Nor can the Africans themselves escape the blame. Extra ecclesiam nulla salus (outside the Church there is no salvation). Usually, about one-third of the slaves died en route. St. Peter Claver Sterling Silver Oval Pendant, Practical Practice of Fasting with Fr Dwight Longenecker, 10 important things to consider during Lent, The Happy Priest on Lent, Happiness and the Call to Selfless Love, Daily Readings for Tuesday, February 28, 2023, St. Hilary, Pope: Saint of the Day for Tuesday, February 28, 2023, Lenten Prayer: Prayer of the Day for Monday, February 27, 2023. Today one can visit the room and window from which Father Claver peered out to be ready once ships arrived with captured and bartered blacks. Near the confessional he also had holy books with pictures of the Passion, which he insisted that all the people ponder before they confessed. St. Peter obtained his first degrees at the University of Barcelona. The piercing sunken eyes of the padre read instantly the news in the messengers excited face, Its a slave ship, Father! Suddenly the grave expression of the priest changed into joy His whole countenance beamed as if he had seen a vision. I entreat of those who read it, He said as he lay dying, to pray to God for a sinner, who having such a precious mine at his disposal, instead of drawing from it the pure gold of sanctity, has collected nothing but rust.. He was born in 1580 into a prosperous farming family in the Spanish village of Verdu, Catalua. In addition, the man of God found time to organize a talented black choir. But he found time to care for other sufferers besides slaves. He performed no important negotiations, established or reformed no religious order, made no brilliant changes of places or circumstances. 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. Europeans and their ways, even their religion, met with suspicion and, in instances, outright hostility among some of the natives of the New World. Father Peter Claver was overjoyed and dragged himself from his bed to greet his successor. The two earlier coffins are preserved as relics in the Jesuit residence at Cartagena. Hearing of their capture, Father Claver requested and received permission to visit the fleet and offer holy Mass for the Spanish soldiers. The saint made it so simple for their confused and despairing consciences that not one of Cartagenas condemned criminals went to his execution unrepentant. Owing to the scarcity of priests who go to preach His name; what tears are not called for at the sight of so many people straying in the wilderness because there is no one to guide them. Claver plunged himself, body and soul, into relieving the blacks in their dreadful circumstance. Claver was not always well received. A third interment sees Claver today buried under the high altar dressed in priestly vestments while enclosed in glass for the veneration of the faithful. Worse still, kings encouraged rivals to crime so that they could be convicted and sold as criminals. To cover the feverish and naked, to wash wounds, to shroud women penitents and to place upon it the abandoned sick, until he could procure them a mat for a bed. The Novitiate in Tarragona was to our young novice a foretaste of the delights of the blessed in paradise. For two months, these blacks had been chained and shackled below deck in a floating hell, the men in one compartment, the women in another. Silently, with watery eyes, they picked up the saint and laid him to rest.Months later, a certain Mohammedan whom Father Claver had spent years trying to convert, walked into the Jesuit Church where the body of the saint lay in repose, and falling down before the Saints remains, shed tears of sorrow and promised to enter the true Church. So he spoke of eternity, of an everlasting world of joy and another of pain. But the scanty amount of food proved a blessing to many, who, afflicted with disease, would have been consumed more rapidly if they had had a healthier diet. He was found dead in his home on Saturday afternoon, February 18. When he is evilly spoken of, he is dumb. The Negroes were especially affected; Peter Claver had been a real father to 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. His austerities, which will be described later, would make even holy Job shudder. 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. But heaven could not resist the sighs of the saint as he stormed the throne of grace to melt their hearts. We had to force our way through the crowd until we reached the sick. He shortly afterwards heard the confession of Doa Isabella, and told her it was for the last time, and on September 6, after assisting at Mass and receiving holy communion, Claver said to his dear friend, Brother Nicholas Gonzalez, I am going to die. That same evening he was taken very ill and became comatose. He was sent to study at the University of Barcelona. At the age of twenty he entered the Jesuit novitiate at Tarragona. He was a shining light in a dark time. But after a week or two, hunger, sickness and disease numbed these kinds of outbursts. | Prioress: Sister Marie Thrse, M.I.C.M. Another saint whom he had known at school in Majorca, Saint Alphonsus Rodriguez, revealed his road in life to him. He also shared a video on his Instagram, which is below the Today Show interview: WATCH the Inspiring Today Show Interview below: View this post on Instagram A post shared by Mark Wahlberg (@markwahlberg), Auxiliary Bishop David OConnell of Los Angeles, California, was killed on February 18th. It was an era of expansion. We have here a man whose love knew no bounds, who had no fears except of offending God, a man who loved the unlovable. In 1610, he landed at Cartagena (modern Colombia), the principle slave market of the New World, where a thousand slaves were landed every month. Saint Peter Claver,Priest and ReligiousMemorialSeptember 9th. Our Present . The Saint is dying! Suddenly, the sad reality dawned on the multitude, who awakened as from a trance, and they all, black and white, rich and poor, made their way to the Jesuit house. The St. Peter Claver Place Apartments project will receive a $4 million rebate of the taxes generated by the project in yearly installments at a rate of 95% until the $4 million rebate is satisfied. To conclude the sessions he would hold aloft the crucifix and have the slaves join in together with the prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Thou art my Father. 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. Many of the narratives both of the heroism and extraordinary wonders worked by Peter Claver concern his nursing of sick and diseased slaves, in circumstances often no one else, black or white, could face. The doctors recognized such a miracle and it was later authenticated by the Vatican in 1887, leading to Peter Claver's canonization in 1888. Peter Claver Catholic Church was born. The likeness of St. Peter Claver is seen in stained glass at St. Mary's Cathedral in Peoria, Ill. Canonized in 1888, St. Peter Claver is now considered the patron saint of human. 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. 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. sriverview@bne.catholic.edu.au College Phone Numbers. 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. He also shares if he still wakes up in the middle of the night and why he moved with his family to Nevada. He prayed, slept, walked, labored, and preached in them for forty long years. Famous actor and producer, Mark Wahlberg, age 51, went on NBC's the Today Show to discuss Lent. He, his wife, and daughter settled in St. Josephs Parish in St. Louis, Missouri. A civil rights violation? I was able to track down the . It was this very notebook the dying apostle clasped to his breast on his deathbed, only releasing it for the benefit of novices at the Jesuit Novitiate in Tunga in the mountains of Colombia. I will send more when I can. He and his wife Rhea (married in 2009) have four children: Ella, 19, Michael, 16, Brendan, 14, and Grace, 13. He obtained his first degrees at the University of Barcelona. 14-141). The medal had the Holy Name of Jesus on one side and of Mary on the other. 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. Were it not for a miracle, the poor Father, to the very end a victim to the devils rage, would have been tossed off and perhaps killed. Slavery is not a European import to a perfectly virtuous non-European world. The beauty of the world; that thus I may with joy and courtesy go on my way. Miracles of St. Peter Claver Ignatius Strecker came to America from Germany in 1853. And the saint prayed hard. Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! Too bad todays social experts werent around in the seventeenth century to help the slaves. Leo Landoll stood at the altar of God and spoke the words of consecration and for the first time Jesus Christ, body and soul became present in a small white church that had recently been a private home. Even in sickness he would not ease up. So ugly was the business that eventually Englands conscience was so bothered by it that Great Britain abolished the slave trade in 1815 while America continued it for another fifty years, till Emancipation of the slaves by its 16th president, Abraham Lincoln. St. Peter Claver. On that day Fr. Yesterday, May 30, 1627, on the feast of the Most Holy Trinity, numerous blacks, brought from the rivers of Africa, disembarked from a large ship. The saints searches for the sick and the abandoned took him frequently to the beaches, where occasionally, some poor aged or hopelessly maimed Negro would be dumped off by a heartless master to die. The ceremony was initiated with a rosary then a mass blessing of the. But many more, rank-and-file citizens would seek Father Claver out in the confessional where he had sometimes to spend fifteen hours at a stretch, reproving, advising, encouraging, and absolving. The school continued to be operated by the Daughters of the Heart of Mary following the . Guest: Sister Maria Philomena, M.I.C.M. But the conclusion cannot be avoided that only the worst of the Spanish masters can be compared with, say, the English slave-owners of Jamaica in the 17th to 18th centuries, whose physical cruelty was no less than fiendish and diabolical by report. Saint Peter Claver Church was established in 1931 to serve the African American community of greater Montclair, New Jersey. They were especially amazed at the devoutness of the Catholic soldiers. Pius II (whose Patron was a slave) did so in 1462, calling slavery a great crime. Urban VIII (1539) strongly opposed it. Thou gavest life, I pray no act of mine may take away or mar that gift of Thine (continues below). Peter Claver was born in 1581 to a devout farming family in the Catalonia region of Spain. He had baptized and taught the faith to more than 300,000 slaves during his four decades in Cartagena. The first Mass at St. Peter Claver Catholic Church took place in October 1920. Nor would he give them back until their owners promised, after confession, to make alms to the leper hospital. When he slept, or tried to sleep, he removed only the neck rope and the crown of thorns. Creative Commons Attribution - Share Alike License. Pope Leo XIII sent a golden coffin for his remains along with a pipe organ which sits in the choir loft of the Church to this day. Heartfelt Condolences to Fatima Sister Fr. It was not until the advent of Christianity that slavery received a deathblow. Strecker's healing was among the miracles attributed to Claver that led to his 1888 canonization by Pope Leo XIII. He was unable to take a step. That entire day our young hero was unable to shake off the experience and walked about as if he were not on earth. The holy man seemed to touch everyone. In fact, with them it was a real point of honor not to give in to Clavers exhortations. Agustinus Seran, SVD - Pastor 1203 North Nebraska Ave., Tampa, FL 33602 Office Hours: Monday - Thursday, 9:00 am - 3:00 pm Mass Times Weekend Masses: Saturday Vigil - 4:00 pm Sunday Morning - 10:00 am *Haitian Creole Mass - 1:00 pm Daily Masses Wednesday - 9:00 am Friday - 8:00 am Confession Schedule SEE ALSO: #BreakingNews California Catholic Bishop David O'Connell Shot and Killed at Age 69 - RIP to the Peacemaker Bishop - https://www.catholicnewsworld.com/2023/02/breakingnews-california-bishop-david.html Bishop OConnell, was a native of Ireland who spent most of his 43 years as a priest serving in LA. Your captains and mates must neither have dainty fingers nor dainty noses,few men are fit for these voyages but them that are bred up to it. It was during these scourges that the holy mans heroic charity was such a spectacle for even the angels to behold. And if his love for her was great, her was no less for him. Arriving at the shack where the men lay writing in the mud, the gentle doctor lifted them up one by one onto some dry mats. Showing them Christ fastened to the cross, as he is depicted on the baptismal font on which streams of blood flow down from his wounds, we led them in reciting an act of contrition in their own language. Or, again, with women who were in a habit of dressing immodestly, excusing themselves on account of the excessive heat, he would hand them pictures of a woman similarly garbed amid the torments of the fire and demons in hell. Source: "Saint a Day" "St. Peter Claver (1581 A. D. - 1654 A. D.): by temperament, Father Peter Claver was shy. The joy in their eyes as they looked at us was something to see. Two or three times a week the saint would go succor these poor specimens of what were once healthy men and women. Not a few fellow slaves were converted from Islam by the beautiful liturgical services and heavenly hymns that were sung at the funeral of a baptized Negro. Under the chaplaincy of this unique man, whose astounding charity to the slaves had been talked of even behind cell walls, the prisons were transformed into virtual monasteries. Once, when commended for his apostolic zeal, he replied, It ought to be so but there is nothing but self indulgence in it; it is the result of my enthusiastic and impetuous temperament. While he preached, he suffered. Settling the New World and stealing from that New World brought with it the necessity of cheap labor, human labor . 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. For the infirm he would come out of his stuffy box and often set them on his knees so as to accommodate them more easily, and after he was through, he would invite them all for a little breakfast. He was born on the Island of Sardinia. Claver couldnt remove the cross but he could make it sweet. Peter Claver was seventy-one years old. An epidemic had spread again, and the saint began to feel its bite in his own flesh as he returned from a mission to his slaves in one of the outlying villages. Sometimes two men chained together would be from warring tribes, and horrifying scenes of rage would take place. 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. Peter Claver was spiritually mailed to the Cross of Jesus in Cartagena. One Turkish galley slave had resisted Clavers pleadings for over twenty years when the saint heard that a sickness had put him at deaths door. He became almost entirely inactive, but would sometimes hear confessions, especially of his dear friend Doa Isabella de Urbina who had always generously supported his work with her money. The fleet of three galleons set sail on April 10, 1610. 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. With a precision-made-second-nature-through-routine, the good father gathered together his little army with their provisions and set out to battle. Claver made use of pictures, in accordance with standard catechetical pedagogy of the time, showing our Lord suffering on the cross for them; above all did he try to instill in them some degree of self respect, to give them at least some idea that as redeemed human beings they had dignity and worth, even if as slaves they were outcast and despised. The saint would never complain. 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