All God wanted was their love in return. Falling down before him, the veteran apostle kissed his feet. In his humility, in order to avoid the attention of the crowd, who would have swarmed about him had they seen him, he had his lame body strapped to a horse in the hopes that the animal would take him swiftly to the leprosarium through the back roads. After Easter Peter Claver was back on the road instructing newly-arrived slaves and tending the sick. 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. Experiences like this were fairly common at the college with Brother Rodriguez, for his ecstasies were frequent and often public. Your gift is tax-deductible as allowed by law. St. Peter Claver Church maintains its position as a beacon of hope in the Treme Area and is one of the largest Black Catholic parishes in Louisiana. Claver enlisted bands of assistants, cajoling these people whether by money, goods or services, and as soon as a slave ship entered the port Claver dropped everything and went to wait on its living freight. 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. On that day Fr. The beauty of the world; that thus I may with joy and courtesy go on my way. So, from Jesuit priestly ranks arose this dreamer, the young man Peter Claver, of upper middle class bearing, born in the city of Verdu in Catalonia about the year 1581. For this poor sinner all Claver could do was to pray, for words were useless. In college, Claver met Alphonsus Rodriguez who was a porter at the college and that meeting was to set the direction of Peter Clavers life thereafter. When he is starved, he is dumb. The Miracle That Led To St. Peter Claver's Canonization. Another miracle is about a fierce and rebellious slave named Amete, who resisted the saint's efforts to baptize him for more than 30 years. And suffering is to sin what medicine is to sickness. Though it must be said that more than a few of these wretches were won over by the example of Father Claver and unburdened their tormented consciences to him. We have always wondered about these individuals precisely because race prejudice and discrimination have appeared so endemic to the white race. In addition, the man of God found time to organize a talented black choir. That; they had been brought across the ocean to be freed from their slavery to the devil, and to learn the way to everlasting happiness. With the help of a tile we pulled some live coals together and placed them in the middle near the dying men. People were patriotic, but color of a mans skin was just that and nothing more. 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. Through his prayer help us to see the true dignity of the human family, all children of one father and to spend ourselves for their salvation. Episode 364: What Is the Point of Lent? Sitting on a rock, he would put his cloak over their shoulders, if it was cold, and hear their confessions. For two months, these blacks had been chained and shackled below deck in a floating hell, the men in one compartment, the women in another. He also shares if he still wakes up in the middle of the night and why he moved with his family to Nevada. He was sent there principally to recover his health, which had been seriously affected by the damp heat of Bogota; and also that his presence there might be an inspiration to the young novices, much as Rodriguez had been at Majorca. . Health It was during these scourges that the holy mans heroic charity was such a spectacle for even the angels to behold. St. Alphonsus Rodriguez, SJ (1533-1617) Printable Catholic Saints PDFs But heaven could not resist the sighs of the saint as he stormed the throne of grace to melt their hearts. It was there, at Seville, while waiting to leave for New Granada, that the soon-to-be apostle of the Negroes first laid his compassionate eyes upon the suffering slaves. To Claver, the poorest of the poor were truly the least of His brethren and heirs to a kingdom not of this world. One day, after offering a funeral Mass for one of these converts, he decided to visit the obstinate patient. Out from these massive bulwarks of stone peered formidable artillery batteries and sentinel boxes, where watchmen scoured the horizon for an enemy sail. Your sufferings are great, echoed the black-robed preacher, but not as great as you deserve. You are better off being a slave in America than a chief in Africa, he told them. The Jesuits were delighted to receive their new novice, as he had already merited for himself distinctive recognition for exceptional scholastic achievements at Barcelona. To me it is a miracle ! An angel of mercy to the sick, Father Claver was also a seraph of consolation to prisoners. He became the apostle of Cartagena as well as of the Africans and in so huge a work was aided by God with those gifts that particularly pertain to apostles, of miracles, of prophecy and of reading hearts. Finally, after a third petition, approval was granted. To keep from fainting, he applied periodically a handkerchief dipped in wine to his sweaty face. Permission was not at first granted and Claver was ordered instead to return to the college at Barcelona for more study in theology. RIVERVIEW QLD 4303 Postal Address. The young Jesuit petitioned his superiors to be sent to the missions of the West. On September sixth, two Negroes carried Father Claver to the chapel where he received Holy Communion with the devotion of a seraph. . Clavers problem was that he was sensitive. Suddenly the girl who had been dead sat up and vomited a large quantity of blood. To cover the feverish and naked, to wash wounds, to shroud women penitents and to place upon it the abandoned sick, until he could procure them a mat for a bed. Were we to even put a dent in the accounts of the marvelous miracles performed by our hero we would need a hundred more pages. Sometimes these sermons would last for hours, and he did not let the intense heat deter him. The end result of that was the old mans conviction that he was in the wrong church. He felt it was too delicate a flavor for a religious. One might call him, though I dont like the term, an ordinary boy- quite above the ordinary intellectually- a little below average personality-wise, though very likable and modest. In the afternoon hours he would hear only the confessions of the Negresses, and then, in the evening, beginning at six oclock, he would devote himself strictly to the men. We must speak to them with our hands before we speak to them with our lips.. 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. It was November 1615. Church law forbade a master to hold a slave who wanted to become a priest. Our Saints upbringing carries nothing too spectacular about it. Others were lured like animals into anchored galleons by novel gadgets, bells, magnets, beads, and such gimmicks, only to see the huge vessels glide away from shore. For this extraordinary Jesuit, whose life we are about to study, the arrival of a slave ship was like the homecoming of a long lost son. . Cartagena was a central stopping point for this inhuman traffic. Ignatius Strecker came to America from Germany in 1853. The Reformed churchmen looked on in a kind of curious awe as they watched the majesty of a ceremony they had heard so reviled. The final emergence was on behalf of the lepers at Saint Lazarus. St. Peter Claver (1580-1654), whose memorial we celebrate today, offers a timely witness as our nation reckons anew with the enduring scourge of racism. A St. Peter Claver Catholic Church member burns incense as a part of the church's first Senor de Los Milagros (Lord of Miracles) celebration procession in Tyler on streets near the church. St. Peter Claver. One of his linguistic gems was Calepino, a veritable genius, who spoke eleven different African dialects. Today one can visit the room and window from which Father Claver peered out to be ready once ships arrived with captured and bartered blacks. The Saint is dying! Suddenly, the sad reality dawned on the multitude, who awakened as from a trance, and they all, black and white, rich and poor, made their way to the Jesuit house. Your captains and mates must neither have dainty fingers nor dainty noses,few men are fit for these voyages but them that are bred up to it. City magistrates ordered that he should be buried at public expense and with great pomp. The slave of the slaves believed in simplicity. And in particular, he applied himself by word and prayer to regain the abandoned priests to a meaningful and holy life. The U.S. bishops have invited Catholics to observe the day with fasting and prayer for an end to racism in the United States. All of them died on the spot. Matters for him were complicated by an outbreak of an epidemic in the area which claimed as one of its first victims, Father Claver himself. The young student at Barcelona decided to do more than just to benefit from the Jesuits education. Then, using our own cloaks, for they had nothing of this sort, and to ask the owners for others would have been a waste of words, we provided for them a smoke treatment, by which they seemed to recover their warmth and the breath of life. A galleon would contain, besides new immigrants, badly needed supplies and medicines, and of course, news and mail. Robert J. Miller in his 2007 Book, Both Prayed to the Same God, researched that: The Africans came from a vast region of Western Africa stretching inland for two to three hundred miles. In addition to celebrating the Eucharist, our various ministries include Black Catholic Concerns, Women's Fellowship in English and . Conflict sapped the strength of the European landscape and gave rise to a spirit hungering for new things, particularly, in the minds of the young. He made use of the strangest instruments, such as bananas, and dates- the famous dates of Peter Claver,- whose miraculous power was heard as far away as Rome, and once even an ordinary soaked sponge. His order had already achieved amazing success in its missions, its schools, and in its ability to produce saints. This steady concourse lasted until nightfall when the Fathers insisted on sending the people away and closing the doors. In the past, when he came home from such missions, he was usually so reduced physically that he looked like a walking skeleton. In those days, there was hardly such a thing as racial prejudice. Was Performed at the Shrine of St. Joseph in St. Louis, MO. We had to force our way through the crowd until we reached the sick. History: The son of a Catalonian farmer, was born at Verdu, in 1581. When the Jesuits finally succeeded in establishing a proper place for the body in the church, the Augustinians came and took over the exhausting job of guarding the casket. Claver would never recover from this illness. In the evening, the saint was torn with a violent fever that, together with the intense vehemence of his aspiring love, cast him into a motionless state, in which he lay unconscious, his face betraying in its peaceful composer the transport of love he was undergoing. From 1198 to 1787 the former redeemed, from the Moors. It was not an uncommon thing to see a man who had been a slave give Holy Communion to one who had been his master. M.J.K. Despite all Clavers exhorting, the archdeacon would only respond by requesting the prayers of the priest, and with many signs of mutual affection the two parted company. 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