Fr. He also shared a video on his Instagram, which is below the Today Show interview: WATCH the Inspiring Today Show Interview below: View this post on Instagram A post shared by Mark Wahlberg (@markwahlberg), Auxiliary Bishop David OConnell of Los Angeles, California, was killed on February 18th. . They came from villages where agriculture, farming and nature were at the center of life, where spirits dwelt in each thing around them, and where isolation was unthinkable since the self was always in relationship to others. Peter Claver reached stature as a saint of God having watched closely a leader in this work, Father Alfonso de Sandoval, a great Jesuit missionary who spent forty years in the service of the slaves, and after working under him, Peter Claver, having reached a spiritual pinnacle in his own self-understanding, declared himself the slave of the Negroes forever. Although, by nature shy and lacking to degree self confidence, Claver threw himself into the work and pursued it with enthusiasm, method and organization. Pius IX, who beatified Peter Claver, branded the slave trade supreme villainy. The most vociferous of all was Pope Paul III. In fact, the saint used to spend hours just on the Sign of the Cross alone. Sometimes he would have to yield to nature and collapse. He announced to Brother Gonzales that he would die on the next festival of the Blessed Virgin. If the slaves complained of ill treatment, the indignant saint spared no words in admonishing the guilty owners to correct their faults. The end result of that was the old mans conviction that he was in the wrong church. The supreme charity of our saint was most vividly portrayed in his solicitude for the sick; and Cartagena, in its infant years, had plenty of sick and very sick people. Clavers problem was that he was sensitive. Often the skin on the backs and shoulders of those too weak to help themselves would be worn to the very bone from the constant motion of the waves and rubbing of their flesh on the damp planks.Apparently these slave hustlers were the very dregs of Christian Europe. There was nothing artificial about Peter Claver. Extra ecclesiam nulla salus (outside the Church there is no salvation). But four long years would be needed before the consuming affliction would liberate him forever. The Knights of Peter Claver: St. Martin De Porres Council #297 and Ladies Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Francis Court #297 of The Archdiocese of Newark had a 3rd Degree Turnout on Sunday, August 11th, after 10:30 am Mass at Christ The King Church, Jersey City. One day he happened to strike his breast against an angular piece of iron. We have here a man whose love knew no bounds, who had no fears except of offending God, a man who loved the unlovable. For this poor sinner all Claver could do was to pray, for words were useless. There were two blacks, nearer death than life, already cold, whose pulse could scarcely be detected. FOR THE FEAST DAY OF ST. PETER CLAVER. Carry me safely to my destined place, like you carried Christ in your close embrace. He had baptized and taught the faith to more than 300,000 slaves during his four decades in Cartagena. People who were so horribly afflicted that they were actually shunned by their fellow lepers. Visit the website Show place on Google Maps. His apostolate was over, and dark thoughts tried to upset his peace he was useless, a burden to others, and deservedly was cast aside by God. In all this he found more opportunity to suffer. Pius II (whose Patron was a slave) did so in 1462, calling slavery a great crime. Urban VIII (1539) strongly opposed it. And when the slaves misbehaved Father Claver was always blamed. 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. Daily his loving eyes would have to wrest their gaze from the Spotless Host lest he should allow his devotion to get the better of him. The tortured body of Father Claver, which the saint never ceased to submit to the hairshirt and discipline, could barely contain the ghost. #Saint pf September 9 : St. Peter Claver a Miracle Worker and the Patron of #Racism, Slaves and #AfricanAmericans. St Peter Claver College. Lord, for love of you St. Peter Claver became the faithful servant of slaves. Cartagena needed a saint. At the age of twenty he entered the Jesuit novitiate at Tarragona. And then, worse than the slave owners, were the slave traders themselves, hardened speculators in human flesh, who mercilessly hunted down their merchandise, like animals, along the equatorial African coasts and islands that they might auction them off at a handsome profit across the sea. St. Peter Claver was born at Verdu, Catalonia, Spain, in 1580, of impoverished parents descended from ancient and distinguished families. Unlike many, even among some of the clergy, Claver did not consider that ignorance of their African languages absolved him from the obligation of instructing them in the truths of religion and morals and bringing to their degraded spirits the consolation of the words of Jesus. Heartfelt Condolences to Fatima Sister Fr. Slavery is not a European import to a perfectly virtuous non-European world. Permission was not at first granted and Claver was ordered instead to return to the college at Barcelona for more study in theology. One by one, the religious and the Negroes clasped his feet, which were giving off such a heavenly fragrance, and bathed them with their kisses. Nothing could be done to keep them away. Answered Prayers The magnificent Main Altar is the result of a pledge made by grateful parishioners who made a promise to St. Joseph. Claver couldnt remove the cross but he could make it sweet. Sometimes the Mother of God herself appeared to certain of the infidels to rebuke them for not listening to Father Claver. Mt 4:1-11). A Catholic priest who led one of New Orleans' best-known inner-city churches until being accused of sexually molesting a child has been reported to federal authorities for possible financial crimes. Europeans and their ways, even their religion, met with suspicion and, in instances, outright hostility among some of the natives of the New World. By far the greatest damage the devil suffered from Father Claver was in the confessional, though some of us may cringe when we consider his methods of extracting vice. While he preached, he suffered. 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. How difficult was his task in teaching is shown by the fact that at baptism each batch of ten catechumens was given the same name to help them to remember it. St. Peter Claver Church was established in the early 1900s, after Black parishioners experienced racism from white Catholics at a nearby church. The Protestant Reformation fomented division, polemics and outright murder. Another saint whom he had known at school in Majorca, Saint Alphonsus Rodriguez, revealed his road in life to him. He felt he had no grace to encourage someone else to carry a cross that he himself wasnt carrying. As for his meals, even these meager refreshments were half devoured by the ungrateful wretch before the saint ever received them. Church law forbade a master to hold a slave who wanted to become a priest. ST. PETER CLAVER CATHOLIC CHURCH Rev. "No, no. The problem with many of the Moslems was that they were slaves, and consequently, they despised Christianity because it was the religion of their captors. A priest was baptizing Negroes with the Blood. The young Claver exhibited fine qualities of mind and spirit and was destined for the Church. The Catholic Church venerates St. Peter Claver as the patron saint of African Americans and slaves, but Claver himself was neither. People who truly love God never put on artificial airs of piety, folding their hands and bowing their heads, while they shun sinners as if they were to be despised. According to reports Medina faces up to 35 years to life in prison for the murder. In 1853, Ignatius Strecker, a native of Germany, arrived in St. Louis, Missouri, with his wife and nine children. It was not until the advent of Christianity that slavery received a deathblow. St. Peter Claver. Some rights reserved. Soon it was clear- no cause for alarm- it was only a slave ship. 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. In all he had eighteen. SoundCloud Ep. Saint Paul, who never actually condemned slavery as such, nevertheless elevated the slave as equal in Gods eyes to the free, thereby inflicting slavery with a mortal wound. Despite Father Clavers agonizing condition, the brutal attendant, when he had to dress him for a visit to the chapel, would shove him around with no sense of delicacy, yanking the aching victim here and there in frustration, as he clumsily clothed him. Peter Claver was seventy-one years old. Brother Alonso, as the Spaniards called him, not only held the key to the college, but he also had the key to Peter Clavers heart. He never came down from it. St. Peter Claver Parish, which was founded in 1886 and administered by the Holy Ghost (Spiritan) Fathers, was Philadelphia's first designated African American parish. And though death should have come much sooner than it did for a man who had trodden on danger as one would on rose petals, it finally began to move on him mercilessly. During the time that the blacks spent in the sheds, they were penned so closely that they had to sleep almost upon one another and, thereby, freely handed on their diseases nonetheless, Claver was seen caring for the bodies of the sick and the souls of all. One he always made use of was a very amateurish, one might even respectfully say ugly, representation of the Judgment. Many of these castaways seemed to be miraculously sustained while waiting for Father Claver to find them, and baptize or confess them before they should die. Saint Melania, a wealthy Roman matron, freed her 8,000 slaves at once. There they stood looking at a man they knew so well, whose holiness, ecstasies, and extraordinary virtues had so inspired them, and yet perhaps not a few accused themselves of not having profited enough by his presence among them. Meanwhile some of his close friends would prepare a splendid repast of the best foods and delicacies, and while the orchestra performed, the jubilant lepers devoured a sumptuous banquet. A child could understand it, and these blacks were like children. Because, he continued, your sufferings have opened for you the gates of Paradise. He turned their inevitable suffering into a cause for joy. Due to the tremendous respect everyone has for the extraordinary Jesuit, these warnings always produced the desired fruit. Once arrived he went to the Jesuit house of Santa Fe to complete his theology studies and was employed as well at the Jesuit residence as sacristan, porter, infirmarian and cook and was dispatched for his tertianship to the new house of the Jesuits at Tunja. Even in sickness he would not ease up. Claver left Spain in April 1610 and never returned. 8.00 am - 4.00 pm Telephone (07) 3810 5900 Fax (07) 3282 3190 Email. The ship would then be loaded up with the extracted gold and silver and other new-world products destined for Spain. I am sorry for having offended Thee. All it needed was this seed from the wise master, Alonso. St. Peter Claver had seven interpreters, one of whom spoke four African dialects. It behooves me, Claver once wrote, always to imitate the example of the ass. Sometimes, Claver would spend almost the entire day in the great square of the city, where the four principal streets met, preaching to all who would stop to listen. About The Church of Peter Claver: The church that bears his name is open daily. He obtained his first degrees at the University of Barcelona. When a language was unuasually remote, Father Peter would have to speak through a chain of five or six interpreters to get across his message. The perfumed class had enough priests to care for them but the blacks had no one. Apostolate The Gospel of this first Sunday of Lent presents to us Jesus in the desert, tempted by the devil (cf. In that way we covered a space to which we at last transferred the sick, by forcing a passage through bands of slaves. That is why Saint Peter Claver traveled such a lonely road. Baptism was received with such an emotion of joy as to move the hardest heart. To me it is a miracle ! He shortly afterwards heard the confession of Doa Isabella, and told her it was for the last time, and on September 6, after assisting at Mass and receiving holy communion, Claver said to his dear friend, Brother Nicholas Gonzalez, I am going to die. That same evening he was taken very ill and became comatose. Claver was buried in the floor off the sacristy of the chapel of the Jesuit residence. Copyright 2004-2020 Saint Benedict Center, Richmond, New Hampshire. Then they would learn the Our Father and the Hail Mary. Prizes were given to those who learned their prayers first. From whom does the devil want to divide Jesus? Most of the soldiers went so far as to voluntarily enlist in the Spanish army, or in some other way subject themselves to the Spanish crown, rather than to return to their anti-Catholic homelands. His Mass, which followed, was deliberately short. 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