Saint Peter
Claver,
Priest and Religious
Memorial
September 9th
unknown artist
History:
The son of a Catalonian farmer, was born at Verdu, in 1581. He obtained his first degrees at the University of Barcelona. At the age of twenty he entered the Jesuit novitiate at Tarragona. While he was studying philosophy at Majorca in 1605, Alphonsus Rodriguez, the saintly door-keeper 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 forty-four years he was the Apostle of the slaves. Early in the seventeenth 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 slaves 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.During his life he baptized and instructed in the Faith more than 300,000 slaves. He died September 8, 1654. He was beatified July 16, 1850, Pius IX, and canonized January 15, 1888, by Leo XIII. His feast is celebrated on the ninth of September. On July 7, 1896, he was proclaimed the special patron of all the Catholic missions especially missions to Blacks. Alphonsus Rodriguez was canonized on the same day as Peter Claver.
(Principal source - Catholic Encyclopedia - 1913 edition )
Collect:
God of mercy and love,
you offer all peoples
the dignity of sharing in your life.
By the example and prayers of Saint Peter Claver,
strengthen us to overcome all racial hatreds
and to love each other as brothers and sisters.We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
[Readings for the day are from the Common of Pastors (missionaries)]
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