ST PETER CLAVER | KAIROS GLOBAL | SEPTEMBER 2021

St. Peter Claver was a Spanish Jesuit missionary who became the patron saint of slaves, African missions and interracial justice. He spent his life serving African slaves who were brought to Columbia during the 17th century.

Peter Claver was born in Verdu, Spain in 1580 to an impoverished family of distinguished origin. He studied at the University of Barcelona and joined the Jesuits at the age of twenty. While studying philosophy at Majorca in 1605, Peter Claver developed a friendship with Jesuit Brother Alphonsus Rodriguez, who spent his days doing menial work as a doorkeeper. He encouraged Claver to become a missionary to the Spanish colonies in America.

In 1610, Peter Claver voyaged to Cartagena (modern Colombia), where after five years of further study, he was ordained a priest. Despite Pope Paul III’s repeated condemnations of slavery during the previous century, European colonists continued importing African slaves to work on plantations and in mines. As a priest, Fr. Claver dedicated himself to the service of Negro slaves – a work that was to last for thirty-three years. 

He laboured unceasingly for the salvation of the African slaves and the abolition of the Negro slave trade. Boarding the slave ships as they entered the harbour, he would hurry to the revolting inferno of the hold, and offer whatever poor refreshments he could afford; he would care for the sick and dying, and instruct the slaves through multilingual catechists before administering the Sacraments. ‘We must speak to them with our hands,’ he said, ‘before we try to speak to them with our lips.’ Whenever he came upon a baby born during a voyage or a dying slave, Fr. Claver would stop to baptise them immediately. 

During his forty years of ministry, it is estimated that he personally catechised and baptised 300,000 slaves. He would follow up on them to ensure that they received their Christian and civil rights. Furthermore, he did not lose sight of his converts when they left the ships, but followed them to the plantations to which they were sent, encouraged them to live as Christians, and ensured that they were treated humanely. 

Claver did not limit himself to the slaves alone but ministered to the souls of well-to-do members of society, traders and visitors to Cartagena (including Muslims and English Protestants) and condemned criminals, many of whom he spiritually prepared for death. He was also a frequent visitor to the city's hospitals. Years of toil and the force of his own unique personality enabled the slaves’ situation to improve. In time he came to be known as the Apostle of Cartagena.

Towards the end of his life and sick with plague, Peter was too ill to leave his room. He lingered for four years, largely forgotten and neglected, ill-treated and starved by an ex-slave hired to care for him. He never complained, convinced that he deserved this treatment. Peter Claver died on 8 September 1654.

He was beatified by Pius IX on July 16, 1850, and canonised along with his friend St. Alphonsus Rodriguez on January 15, 1888, by Pope Leo XIII.