoulders, if it was cold, and hear their confessions. During prayer at night he added a crown of thorns and a rope tied around his neck in imitation of his beloved Savior bound and led to Pilate. With its ideal natural harbor, Cartagena became a stopping point for ships, or galleons, as they were called, on their way to and from the homeland. About a third of them died on the forced journey from Africa and many more would lose their lives in the subsequent years . Father Peter Claver was overjoyed and dragged himself from his bed to greet his successor. WATCH Actor Mark Wahlberg's Inspirational Today Show Interview on Ash Wednesday Shows the Importance of Lent and Fasting! One of the brothers who was ordered to take care of the saint during one of his illnesses, when he saw that he still tormented himself so, exclaimed, Ah Father, how long is the ass to be thus harnessed?. He was beatified 16 July, 1850, by Pius IX, and canonized 15 January, 1888, by Leo XIII. She stared at Claver and sighed, Jesus, Jesus how tired I am. Then, pressed by the others to relate what she has seen, she said that as she walked down a long beautiful road, a white man of great beauty stopped her and told her to return, for she could go no further. When he slept, or tried to sleep, he removed only the neck rope and the crown of thorns. We are a Special Conference of the St Vincent DePaul Society serving Central Florida. To the masters and slave owners Claver appealed for physical and spiritual justice, for their own sakes no less than for that of their slaves. PETER CLAVER, PRIEST. His feast is observed throughout the Americas and other places around the world on the 9th of September. He most probably also desired in this to imitate his spiritual father, the humble brother porter of Palma. All of them died on the spot. Your Catholic Voice Foundation has been granted a recognition of tax exemption under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. One of his linguistic gems was Calepino, a veritable genius, who spoke eleven different African dialects. A St. Peter Claver Catholic Church member burns incense as a part of the church's first Senor de Los Milagros (Lord of Miracles) celebration procession in Tyler on streets near the church. In every possible was he tried to help them, whether by procuring them good lawyers, or even by speaking to judges, in order to win them lighter sentences. Peter Claver was spiritually mailed to the Cross of Jesus in Cartagena. Overcome with nausea, the admiring priest had to leave the room, but despite his own weakness, he never ceased praising the heroic virtue of Claver, publicizing it even in Rome. Clavers problem was that he was sensitive. These heroic acts of sublime love for his neighbor were by no means natural to Claver. The walls of Cartagena silently echoed the solemn news as it was piously whispered in every corner, The Saint is dying! Because, he continued, your sufferings have opened for you the gates of Paradise. He turned their inevitable suffering into a cause for joy. 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. Here he had more opportunities, even than in the slave pens, to satisfy has craving to love the unlovable. PO Box 6016. He cured the sick almost routinely and there were times when he even raised the dead. The son of a Catalonian farmer, was born at Verdu, in 1581; he died on the 8th of September, 1654. 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. In teaching his pupils religion he loved to use pictures. Fr. Saint September 9 : St. Peter Claver a Miracle Worker and the Patron of Racism, Slaves and African Americans September 08, 2022 The son of a Catalonian farmer, was born at Verdu, in 1581; he died on the 8th of September, 1654. This army was a militia of charity; its commander-in-chief was Father Peter Claver, a Jesuit, the hero of our story. He felt it was too delicate a flavor for a religious. Were we to even put a dent in the accounts of the marvelous miracles performed by our hero we would need a hundred more pages. His troops- eighteen Negro interpreters, a Jesuit brother, a pious woman or two, and usually some prominent Cartagenian official. The Gospel thus presents us the three divine Persons joined in love. 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. St. Peter Claver was born at Verdu, Catalonia, Spain, in 1580, of impoverished parents descended from ancient and distinguished families. Immediately he set out to help them, taking with him a free Negress named Magdalena, who used to collect alms in the city for the saint to distribute. Clavers dearest benefactress, the Martha of his apostolate, Dona Isabel de Urbina, would prepare the dishes for these delightful festivals of charity. How many more miracles have taken place in connection with this church over the past 150 years, no one knows. Fruits, preserves, and sweet-cakes were distributed to give them strength, and wines and liquors were given them to numb their pain and drive out their extreme despondency. 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. For a while, Father Claver was left in the hands of a young black man who was noticed to be impatient and rough with Claver and sometimes left him nearly helpless for days on end without attention whatever. He loved to entertain. Well, the good influence proved too much. The following prayer service is an adaptation of the Liturgy of the Hours, and can be prayed individually or with a group. The science of the school of Peter Claver was the art of dealing with pain, and of knowing its worth. All they could muster was to protest and devote themselves to individual ministrations, physical, spiritual and material, to the tens of thousands of suffering human beings brought to these shores. But when he spoke to them he spoke exactly of what they would expect a priest to speak about: God, heaven and hell. One shipload would average between five and six hundred blacks from as many as fifteen or twenty African nations or tribes. sriverview@bne.catholic.edu.au College Phone Numbers. When he is despised and neglected, he is still dumb. The next time he left was to hear the confession of the holy laywoman, Dona Isabel who, sick and bedridden, was afraid that it might be her last opportunity to speak to the saint in this life. Devil means divider. The saint allowed it, provided it was decent, but quite often the temptation got the better of them to overdo it, and it more often than not led to promiscuity. In Clavers time wars between and among European monarchs raged, one bloody feud after another, they seemed endless. 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. The U.S. bishops have invited Catholics to observe the day with fasting and prayer for an end to racism in the United States. Meanwhile some of his close friends would prepare a splendid repast of the best foods and delicacies, and while the orchestra performed, the jubilant lepers devoured a sumptuous banquet. That melancholic countenance was first stamped upon him when he was introduced to the real world of human misery. He was sent there principally to recover his health, which had been seriously affected by the damp heat of Bogota; and also that his presence there might be an inspiration to the young novices, much as Rodriguez had been at Majorca. No, the saint was moved by nothing less than the love for Christ whom he saw reflected in the least of his brethren. This extraordinary apostle was attracted to the beautiful things of Gods creation, like anyone else. So severe were the lashings that the neighbors shuddered when they heard the sound of them in the still of the night air. 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