In 1888, Father Peter Claver, the Spanish Jesuit “slave of the slaves,” who spent a better portion of his life teaching and baptizing hundreds of thousand at the Caribbean port of Cartagena, Columbia, was elevated to sainthood. It was this exceptional man whom Archbishop John Ireland adopted as the patron for a special congregation of African American converts whom he had made friends with many years earlier upon his return from the Civil War (in which he served the Union cause as chaplain).

After the war, the young Father Ireland had held convert classes for the many African Americans who attended Mass at the Cathedral of Saint Paul and other parishes in the area. By 1888, John Ireland, now Archbishop, had decided to seek a larger group of converts. He assigned Father John Shanley of the Cathedral parish to rent a Swedenborgian church in the Rice Park area of Saint Paul, for a six-week long mission of conversion conducted by Father John Slattery, rector of Saint Joseph’s Seminary in Baltimore, Maryland. Many of Saint Peter Claver’s founding members were people who attended this “converts mission.”

In 1892, the Saint Peter Claver congregation was still growing—so much so, they needed to move to a larger church. After receiving permission from Archbishop Ireland to move the church to a new location away from downtown Saint Paul, the congregation purchased land at Rice Street, near University Avenue. However, some of the neighbors in the area were adverse to the purchase. So instead, the new church was built on a piece of property near the southwest corner of Farrington and Aurora. With the signing of the incorporation documents in 1892, by Colonel Samuel Hardy (founder and editor of the first African American newspaper west of Chicago), Frederick L. McGhee (an African American lawyer who was renowned as an orator and who led a movement to test the civil and political rights of African Americans through court cases), and Fr. Edward Casey (the first permanent, live-in pastor), the Church of Saint Peter Claver was born.

In the years following the incorporation of Saint Peter Claver, the parish grew by leaps and bounds. Under the leadership and spiritual guidance of Father Casey and his successors—Father John F. Gleason, Father John F. Andrzejewski, and Father Thomas F. Printon—the parish of Archbishop Ireland’s “congregation of converts” expanded in both membership and physical presence. By 1895, when Father Casey was reassigned to another parish, the membership of Saint Peter Claver had grown to over 300 members. Over the years, the little church added an assembly hall and a rectory. Parish groups began to form , including a literary study group (Toussaint L’Ouverature Society), a parish choir, a men’s group, and a women’s altar society (Saint Monica’s guild).Contact Us

History indicates to us that Archbishop John Ireland was more than just a spiritual leader—he was a Civil Rights leader a century ahead of his time. He insisted on social rights as well as civil rights for all people

“I would blot out the color line. I would break down all barriers…”

“I would open to the Negro all industrial and professional avenues—the test for his advances being his ability, but never color. I would in all public gathers, and in all public resort, in ails and hotels, treat the black man as I do the white.”

Archbishop Ireland’s teachings spread his fame far and wide. When a young lawyer and newspaper man born in British Guiana indicated to some Jesuit friends that he had a desire to be ordained a priest, the Jesuits immediately thought to bring the young man to the attention of Archbishop Ireland. At the time, it was speculated, there were only two “colored priests” in the United States. Archbishop Ireland admitted Mr. Stephen Louis Theobald into the Saint Paul Seminary. On June 8, 1910, he was ordained and assigned to the mixed congregation of almost 400 “coloreds and whites” at Saint Peter Claver.

In his 22 years as pastor of Saint Peter Claver, Father Theobald traveled the nation espousing the cause of Civil Rights—preaching that the Church would be the only institution that could get to the foundation of racial discrimination by insisting on the essentials of life and on the immortality of the human should. At his Funeral Mass in 1932, over 100 priests and five bishops attended; nearly 1,000 mourners had to be turned away from the church for lack of space.

After World War II, plans for a new approach to the state capitol threatened Saint Peter Claver. After much thought, the decision was made to move the parish to its present location near Lexington Parkway and I-94.

At the time the parish was planning its move, Archbishop Murray had a policy of requiring that a parish would first build a school before building a new church. Father Jerome Luger favored a “shining new” school “to brighten the outlook, to bring cheer to the environment” of his people. He envisioned a school also as a recreation center, after class hours, for the community. In 1947, three Oblate Sisters of Providence—Mother Barbara, Sister Anthony, and Sister Celine—came to Saint Peter Claver from Baltimore, to begin the process of establishing a school.

Dedication of Saint Peter Claver School.

Slowly but surely, the site of the Church of Saint Peter Clear was moved. First the school would be built, followed by a convent and then the church and finally a rectory. It proved to be a ten-year plan. In 1950, the parish school, staffed by Oblate Sisters, was opened. Saint Peter Claver School was opened to all students, regardless of race, financial status or creed. Several years later, in 1956, the cornerstone of the current church was set in place. On Holy Saturday (April 20), 1957, Father Arnold Luger and the Saint Peter Claver parish celebrated the first Mass in the current church, beginning with the blessing of the New Fire at the church doors.

Today, over 125 years since our inception, the Church of Saint Peter Claver continues to thrive as a Roman Catholic parish whose founding purpose and continuing mission is to reach out and to be a faith home for African American Catholics. People of all races and ethnic backgrounds are welcome. Grounded in the fullness of the Roman Catholic tradition, we draw particular strength from our rootedness in Africa, which teaches us resilient faith and perseverance, hospitality, and participatory worship.

Portions of this history were taken from the Saint Peter Claver Diamond Jubilee program. Thank you, Melissa Beaudoin!

The beautiful artwork at the top of this page is a combination of two murals painted by the wonderfully talented Mary Gallagher.