Saint of the day September 9: Saint Peter Claver. Catholic Saints

Every September 9, the Catholic Church celebrates a saint with a powerful message about authentic humanitarian treatment and dignity – something that can only be fully understood from the Gospel -: Saint Peter Claver SJ (1580-1654), defender of the dispossessed.

“I am Peter Claver, always a servant of the Ethiopian” (I, Pedro Claver, slave of the blacks forever), the saint wrote in the minutes of his perpetual vows. He did so because his time and circumstances were those of slavery and trafficking in human beings from Africa. Peter dedicated himself to them because he learned to see Christ in each of them.

From Catalonia to Cartagena de Indias

Claver was a Jesuit of Catalan origin – his given name was Pere Claver Corberó – who, as a missionary in Cartagena (Colombia), became the protector of the enslaved black population and of all those subjected to unjust servitude or mistreatment. He lived in the port of Cartagena de Indias (at that time the New Kingdom of Granada), infamous for having become the largest slave center in the New World.

Pedro was born in Verdú (Spain) on June 26, 1580. At the age of 19 he was accepted into the Society of Jesus and years later, with advanced studies and training, he was sent as a missionary to New Granada (now the Republic of Colombia ) and ordained a priest in Cartagena in 1616.

Human rights defender

In America, Claver opposed the injustice of institutionalized slavery, through which human beings destined for forced labor were unscrupulously traded. He conceptually rejected theories that did not recognize the humanity of the blacks brought from Africa and condemned all forms of mistreatment towards the so-called “Ethiopians” (the generic name by which Africans were called). He also took an active part in the defense of the indigenous people, whom he evangelized with equal dedication.

The forced cycle that men and women from Africa went through involved a stay in the port of Cartagena, waiting to be sold and transferred. While the new slaves were held awaiting their bitter fate, Claver cared for them, especially those who arrived sick, hungry or injured. He even organized himself in the days before the arrival of the slave ships, storing provisions that he himself collected for those who would arrive.

Once a ship was anchored, Saint Peter descended to the lower chambers of the ship to distribute water and something to eat; He cared for those who showed signs of illness and helped the dying – it was very common for at least half of the “cargo” to die on the journey.

In those gloomy spaces, at first aided by translators, Claver spoke about Christ and baptized those who accepted him. Thus, he won many souls for God and made them know the love that the world would deny them.

Slave of slaves

Pedro Claver defined himself as a “slave of slaves,” something that caused him innumerable problems. He earned enmities among the Spanish authorities and, evidently, among the slave traders. At the same time, there were not a few faithful who questioned his conduct, nor a few misunderstandings between his superiors and Jesuit brothers.

Despite everything, the saint continued with his apostolic work, becoming the great prophet of evangelical love, the servant who taught and incarnated God’s love for the simple, the forgotten, the marginalized. That is why his life testimony is invaluable.

He carried his own cross and helped others carry theirs. With his actions he challenged an entire society and its perverse system by returning the human face to those who had been taken away from them – including prison inmates. He served these as one should serve God himself: without hate, rejection or illness being able to stop him. In times of inhuman practices, Saint Peter Claver imposed empathy and holiness.

Pedro Claver left for the Father’s House on September 9, 1654, after having spent his last years almost in oblivion, very ill. On the day of his death, the population of Cartagena took to the streets moved to meet their saint for the last time and pay her due honors.

The saint of freedom

In 1986, Pope Saint John Paul II, standing in front of the tomb of Saint Pedro Claver located in the Church that bears his name in Cartagena de Indias, said: “Today, as in the 17th century in which Pedro Claver lived, the The ambition for money rules the hearts of many people and turns them, through the drug trade, into traffickers of the freedom of their brothers whom they enslave with a slavery more fearful, at times, than that of black slaves… As men We who are free, those who Christ has called to live in freedom, must fight decisively against this new form of slavery that subjugates so many in so many parts of the world, especially among the youth, who must be prevented at all costs, and help the victims of the drug to get rid of it.”

And Saint Peter Claver is a saint who, precisely by serving, evokes the sense of true freedom, and becomes a voice that denounces all types of slavery, including the new forms that appear in the contemporary world.

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If you want to know more about Saint Peter Claver, we recommend this article from the Catholic Encyclopedia: https://ec.aciprensa.com/wiki/San_Pedro_Claver.

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