Sept. 9th - St. Peter Claver

 Today, we celebrate the memorial of St. Peter Claver, a Spanish Jesuit, who followed his call to the missions. He was born in 1580 and was ordained a priest in 1616 in Columbia, which was the center of the slave trade in South America. He worked among the African slaves brought there, which was as many as 10,000 a year. St. Peter devoted his life to relieving their misery, with medicine and food, and was zealously concerned for their spiritual welfare. He offered them an authentic Christian witness, teaching them religious and moral truths. It is said that over a period of 40 years, he instructed and baptized over 30,000 slaves. He was sick and exhausted during the last four years of his life.

From one of his letters, he wrote the following. “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. We had to force our way through the crowd until we reached the sick. Large numbers of the sick were lying on the wet ground, or rather in puddles of mud. To prevent excessive dampness, someone had thought of building up a mound with a mixture of tiles and broken pieces of bricks. This, then was their couch, a very uncomfortable one, not only for that reason, but especially because they were naked, without any clothing to protect them. The joy in their eyes as they looked at us was something to see. After this, we began an elementary instruction about baptism, that is, the wonderful effects of the sacrament on body and soul. When by their answers to our questions, they showed they had sufficiently understood this, we went on to a more extensive instruction, namely about one God… Finally, when they appeared sufficiently prepared, we declared the mysteries of the Trinity, the Incarnation, and the Passion. Showing them Christ fastened to the Cross, as He is depicted on the baptismal font.. we led them in reciting an act of contrition in their own language.”

As we prepare to receive the Eucharist, we pray through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary: “God of mercy and love, you offer all peoples the dignity of sharing in your life. By the example and prayers of Saint Peter Claver, strengthen us to overcome all racial hatreds, and to love each other as brothers and sisters.”