Catholic Fire

Today, September 9, is the memorial of St. Peter Claver, a Jesuit priest who dedicated his life to the service of African slaves. The son of a Catalonian farmer, Peter was born in Verdu, Spain in 1581. He obtained his first degrees at the University of Barcelona. At the age of twenty, he entered the Jesuit novitiate and was ordained in 1615. While Peter was studying philosophy at Majorca, he met St. Alphonsus Rodriguez, the door-keeper of the college, who learned from God the future mission of his young friend. St. Alphonsus, therefore, encouraged Peter to travel to South America to work with the African slaves. Peter obeyed, and in 1610 landed at Cartagena, where for forty-four years he was the “Apostle of the African slaves.” Cartagena became the chief slave-mart of the New World, where many thousands of African slaves were landed after crossing the ocean amid inhuman conditions, and then penned like animals in yards. A thousand slaves landed there each month.  There were...

Born in Spain, the son of a farmer, Peter Claver entered the Society of Jesus and was ordained in 1615 in Cartagena, South America, where he had made his higher studies. Cartagena was the center of the infamous slave trade, where many thousands of African slaves were landed after crossing the ocean amid inhuman conditions, and then penned like animals in yards. Their terrible plight, corporal and spiritual, tore at the heart of the young Jesuit and he determined to devote himself to the alleviation of their misery. At his profession he had vowed "to be a slave of the slaves forever," and he now began to carry out this vow. Though his main concern was the salvation of the slaves, he realized that their bodily misery needed attention first. "We must speak to them with our hands," he said, "before we can speak to them with our lips." His love and his endurance seemed boundless. Taking only a minimum of sleep, he ministered tirelessly to the slaves, washing an...