On September 9th, the Church celebrates the memory of Saint Peter Claver. ‘Slave of the slaves forever’ was the life motto of this young Jesuit missionary. For thirty five years, he dedicated himself with great compassion and charity to the spiritual assistance of African slaves.
Newsdesk (08/09/2024 20:56, Gaudium Press) One day in the second half of the year of Our Lord 1610, the large, sun-bleached sails of the galleon ‘San Pedro’ brought it to a beautiful bay where it dropped its anchor. The entire crew stood on the deck and gazed with curiosity and admiration at the city of Cartagena, in the province of New Granada (now Colombia), which appeared dazzling before their eyes, with its huge white stone walls shining under the scorching tropical sun. The deep blue of the sky was reflected in the calm, warm waters of the harbour, where countless boats of all shapes and sizes were bobbing gracefully.
Among the picturesque crowd of sailors and passengers rushing to disembark from the newly arrived galleon, the black cassocks of four religious stood out: three priests and a novice from the order founded not long ago by Ignatius of Loyola: the Company of Jesus.
History has not perpetuated the names of the three priests. They were unknown religious, like hundreds of thousands who sacrificed their lives following in the footsteps of the Divine Master, anonymous to men and predilected children of God. The novice, however, with his austere physiognomy, silent, somewhat withdrawn and almost unnoticed, marked the history of South America with his life and will shine forever in the firmament of the Church: St. Peter Claver.
The dawn of a vocation
Born in Verdú, a small Spanish town in Catalonia, in 1580, Peter Claver felt called to religious life from an early age. At the age of 22, he knocked on the doors of the novitiate of the Company of Jesus.
Two years later, in order to complete his studies in philosophy, he was sent by his superiors to the College of Montesion on the island of Mallorca. It was then that a providential encounter took place that would indelibly mark Peter’s life and definitively cement his vocation.
The college was home to a venerable old man, a simple Brother curate and doorkeeper, who centuries later would be canonized and become one of the glories of the Order: St. Alonso Rodriguez.
From the first moment that the holy porter’s clear eyes penetrated the novice’s heart, the old man discerned the young man’s vocation and a deep, supernatural relationship united the two souls.
‘What must I do to truly love our Lord Jesus Christ?’ asked the student. And St. Alonso wasn’t content with giving simple advice, but opened up the limitless horizons of generosity and self-sacrifice: ‘How many who live idly in Europe could be apostles in America! Can’t the love of God sail those seas that human greed has been able to cross? Aren’t those souls also worth the life of a God? Why don’t you collect the Blood of Jesus Christ?’
The old porter’s fiery words ignited flames of zeal that would eventually consume Peter Claver’s heart.
At that time, Brother Alonso was favoured by God with a mystical vision: he felt swept up into Heaven where he saw countless thrones occupied by the blessed and, in the middle of them, an empty throne. He heard a voice saying to him: ‘This is the place prepared for your disciple Peter, as a reward for his many virtues and for the countless souls he will convert in the Indies with his labours and sufferings’.
Missionary and priest
On January 23, 1610, the provincial superior, in response to his requests, sent him as a missionary to South America. At the end of the same year, after a long voyage, he landed in the city of Cartagena, one of the most important cities in the Spanish overseas empire.
After completing his theological training at the Jesuit formation house in the province of New Granada, he finally received the Sacrament of Holy Orders on March 19th, 1616 and celebrated his first Mass before the image of the Virgin of Miracles, to whom he would always profess an ardent and filial devotion.
The battlefield
At the time, the city of Cartagena was one of the main points of trade between Europe and the new continent, and together with Veracruz in Mexico, it was one of the only two ports authorized for the introduction of African slaves into Spanish America. It is estimated that around ten thousand slaves arrived in this city every year, brought by merchants, usually Portuguese and English, who were dedicated to this vile and cruel trade.
These poor people, plucked from the shores of Africa, where they lived in paganism and barbarism, were brought to the bottom of the ships’ holds to be sold as mere objects and finally sent to work in the mines and on the farms where, after living without hope, they died miserably without the help of religion.
Converting these thousands of unfortunate captives and opening the gates of Heaven to them was the mission to which Peter Claver devoted his entire life.
So when the great and long-awaited moment came to take his solemn vows, by which he pledged to be obedient, chaste and poor until death, he signed the document with the formula that would henceforth be the synthesis of his life: Petrus Claver, æthiopum semper servus. – ‘Peter Claver, slave of the Africans forever’.
He was 42 years old.
The slave of slaves
When a ship loaded with slaves arrived in the harbour, Father Claver would immediately set off in a small boat, carrying a large supply of biscuits, fruit, sweets and brandy.
Those poor people, brutalized by a savage life and exhausted by their journey in inhumane conditions, looked at him with fear and suspicion. But he greeted them with joy and through his black assistants and interpreters – there were more than ten of them – he told them: ‘Don’t be afraid! I am here to help you, to relieve your pain and illness.’ And many other consoling words. But more than his words, his actions spoke: first of all, he baptized dying children; then he took the sick into his arms, gave them drink and food and made himself a servant to these most pitiable of people.
Arduous catechesis
Carrying a staff topped by a cross in his right hand and a beautiful bronze crucifix hanging around his neck, Peter Claver went out every day to catechize the slaves.
Exhausting heat, torrential rain, criticism and misunderstanding even from his own brothers in vocation, nothing cooled his charity.
He often knocked on the city’s stately porticoes asking for sweets, gifts, clothes, money and determined souls to help him in his hard apostolate. And not infrequently noble captains, knights and rich, pious ladies would follow him to the slaves’ miserable dwellings.
When he entered these places, his first care was always for the sick. He washed their faces, healed their wounds and sores and gave food to the needy. Once the penalties of the body had been alleviated, he would then gather everyone around an improvised altar, the men on one side and the women on the other, and begin the catechesis that he knew how to make wonderfully accessible to the understanding of the slaves.
He hung a canvas painted with the figure of Our Lord crucified, with a great fountain of blood flowing from His wounded side; at the foot of the Cross, a priest was baptizing several black people with the Divine Blood, who appeared beautiful and shining; further down, a demon was trying to devour some black persons who had not yet been baptized.
He then told them that they should forget all the superstitions and rites they had practised in their tribes and places of origin, and he repeated this to them many times.
He then taught them to make the Sign of the Cross and gradually explained the main mysteries of our Faith: the Unity and Trinity of God, the Incarnation of the Word, the Passion of Jesus, the mediation of Mary, Heaven and Hell.
Peter Claver understood well that those uneducated people could not assimilate abstract ideas without the help of many images and figures. That is why he would show them pictures in which scenes from the life of Our Lord and Our Lady were painted, as well as representations of Heaven and Hell.
He baptized more than 300,000 slaves.
After countless days of arduous evangelization, he finally baptized them. To celebrate this Sacrament, he used a jar and a basin made of beautiful fine Chinese porcelain, and he wanted the slaves to be clean. He would insert his bronze crucifix into the water, bless it and explain that the liquid was now holy and that after being washed in this water, their souls would become brighter than the sun.
It is estimated that during his lifetime Saint Peter Claver baptized more than 300,000 slaves.
On Sundays, he travelled the streets and roads of the region calling them to Holy Mass and the Sacrament of Penance. There were days when he would spend the whole night confessing the poor slaves.
Reflections of an immense love
His burning and unquenchable thirst for souls was only the visible overflow of the inner flames that consumed the soul of this disciple of Christ. Significant evidence somewhat lifts the veil that covered the very high degree of union with God that he had attained during his life.
‘All the time he had free from confessing, catechising and instructing the Africans, he devoted to prayer,’ said a witness. He rested only three hours a day and spent the rest of the night on his knees in his cell or before the Blessed Sacrament, in deep prayer, often accompanied by mystical raptures.
A great adorer of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, he prepared himself every day for an hour before celebrating the Sacrifice of the Altar, and remained in thanksgiving for half an hour after Mass, not allowing anyone to interrupt him during these periods.
His devotion to Our Lady was also boundless. He prayed the full Rosary every day, kneeling, or walking through the streets of the city, and never let a feast of Our Lady pass without organizing solemn celebrations with instrumental and choral music.
A long calvary
This man, who had spent his life doing good, who had relieved so many sufferings and consoled so much anguish, had to suffer, like his Divine Model, unspeakable physical and moral torments before being welcomed into heavenly glory.
After 35 years of intense apostolic labour and at 70 years of age, he fell seriously ill. Little by little, the extremities of his limbs became paralyzed and a strong tremor continually shook his exhausted body. He became ‘a kind of statue of penance with the honours of a person’, said a witness.
The last four years of his earthly existence were spent immobilized in the convent infirmary. And, incredible as it may seem, this man who had been the soul of the city, the father of the poor and the consoler of all misfortunes, was completely forgotten by everyone and submerged in oblivion and abandonment.
He spent the days, months and years in silent meditation, gazing out of the infirmary window at the immensity of the sea and listening to the melody of the waves breaking against the city walls. Alone with his pain and with God, he awaited the moment of the supreme encounter.
A young slave had been appointed by the superior of the house to look after the sick man. However, the man who was supposed to be a nurse was nothing more than a brute executioner. He ate the best part of the food destined for the paralyzed man and ‘one day he left him without drink, another without bread, many without food’, according to a witness from the time. He also ‘martyred him when he dressed him, treating him with brutality, twisting his arms, beating him and treating him with as much cruelty as contempt’. But Peter’s lips never uttered the slightest complaint. ‘I’m more to blame,’ he would sometimes exclaim.
Glory already on this earth: ‘The saint is dead!’
One day in August 1654, Claver said to a brother in habit: ‘This is over. I must die on a day dedicated to the Virgin. On the morning of September 6th, at the cost of an immense effort, he made his way to the convent church and wanted to receive Communion for the last time. Almost crawling, he approached the image of Our Lady of Miracles, before which he had celebrated his first Mass. As he passed the sacristy, he said to a brother: ‘I’m dying. I’m going to die. Can I do something for your reverence in the afterlife?’
The next day, he lost his speech and received the Anointing of the Sick.
Then something extraordinary and supernatural happened. The city of Cartagena seemed to wake up from a long lethargy and everywhere there was a voice: ‘The saint is dead!’ And an uncontainable crowd headed for the Jesuit college, where Peter Claver lay in agony. Everyone wanted to touch his hands and feet, rosaries and medals. Distinguished ladies and poor black women, noblemen, captains, children and slaves paraded that day in front of the saint, who lay senseless on his bed of pain. It wasn’t until 9 o’clock at night that the priests managed to close the doors and thus contain the pious avalanche.
And so, between 1am and 2am on September 8th, the Feast of the Nativity of Mary, the slave of slaves fell asleep in the Lord with great gentleness and peace.
Text extracted from Heralds of the Gospel Magazine, September 2005. By Fr. Pedro Rafael Morazzani, EP
Compiled by Roberta MacEwan
