Christ calls us to open our minds, eyes, mouth, and heart to God. Honoring Him and His love for each of us by how we treat others. Saint Peter Claver, whose feast day is Sept. 9, is a great example of how we should care for, protect, and serve others.
As a student and young priest St. Peter Claver was considered very intelligent, but also both shy and introverted. It was his compassion for humanity that made him stand out. He could not stand idly by when others were mistreated. He was horrified and disgusted at how men and women from Congo and Angola were captured, transported, and paraded to be slaves in the Americas. He dedicated his life – ultimately a religious life – to help them.
Saint Peter Claver was born in 1581 in Catalonia, Spain. He followed his call to the priesthood in the early 1600s, entering the Jesuit order. He was ordained in 1615, and sent to Columbia – the New World – to serve the people. By that time, slave trade had been in place for more than 90 years.
He was stationed in Cartagena, Columbia, the main port to receive slaves in the Americas. Saint Peter Claver immersed himself in the caring of these men, women, and children as best he could, rallying others to help him.
Not only were they stripped from their homeland and families, once they arrived, they were divided without any compassion into groups and housed like animals awaiting to be sold. On average one-third of them died during the transport. The survivors were weak, ill, and distraught beyond comprehension. They had been robbed of all their dignity. They had no voice – they were not heard.
Saint Peter Claver’s group took medicine, food, and supplies to them. He is quoted encouraging his helpers by saying we can break the language barrier with actions not words.
“We must speak to them with our hands, before we try to speak to them with our lips,” he said.
St. Peter Claver referred to himself as a “slave of the slaves forever.” His ministry spanned four decades, serving at the port, visiting plantations, and advocating for better conditions. He shared Christ’s love and compassion with more than 300,000 slaves before he died in 1654.
Painting is by Raul Berzosa of Spain.
