Not long afterwards, at two oclock, while the assembled community invoked the names of Jesus and Mary, he sweetly surrendered his faithful soul to God. He also shares if he still wakes up in the middle of the night and why he moved with his family to Nevada. The LA Sheriffs department announced that OConnells death was being investigated as a homicide. WATCH Actor Mark Wahlberg's Inspirational Today Show Interview on Ash Wednesday Shows the Importance of Lent and Fasting! His hands and clothing were instantly covered with infectious filth. Creative Commons Attribution - Share Alike License. I love Thee very much, and he would have them repeat it many times over, I love Thee much, very, very much, while striking their breasts, his face and theirs bathed in tears. Which of them had been baptized in Africa? Here he would find them some kind of shelter and nurse them, bringing them food and medicine. In fact, the saint used to spend hours just on the Sign of the Cross alone. The holy man had no time to lose. It was a face that betrayed the worn-out condition of his entire body. One of his linguistic gems was Calepino, a veritable genius, who spoke eleven different African dialects. The next time he left was to hear the confession of the holy laywoman, Dona Isabel who, sick and bedridden, was afraid that it might be her last opportunity to speak to the saint in this life. He studied at the Jesuit college of Barcelona, entered the Jesuit novitiate at Tarragona in 1602 and took his final vows on August 8th, 1604. All materials contained on this site, whether written, audible or visual are the exclusive property of Catholic Online and are protected under U.S. and International copyright laws, Copyright 2022 Catholic Online. Absentee Line: (07) 3810 5950 As for his meals, even these meager refreshments were half devoured by the ungrateful wretch before the saint ever received them. He was as Arnold Lunn puts it, a divinitarian. The gift he gave the poor slaves was a gift infinitely more precious than sympathy, or even a miraculous cure (which he was quite often the instrument of). I never heard him complain. In Claver, however, was found a representation of the other side of the Spanish conscience, namely, an abiding affection for humanity especially Gods dark children whom he heard early on were ill-treated with this despicable trade. O, holy brother of my soul, what a field lies here opened to your zeal! So many who perish, not because they seek their own loss, but because no effort is made to save them. The descendant of these six hundred English and Dutch converts can be seen to this very day in their blond-haired, blue-eyed progeny whom one may see walking the streets of Cartagena. Geography would be forever altered. The rumor of his approaching death spread around the city like wildfire, everyone suddenly remembered the saintly priest again, and numbers came to kiss his hands before it was too late; his room was stripped of everything that could be carried off as relics. Source: "Saint a Day" "St. Peter Claver (1581 A. D. - 1654 A. D.): by temperament, Father Peter Claver was shy. Again at two oclock he would return after a scanty meal and a meditation. (Fakhri B. Maluf, Ph.D.), RIP Prior: Brother Andr Marie, M.I.C.M. He was said to have the gift of prophecy as well as the ability to read souls. St. Peter Claver (1580-1654) was a Spanish Jesuit missionary to Latin America. I was able to track down the . Traveling in these areas Father Claver habitually refused as much as possible the hospitality of the planters and owners and instead lodged in the quarters of the slaves checking on conditions and speaking to their owners and masters, advocating for the slaves. The saint spent one more year in the Novitiate at Tunga, high in the mountains of Colombia. Today, we are a trilingual community with Masses in English, Spanish and French/Creole. He informed his father of his intention to join the Society. Claver would say frequently: We must speak to them with our hands before we try to speak to them with our lips. When he came upon any who were dying he baptized them and then sought out all babies born on the voyage that he might baptize them. His gift to them was eternal life through Faith in a God who suffered like them and on account of them, a God who was crucified. Hearing of their capture, Father Claver requested and received permission to visit the fleet and offer holy Mass for the Spanish soldiers. Strangely enough, when the man saw the saint he called out to him, Oh my Father! Were we to even put a dent in the accounts of the marvelous miracles performed by our hero we would need a hundred more pages. The dignity of man as redeemed and one with Christ, indeed a member of His Mystical Body, tended to stigmatize the institution as unworthy of a Christian. This was his main thesis: the flesh could not rebel if the flesh knew only pain. On that day Fr. True! Those who were baptized looked beautiful and happy, while those who were not, looked ugly and were about to be gobbled up by hideous monsters from hell. Soon it was clear- no cause for alarm- it was only a slave ship. The Africans, themselves, profited by the use of slave labor; the Mohammedans made a religion of it; the Egyptian built their civilization by it; the Greek philosophers were left free to leisurely contemplate reality on account of it; the Romans conquered and disciplined the world through it; the Chinese built walls to keep out foreigners by it; Germans goose-stepped to it; the Hebrews of the Old Testament, though they had laws protecting slaves, profited by it; and the One-Worlders of our day would like to revive it, as they have been attempting to do on a world scale by their monetary power. We have before us a most extraordinary saint- unquestionably the most extraordinary saint who ever walked this earth. As the affable Jesuit ate and drank nd conversed with the delighted crew, the Englishmen, somewhat won over already by his manners, so contrary to what they had heard of Jesuits, requested that the priest meet their venerable archdeacon, who happened to have been captured along with them. The two saints parted company in 1608. Two years later there was another miracle at the church, and then another, and another. Through his prayer help us to see the true dignity of the human family, all children of one father and to spend ourselves for their salvation. Church of Saint Peter Claver is located in West Hartford Connecticut It was 1602 when he entered their Novitiate in Tarragona. The diocese writes: Dear Frs & Srs, Sr. Milagrine Dantas Fatima Sister from Sawantwadi, Sindhudurg along with two other Fatima Sister and their Parish Priest and other two persons met with an fatal accident as truck rams into their four wheeler at Shillong. Father Claver was already known for strong discipline of his body. Having finished this, his foremost priority, he turned his attention to the others. But when he saw the condition of Africans in the stinking slave pens of Cartagena, Colombia, he became bold and outspoken. With the help of a tile we pulled some live coals together and placed them in the middle near the dying men. There were times when the streets of Cartagena and other more viable settlements would flow with blood from such cruel assaults. In youth his piety and love of study won general admiration, and every preferment was open to him, but zeal for his neighbor's salvation led . St. Peter Claver (1580-1654) was a Jesuit who, due to his life and work, became the patron saint of slaves, Colombia and African Americans. For two months, the slaves endured a fate worse than that of animals- hanging onto a life that seemed not worth the effort to preserve it- half dead, half insane, and reeking in the filth of their dysentery, vomit, and running ulcerous wounds. All God wanted was their love in return. Claver came from an ethic of religious consecration where missionaries dared death, hardship, sickness and every conceivable challenge to bring the gospel to foreign lands. After these preliminaries, there followed a most pathetic scene. In Christianity, foremost of the apostles.His name was Simon but according to the gospels Jesus called him from his work as fisherman and gave him the name 'Cephas', the Aramaic equivalent of Greek 'Peter' (petra, 'rock').According to early tradition Peter visited Rome where he was martyred (1 Clement 5, etc. The joy in their eyes as they looked at us was something to see. 14-141). Cajeten Pereira Bishop House In total six people were killed including the priest and three nuns killed in road accident at Sumer. Through his efforts three hundred thousand souls entered the Church. The Sisters of St Peter Claver were founded by Blessed Theresa Ledchowska. Then they would learn the Our Father and the Hail Mary. Prizes were given to those who learned their prayers first. Saint September 9 : St. Peter Claver a Miracle Worker and the Patron of Racism, Slaves and African Americans September 08, 2022 The son of a Catalonian farmer, was born at Verdu, in 1581; he died on the 8th of September, 1654. In all, Sandoval had baptized over thirty thousand slaves; his successor would baptize over three hundred thousand.His face aglow with a supernatural joy, Father Peter would board the slave ship while it was anchored in the harbor, and with the help of his interpreters he would greet the suffering newcomers. They requested that the Jesuits transfer his body to the church where the populace could see him for the last time and properly venerate his remains. One shipload would average between five and six hundred blacks from as many as fifteen or twenty African nations or tribes. Little is known of his early years. This was how we spoke to them, not with words but with our hands and our actions. Besides visiting the slave huts, the zealous father had other apostolates that he lovingly attended to: the hospital of St. Sebastian, the leprosarium of St Lazarus, and the prisons. He is the Patron Saint of: *Slaves, *the Republic of Columbia, *the Ministry to African Americans * and Sea-Farers. . Out from these massive bulwarks of stone peered formidable artillery batteries and sentinel boxes, where watchmen scoured the horizon for an enemy sail. With a precision-made-second-nature-through-routine, the good father gathered together his little army with their provisions and set out to battle. Four years is a long time to be laid up. In the year 1650, Father Claver went to preach the Churchs jubilee year among the Africans working in the mines and plantations along the coast, but sickness attacked his weakened body, and he was recalled to the residence at Cartagena. The holy man seemed to touch everyone. He, his wife, and daughter settled in St. Josephs Parish in St. Louis, Missouri. Worse still, kings encouraged rivals to crime so that they could be convicted and sold as criminals. So great was his civil influence that he actually obtained from the magistrates and order forbidding the sale of liquor to the Negroes. When the Jesuits finally succeeded in establishing a proper place for the body in the church, the Augustinians came and took over the exhausting job of guarding the casket. He was born in 1580 into a prosperous farming family in the Spanish village of Verdu, Catalua. The crude picture graphically portrayed the Crucified Christ with His Precious Blood pouring from His Wounds into a basin. Every major feastday he would get together the great city band of Cartagena, and off they would go to perform for the lepers. Returning from the pilgrimage, Peter took his first vows in the Society and was inspired to write the following prophetic act of oblation: I shall consider the great oblation assumed by one who has made the consecration of himself to God I must dedicate myself to the service of God until death, on the understanding that I am like a slave, wholly occupied in the service of his master. It reminded me of the miracles attributed to Peter Claver. It was there, at Seville, while waiting to leave for New Granada, that the soon-to-be apostle of the Negroes first laid his compassionate eyes upon the suffering slaves. Federal Tax Identification Number: 81-0596847. However, witnesses testified that, despite the filth, the miraculous fabric always smelled fresh and clean. [email protected] College Phone Numbers. Benedict XIV lashed out against it in 1741; Pius VII did the same in 1815. Justice delivers his body to death, thereby to save his soul I have sinned, O my God My greatest grief is that I cannot repent sufficiently to compensate for my offenses against Thee. Every criminal, who had to go to his execution in Clavers Cartagena, went with the holy man of God right by his side. Famous actor and producer, Mark Wahlberg, age 51, went on NBC's the Today Show to discuss Lent. He first asked them for their babies so that he might poor the saving water of Baptism upon them; then, seeking out the dying, he spoke to them by way of interpreters, and obtaining their consent, he baptized them too. At fourteen, he left home to pursue his vocation at the college in Barcelona. Was Performed at the Shrine of St. Joseph in St. Louis, MO. They also had souls to be saved, no less than the slaves. As the suffering Negroes, who looked more like black skeletons than men, strained their eyes, they could see the figure of a white man in a black robe smiling at them and descending into their midst to welcome them with an embrace. From a letter written by Peter Claver, priest, to his superiors, written in the Spanish language, 31 May, 1627. epist. Sometimes the Mother of God herself appeared to certain of the infidels to rebuke them for not listening to Father Claver. Many of the poor Negroes, having exaggerated fears of their approaching fate, took their own lives in despair. Finally he approached the man, heard his confession, kissed his wounds, and applied his own tongue to the most offensive. Brother Nicolas was downstairs and heard a noise from the upstairs room where Claver was bedded. Nor was the saint known to into ecstasies at the altar. Book a Tour Virtual Tour Ways to Give Online Donations Peter Claver reached stature as a saint of God having watched closely a leader in this work, Father Alfonso de Sandoval, a great Jesuit missionary who spent forty years in the service of the slaves, and after working under him, Peter Claver, having reached a spiritual pinnacle in his own self-understanding, declared himself the slave of the Negroes forever. Although, by nature shy and lacking to degree self confidence, Claver threw himself into the work and pursued it with enthusiasm, method and organization. To all he brought the comforts of the sacramental religion. Day 1 - St. Peter Claver Novena. The soil of Clavers soul was fertile and moist. So Claver gave it none- except what was absolutely necessary to sustain life. To care for the slaves he must totally subject his own flesh and subdue it. The experience and practice of years never accustomed him to it.. All he did for the ancestors aligned him with the God of love. As he was being carried back to his room he said to one of the brothers, I am going to die; what do you desire of me in the next life? That you recommend this city and house to God, answered the brother. The whites were also affected. In all he had eighteen. The very sight of these adandoned lepers was enough to send chills up ones spine. We made every effort to encourage them with friendly gestures and displayed in their presence the emotions which somehow naturally tend to hearten the sick. Two orders, the Trinitarians and the Order of Mercy had this for their object. The future apostle of the slaves was the youngest in his family, so from the start he knew only how to serve. But it was not without the greatest difficulty, combined with some serious physical aggressiveness, that the sons of Saint Ignatius (with the help of the sons of Saint Augustine), strove to prevent the swelling crowds from literally tearing the saint apart in their efforts to procure relics. And to save many souls.. So zealous did he become after his conversion that he never ceased exhorting his ex co-religionist to enter the Catholic Church- outside of which, he told them no salvation could be hoped for. In due time the entire group of the imprisoned reformers followed the example of their spiritual leader and entered the Catholic Church with tremendous enthusiasm. I love thee much. Your sufferings are great, echoed the black-robed preacher, but not as great as you deserve. You are better off being a slave in America than a chief in Africa, he told them. The family Rosary was an essential part of the typical sixteenth century pious Catalonian rearing in which Ana and Pedro Claver, our saints parents schooled their four children. It could be a supply boat with some long-awaited news from back home in Spain, or it might be a slave ship, or even an enemy man-of-war. The dead man had assured him that he and his converted fellow countrymen were saved only because they had abandoned their errors and embraced the Catholic religion. Clasping his feet in their hands, they bade him farewell amid a profusion of sighs and tears. By this time the slave trade had been established in the Americas for nearly a hundred years and the port of Cartagena was one of its principal centers, being conveniently situated as a clearing house for auctions and sales. Despite all Clavers exhorting, the archdeacon would only respond by requesting the prayers of the priest, and with many signs of mutual affection the two parted company. Having baptized the dying and given his first attentions to the sick, the black-robed angel of mercy gathered all the slaves together and begun to speak to them of God. Own tongue to the most offensive the stinking slave pens of Cartagena and other more viable settlements would with... 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