Who was Peter Claver?
Peter Claver was a native of Spain. Born in 1581, he was a young Jesuit by age 20. He left his homeland after being assigned missionary work in 1610. He was assigned to Cartagena, South America (the present republic of Colombia) along the Caribbean. He was ordained there in 1615.
Cartagena, a port city, was a leading Caribbean shipping center. Slave trade had been established in the Americas for nearly 100 years, and Cartagena was a clearing-house for slaves. Purchased by slave traders in West Africa ten thousand slaves poured into the port each year after crossing the Atlantic in filthy holds of slave ships. The conditions were so foul and inhuman that an estimated one-third of the passengers died in transit.
The practice of slave-trading was condemned by Pope Paul III and was later labeled "supreme villainy" by Pius IX, unfortunately it continued to flourish.
Another Jesuit, Father Alfonso de Sandoval was Claver's predecessor. He had devoted himself to the service of the slaves for 40 years before Claver arrived to continue his work. Claver resolved and declared himself "the slave of the Negroes forever."
As soon as a slave ship entered the port, Claver moved into its infested hold to take care of physical needs and provide medicines. Many were frightened and very sickly. Claver said, “We must speak to them with our hands before we try to speak to them with our lips.” Those dying and ship-born babies were baptized at once.
Chained together and herded like animals and left in nearby yards to be gazed at by the crowds, Claver was quick to bring medicines, food, bread, brandy, lemons and tobacco. With the help of interpreters and with pictures he conveyed basic notions of God and redemption. He assured his brothers and sisters of their human dignity and God's saving love. During the 40 years of his ministry, Claver instructed and baptized an estimated 300,000 slaves.
His apostolate extended beyond his care for slaves. He became a moral force, indeed, the apostle of Cartagena. He preached in the city square, gave missions to sailors and traders as well as country missions, during which he avoided, when possible, the hospitality of the planters and owners and lodged in the slave quarters instead.
In 1650, Claver became stricken by plague, disabled and largely neglected, he died on September 8, 1654. The city magistrates, who had previously frowned at his concern for the black outcasts, ordered that he should be buried at public expense and with great pomp.
He was canonized in 1888, and Pope Leo XIII declared him the worldwide patron of missionary work among black slaves.
The son of a Catalonian farmer, was born at Verdu, in 1581; he died September 8, 1654. He obtained his first degrees at the University of Barcelona. At the age of 20, he entered the Jesuit novitiate at Tarragona. While he was studying philosophy at Majorca in 1605, Alphonsus Rodriguez, the saintly doorkeeper of the college, learned from God the future mission of his young associate, and thenceforth never ceased exhorting him to set out to evangelize the Spanish possessions in America. Peter obeyed, and in 1610 landed at Cartagena, where for 44 years he was the Apostle of the Negro slaves. Early in the 17th century, the masters of Central and South America afforded the spectacle of one of those social crimes, which are entered upon so lightly. They needed laborers to cultivate the soil which they had conquered and to exploit the gold mines. The natives being physically incapable of enduring the labors of the mines, it was determined to replace them with Negroes brought from Africa. The coasts of Guinea, the Congo, and Angola became the market for slave dealers, to whom native petty kings sold their subjects and their prisoners. By its position in the Caribbean Sea, Cartagena became the chief slave-mart of the New World. A thousand slaves landed there each month. They were bought for two, and sold for 200 écus. Though half the cargo might die, the trade remained profitable. Neither the repeated censures of the pope, nor those of Catholic moralists could prevail against this cupidity. The missionaries could not suppress slavery, but only alleviate it, and no one worked more heroically than Peter Claver did.
Trained in the school of Père Alfonso de Sandoval, a wonderful missionary, Peter declared himself "the slave of the Negroes forever", and thenceforth his life was one that confounds egotism by its superhuman charity. Although timid and lacking in self-confidence, he became a daring and ingenious organizer. Every month when the arrival of the Negroes was signaled, Claver went out to meet them on the pilot's boat, carrying food and delicacies. The Negroes, cooped up in the hold, arrived crazed and brutalized by suffering and fear. Claver went to each, cared for him, showed him kindness, and made him understand that henceforth he was his defender and father. He thus won their good will. To instruct so many speaking different dialects, Claver assembled at Cartagena a group of interpreters of various nationalities, of whom he made catechists. While the slaves were penned up at Cartagena waiting to be purchased and dispersed, Claver instructed and baptized them in the Faith. On Sundays during Lent, he assembled them, inquired concerning their needs, and defended them against their oppressors. This work caused Claver severe trials, and the slave merchants were not his only enemies. The Apostle was accused of indiscreet zeal, and of having profaned the Sacraments by giving them to creatures that scarcely possessed a soul. Fashionable women of Cartagena refused to enter the churches where Father Claver assembled his Negroes. The saint's superiors were often influenced by the many criticisms which reached them. Nevertheless, Claver continued his heroic career, accepting all humiliations and adding rigorous penances to his works of charity. Lacking the support of men, the strength of God was given him. 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. During his life, he baptized and instructed in the Faith more than 300,000 Negroes. He was beatified July 16, 1850, Pius IX, and canonized January 15, 1888, by Leo XIII. His feast is celebrated on September 9. On July 7, 1896, he was proclaimed the special patron of all the Catholic missions among the Negroes. Alphonsus Rodriguez was canonized on the same day as Peter Claver.