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. Founding Superior of Saint Benedict Center, N.H.: Brother Francis, M.I.C.M. Thank you. But for every chore he performed, whether it was sweeping the floors, changing linens, washing clothes or dishes, or cooking, the visiting Jesuit, in his humility, always first asked permission of the Superior. 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 The other priests would then carry him to his cell where, when he revived, the saint would refresh himself with a good scourging and some mental prayer. From a letter written by Peter Claver, priest, to his superiors, written in the Spanish language, 31 May, 1627. epist. The Story of Saint Peter Claver, Apostle of Slaves A disciple of Saint Alphonse Rodriguez, Peter Claver became a slave of the slaves in order to take them to heaven. Near the confessional he also had holy books with pictures of the Passion, which he insisted that all the people ponder before they confessed. Not long afterwards, at two oclock, while the assembled community invoked the names of Jesus and Mary, he sweetly surrendered his faithful soul to God. And the eighty-year-old saint of Palma instantly recognized the sanctity he saw in the twenty-five year old Peter Claver. Clavers problem was that he was sensitive. Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution - Share Alike License. After receiving Baptism from John in the Jordan, Jesus was called by the Father my beloved Son (Mt 3:17), and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in the form of a dove (cf. The bishop's housekeeper's husband, Carlos Medina, a 61-year-old man arrested by Los Angeles County Sheriff deputies as the prime suspect in the murder. Heartfelt Condolences to Fatima Sister Fr. From 1198 to 1787 the former redeemed, from the Moors. Thus the ordeal of being captured by another tribe, sold to European merchants, transported through a horrendous middle passage and ultimately enslaved as a marketable object in the New World -- these were events that were a radical rupture of ones entire spirit, soul and universe. There were thirteen prisons in Cartagena. The gruesome list goes on and on: coarse horsehair cords tied around his toes, arms, and legs; sharp pointed crosses, strapped by more coarse rope around his chest and back; a sharp studded girdle about his lions and thighs. The young student at Barcelona decided to do more than just to benefit from the Jesuits education. St. Peter Claver was canonized in 1888. He would also use pictures in his teaching, primarily images of the crucified Christ. 1- Peter Heals the Crippled Beggar, Acts 3 1One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayerat three in the afternoon. Hearing of their capture, Father Claver requested and received permission to visit the fleet and offer holy Mass for the Spanish soldiers. In all he had eighteen. sriverview@bne.catholic.edu.au College Phone Numbers. The saint spent every day in the confessional from sunrise until twelve noon. The saint would never complain. 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. The order for departure read Make haste. This the jubilant young Jesuit took very literally; so literally in fact, that in imitation of Francis Xavier, he did not even say goodbye to his family, thought the road that led to the port of Seville passed, at one point, within two miles of his home. Another saint whom he had known at school in Majorca, Saint Alphonsus Rodriguez, revealed his road in life to him. #BreakingNews Housekeeper's Husband Admits to Murder of Beloved Catholic Bishop David O'Connell of Los Angeles, California, Prayer to St. Christopher for Safe Travels and Motorists, #BreakingNews a Catholic Priest and 3 Nuns Killed in a Car Accident in India - RIP, Pope Francis Explains how to Defeat the Devil's 3 Temptations "The divine Word that is Jesus answer to the temptation of the devil. An abominable situation indeed, from the black side, no less than from the white. Once more, this time most likely to test his obedience, they denied it. It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. These blacks had come from a depraved, idolatrous, and cruel civilization. With him were the merchant and some curious companions. In fact, he would refuse to allow the good Brother Nicholas to dress him when he offered to do so, but asked rather for his nurse. The hospital, run by the religious of St John of God, was almost always overcrowded, due to the scourge of frequent epidemics and continual warfare. But Claver was not deterred, not even when the ecclesiastical authorities lent too willing an ear to the complaints of his critics. Leader: Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: All: as it was in the beginning, is now . When there was time and opportunity he took the same trouble to teach them how properly to use the sacrament of penance and in one year is said to have heard the confessions of more than five thousand. He and his wife Rhea (married in 2009) have four children: Ella, 19, Michael, 16, Brendan, 14, and Grace, 13. Though Father Sandoval, the founder of the slave apostolate, had only just initiated his new assistant in the care of the blacks, the veteran missioner was shortly thereafter recalled to Peru; consequently, he had to bestow the entire apostolate upon Father Claver. For sure, the last thing anyone would do to avoid a disease would be to kiss the contagious sores, suck out poison and vermin from them, and wash the infections with ones own handkerchiefs. Not long afterward the venerable archdeacon fell grievously ill. As he was being carried to the hospital through the citys streets in a litter, he saw Father Claver and exclaimed It is time, Father; it is time for me to accomplish the promise I made to God and to you, embracing the religion of my ancestors. And so he did. Thousands pressed forward to touch their Rosaries, linens, and medals to his hands and to his feet, which were left uncovered. Thou gavest life, I pray no act of mine may take away or mar that gift of Thine (continues below). Until death, he was politely told. The Sisters of St Peter Claver were founded by Blessed Theresa Ledchowska. Father Peter Claver never fully recovered consciousness and died two days later on the birthday of Mary, the Mother of God, September 8, about two oclock in the morning, in the year of our Lord 1654. After his ordination in 1616, he dedicated himself by special vow to the service of the Negro slaves-a work that was to last for thirty-three years. Nor did he cease consoling them with kind words and gestures, for the Negroes all had one beautiful trait in common; they were extremely sensitive to a harsh word or a kind one. The young Jesuit petitioned his superiors to be sent to the missions of the West. What sort of a man must I be, that I cannot do a little good without causing so much confusion? Claver would ask. Enter your email address to receive notifications by email every time we post something to the site. The joy in their eyes as they looked at us was something to see. The laws of Spain at least provided for the marriages of slaves, forbade their separation from their families and defended them from unjust seizure after winning their freedom. 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. unknown artist. Once for the Negroes, when having heard of the arrival of a slave ship laden with blacks from a notoriously barbaric area, he had himself carried in a litter to the dock to greet them. Claver was less successful in his efforts to make converts among the Muslims who came to Cartagena to do business, but he managed to bring a number of Moors and Turks to the faith, though one held out for thirty years before succumbing, and even then a vision of our Lady was required to convince him. All they could muster was to protest and devote themselves to individual ministrations, physical, spiritual and material, to the tens of thousands of suffering human beings brought to these shores. These were bought in West Africa for four crowns a head, or bartered for goods and sold in America for an average two hundred crowns-a-piece. The dead man had assured him that he and his converted fellow countrymen were saved only because they had abandoned their errors and embraced the Catholic religion. In the hospital of Saint Sebastian Claver was also able to convert back to the Faith many Dutchmen who had been badly wounded in battle. The religious there used to say that their welcome friend, Father Claver, did the work of forty men. Lima in Peru had five- Saint Rose, Saint Francis Solano, Saint Martin de Porres, Saint Turibius, and Saint John Massias. Carry me safely to my destined place, like you carried Christ in your close embrace. Miracles of St. Peter Claver Ignatius Strecker came to America from Germany in 1853. He felt he could never advise another to bear a cross that he himself wasnt already bearing. The good governor also told the fathers that the city was going to defray the cost of the obsequies by which the people of Cartagena planned to honor their most distinguished citizen. Moved by the spirit of these encouragements and a missionary fervor, Peter Claver approached his provincial superior, offering himself for the West Indies and was told that his vocation would be decided in due course --by his superiors. New lands to the west crossing the Atlantic Ocean had been discovered two hundred years previous. The two earlier coffins are preserved as relics in the Jesuit residence at Cartagena. St Peter Claver College. With a precision-made-second-nature-through-routine, the good father gathered together his little army with their provisions and set out to battle. The trade had recently been given a considerable impetus, for the local Indians the natives- were deemed not physically fitted to work in the gold and silver mines and so there was this big demand for blacks from Angola and Congo. He cured the sick almost routinely and there were times when he even raised the dead. After this we began an elementary instruction about baptism, that is, the wonderful effects of the sacrament on body and soul. He gulped his final breath of air lying in the arms of his confessor. A Sister of St. Peter Claver. When he slept, or tried to sleep, he removed only the neck rope and the crown of thorns. They requested that the Jesuits transfer his body to the church where the populace could see him for the last time and properly venerate his remains. 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. His loving solicitude for these co-laborers was so great that if any of them fell sick he would give them his own bed, while he slept on the floor next to the sick man, so that he might be able to wait on him continually. There were some whose diseases were so repulsive that no one but Father Claver had the supernatural guts to nurse them. The beauty of the world; that thus I may with joy and courtesy go on my way. After three years, the time had come for Rodriguez to speak more clearly to Claver in regard to his vocation, as the Divine Master had done with His Apostles after His three years with them. Health Let us see, then, from whom he wants to divide him, and how he tempts him. 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. Pages could be written about the glorious role ex-slaves played in the history of the Church- and not only ex-slaves, but actual slaves, like Saint Felicitas, who is mentioned in the Canon of every Mass along with her holy mistress, Saint Perpetua, whom she refused to be separated from, even in death. England, Spain, Portugal, Holland and France fought over what they found here while they each set up shop here in hostile territory, in instances, owned and operated by the original peoples they found here. If the glory of Gods house concerns you, go to the Indies and save millions of these perishing souls.. One might say that Saint Alphonsus Rodriguez has at that moment planted his own soul into Saint Peter Claver. Clavers dearest benefactress, the Martha of his apostolate, Dona Isabel de Urbina, would prepare the dishes for these delightful festivals of charity. Meanwhile, a man of importance ran through the streets, totally oblivious to human respect, and knocked forcefully at a door. Photo by Sid Hastings Sid Hastings A relic of St. Peter Claver in a. During prayer at night he added a crown of thorns and a rope tied around his neck in imitation of his beloved Savior bound and led to Pilate. 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. The saint refused to rest until he had thoroughly expurgated these unholy interferences which, among the slaves, were always connected with the sin of drunkenness. There are ideologic forces there seemingly unredeemable by the Gospel. This was how we spoke to them, not with words but with our hands and our actions. The miracles, the sermons, the labors in the confessional, the work with all the poor and the sick, the charity for all the Negroes, seemed to be temporarily forgotten by all as the saint silently prayed for death to come. These heroic acts of sublime love for his neighbor were by no means natural to Claver. Only death could drag hi away. Kind and patient to all, for some of his penitents he prescribed the remedy of hairshirts and scourges. Today, we are a trilingual community with Masses in English, Spanish and French/Creole. But when he saw the condition of Africans in the stinking slave pens of Cartagena, Colombia, he became bold and outspoken. Her body began to move. Our Present . According to the research of Hugh Thomas, an estimated eleven million blacks were brought to the Americas for uncompensated labor in the course of the period, 1440-1870. In America it was spawned by an inordinate love for money and its material benefits. It reminded me of the miracles attributed to Peter Claver. So zealous did he become after his conversion that he never ceased exhorting his ex co-religionist to enter the Catholic Church- outside of which, he told them no salvation could be hoped for. 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