A patron saint is a heavenly advocate; a guardian who prays with us. With this in mind, Archbishop John Ireland chose Saint Peter Claver, who named himself the “Slave of Slaves,” to be the patron for a special congregation of African Americans in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1888 (the congregation became a church in 1892).
Who exactly is this man who is the patron of our church?
Peter Claver was born into a devout Catholic farming family in Spain. He attending the University of Barcelona and it was there that he first met the Jesuits. He joined the order at the age of 20. During his studies as a novice, he was encouraged by Alphonsus Rodriguez, an older lay Jesuit brother, to take his ministry to the “New World.” Spain had been involved in the slave trafficking there for nearly a century. Claver arrived in Cartagena, a port city in present-day Colombia, in 1610. He continued his studies there and was ordained a Jesuit priest in Cartagena in 1615.
In Cartagena, Claver witnessed the cruelty of the slave trade. Moved by the suffering of the slaves, he chose to bring both bodily and spiritual aid to the slaves. He would meet the slave ships in the harbor and board them to care for the terrified men, women and children. His first priority was to tend to the sick, and to baptize those in immediate danger of death.
Claver would also travel the countryside from plantation to plantation, visiting the slaves and tending to both their physical and spiritual needs. He explained that “We must speak to them with our hands before we try to speak to them with our lips.” When he did speak about Jesus, he often used pictorial representations of biblical stories to compensate for the language barrier.
Claver baptized and taught the faith to more than 300,000 slaves during his forty years in Colombia. Even while he was still alive, there were several miraculous occurrences attributed to him, including healing the sick with the touch of his cloak and being surrounded by a supernatural light during his hospital visits.
Claver suffered from poor health for a number of years and he died on September 8, 1654. He was canonized in 1888 by Leo XIII, along with Alphonsus Rodrigues, the Jesuit brother who had inspired him to go to the “New World.”
Saint Peter Claver is the patron saint of African Americans, slaves, African missions, Colombia, comedians, communication workers, interracial justice, and seafarers. His feast day is September 9th, and in Colombia, it is also a National Day of Human Rights in his honor. Saint Peter Claver is also the inspiration for the Knights of Peter Claver, the largest historically African-American Catholic lay organization in the United States.
Here are some additional resources to learn more about Saint Peter Claver:
St. Peter Claver (Knights of Peter Claver)
Saint Peter Claver (YouTube)
Meet Peter Claver: the Jesuit saint Pope Francis will pray to in Colombia (America; September 8, 2017)
Who was St. Peter Claver, whose tomb the Pope will visit this week? (Catholic News Agency; September 7, 2017)
St. Peter Claver, SJ (IgnatianSpirituality.com)
The Slave of the Slaves (Word on Fire; September 9, 2015)
Peter Claver vs. Immanuel Kant (Word on Fire; September 12, 2017)
Saint Peter Claver (Franciscan Media)
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