Saint Peter Claver
Feast day: September 9
Saint Peter Claver, Jesuit priest, “servant forever” of the enslaved Africans (09/09)
Who is he?
Saint Peter Claver was a Spanish Jesuit priest who lived in the 17th century. He spent nearly his whole life serving Africans who had been captured and taken to the Americas as slaves. He is the patron saint of Colombia.
Life story
Peter was born in 1580 in the village of Verdú, in Catalonia, Spain, into a devout farming family. At about 20, he entered the Society of Jesus. While studying on the island of Majorca, he met an old Jesuit brother who worked as the porter, Saint Alphonsus Rodriguez. The brother urged him to go to the Americas to proclaim the Gospel. He obeyed and sailed to the Americas, studied theology in Bogotá, and was ordained a priest in Cartagena.
At that time, Cartagena was a great port, where slave ships arrived carrying thousands of captured Africans. They had been crammed into the holds of the ships for weeks, hungry, thirsty and sick. As soon as a ship arrived, Father Peter went straight down into it, bringing bread, water, fruit and medicine. He washed wounds, cared for the dying and comforted the frightened. With the help of interpreters, he taught them that God loved them, then baptized those who wanted to follow the Lord. He also visited them on the plantations, in the hospitals and in prison.
In 1622, when he made his final vows in the Society of Jesus, he signed his name with the words: “Peter Claver, servant of the Africans forever.” In his last years, he was very ill and bedridden, with few people to care for him, but he never complained. He died on 8 September 1654. In 1888, Pope Leo XIII declared him a saint.
Why is he a saint?
Saint Peter Claver saw Jesus in those who were most looked down on. He lived the Lord’s words: I was thirsty and you gave me drink (cf. Mt 25:35), and whatever you did for one of the least of my brothers, you did for me (cf. Mt 25:40).
A lesson for you
- Never look down on anyone because of their skin color, their language or their poverty.
- Notice a classmate who is left out, and go and be their friend.
Identifying marks
- A cup of water held out to an African brother: whenever a slave ship docked, he went right down to it with water, food and medicine for them.
- Two men standing side by side, looking at each other warmly: he saw each enslaved person as a brother, a child of God, with the same dignity as everyone.
- A crucifix: he used the image of the crucified Lord to teach them that Jesus suffered and loves them.
- A black cassock and a black cloak: the clothing of Jesuit priests at that time.
- A harbor and a sailing ship behind: the port of Cartagena, today in Colombia, where he worked for nearly forty years.
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