st peter claver miracles

Come to me, my Father! Claver, like the Good Shepherd, ran to embrace him, and, for a time, tears choked any words either tried to utter. Photo by Sid Hastings Sid Hastings A relic of St. Peter Claver in a. 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. Jn 17:11). Be at my window and direct me through when the vision blurs From out of the blue. The next time he left was to hear the confession of the holy laywoman, Dona Isabel who, sick and bedridden, was afraid that it might be her last opportunity to speak to the saint in this life. One of his linguistic gems was Calepino, a veritable genius, who spoke eleven different African dialects. Often he would take mission trips into the thick of the country to look after his flock. 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. Her condition, thank God, suddenly improved and both she and the baby are well. Then we sat, or rather knelt beside them and bathed their faces and bodies with wine. It was Father Claver. He was too busy loving to worry about hating. To Cartagena, flatteringly known as the Pearl of the Indies, all kinds of adventurers found their way. Play over 320 million tracks for free on SoundCloud. Things would never be the same. In those days, there was hardly such a thing as racial prejudice. How many more miracles have taken place in connection with this church over the past 150 years, no one knows. Amen. Thou gavest life, I pray no act of mine may take away or mar that gift of Thine (continues below). Because, he continued, your sufferings have opened for you the gates of Paradise. He turned their inevitable suffering into a cause for joy. ); but the claim that he was its bishop is an anachronism. The convicts had common morning and evening prayer, litanies and the daily Rosary. Some of their fellow countryman insulted both the converts and the priests, but the good Fathers patience and obvious holiness soon won them. 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. Enclosed is a small donation in thanksgiving. As a student, he was noted for his intelligence . 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. His king was Philip II, and his spiritual Father in Rome was Pope Sixtus V. Misfortune hit him hard and early. They lay there together, in fear, like sardines, naked and bleeding in the cold damp of winter or the excruciating heat of summer, with but one daily feeding of corn and water to sustain them. Of course, such lacks of concern meant a higher mortality rate, and consequently, lower profits; so, though such appalling cruelty did occur, it was not routine. Fruits, preserves, and sweet-cakes were distributed to give them strength, and wines and liquors were given them to numb their pain and drive out their extreme despondency. Peter Claver was born in 1581 to a devout farming family in the Catalonia region of Spain. black labor. Source: "Saint a Day" "St. Peter Claver (1581 A. D. - 1654 A. D.): by temperament, Father Peter Claver was shy. The future apostle of the slaves was the youngest in his family, so from the start he knew only how to serve. In a short while, when these poor creatures were fattened up a little and washed, they would be auctioned off in the market place and sometimes end up far away. 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. 8.00 am - 4.00 pm Telephone (07) 3810 5900 Fax (07) 3282 3190 Email. This army was a militia of charity; its commander-in-chief was Father Peter Claver, a Jesuit, the hero of our story. When he is evilly spoken of, he is dumb. The young Jesuit petitioned his superiors to be sent to the missions of the West. Many of these poor unfortunates had been torn from their families in their prime of life. This, of course, he had never done, except conditionally in cases of doubt, but he was nevertheless forbidden to baptize in the future. All God wanted was their love in return. Africans at that time were abused because they were backward and exploitable, not because they were black. Saint of the Day for Wednesday, March 1st, 2023, First Station: Jesus is condemned to death, 5 prayers you should say this Lenten Season News. We laid aside our cloaks, therefore, and brought from a warehouse whatever was handy to build a platform. The rumor of his approaching death spread around the city like wildfire, everyone suddenly remembered the saintly priest again, and numbers came to kiss his hands before it was too late; his room was stripped of everything that could be carried off as relics. After assuring them that they were not going to be slain, he held up high the crucifix and told them of the God-man and what He had suffered for them. He is known as the "Apostle of the West Indies" and the "Slave to the Slaves." Peter Claver was born in Verdu, Catalonia, on July 26, 1580, of prosperous parents. A witness testified to the Office of Inquisition in Cartagena that, on one occasion, he had seen several Negroes floating naked around the ceiling in a house at night after dabbling in this witchcraft. The crude picture graphically portrayed the Crucified Christ with His Precious Blood pouring from His Wounds into a basin. Which had not? The Negroes were especially affected; Peter Claver had been a real father to them. 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 holy man had no time to lose. When he is starved, he is dumb. In 1853 Ignatius Strecker had brought his family from Germany to the United States, and in 1861 he was working at St. Louis in a soap factory. Whole parts of their bodies were eaten away by the dreadful disease; some had lost limbs, others had loose parts of their faces; some had scarcely any resemblance to a human exterior remaining, and the odor emanating from their many sores was the worst the apostle anywhere encountered. Why? One Dutchman was particularly hard, and assaulted Father Claver verbally every time he saw him, shouting in his fury that the priest would never bewitch him as he did the others. One day, after offering a funeral Mass for one of these converts, he decided to visit the obstinate patient. With its ideal natural harbor, Cartagena became a stopping point for ships, or galleons, as they were called, on their way to and from the homeland. No time was too early for these faithful Cartagenians to unburden their souls to God. If the slaves complained of ill treatment, the indignant saint spared no words in admonishing the guilty owners to correct their faults. The Protestant Reformation fomented division, polemics and outright murder. Those who were baptized looked beautiful and happy, while those who were not, looked ugly and were about to be gobbled up by hideous monsters from hell. Cursed be the law of the false prophet Mahomet, as well as all those who follow it. And on and on the stories go. A rich merchant once called him to his house to give the sacraments to a dying Negro who was one mass of ulcers. 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. Claver knew that the blacks were never going to see in their lifetime much, if any, material happiness on earth, certainly not the pie-in-the-sky utopias of Karl Marx and his disciple, Martin Luther King, Jr. St. Christopher, holy patron of travelers, protect me, and lead me safely to my destiny. 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. Episode 364: What Is the Point of Lent? Saint Melania, a wealthy Roman matron, freed her 8,000 slaves at once. 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. Amen. He was said to have the gift of prophecy as well as the ability to read souls. She stared at Claver and sighed, Jesus, Jesus how tired I am. Then, pressed by the others to relate what she has seen, she said that as she walked down a long beautiful road, a white man of great beauty stopped her and told her to return, for she could go no further. One day close to his very last, as he lay in his cell, the saint heard a great deal of rejoicing in the residence. The fleet of three galleons set sail on April 10, 1610. 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. Having finished his first Novitiate, Claver was sent to study philosophy on the College of Montesion (Mount Sion) in the city of Palma on the island of Majorca. Your Catholic Voice Foundation has been granted a recognition of tax exemption under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. The son of a Catalonian farmer, was born at Verdu, in 1581; he died 8 September, 1654. Many of the narratives both of the heroism and extraordinary wonders worked by Peter Claver concern his nursing of sick and diseased slaves, in circumstances often no one else, black or white, could face. This life of St. Peter Claver is brought out in order to stimulate vocations to the Negro Missions, which even now have the characteristics of Claver's vocation. Peter, St. Such demonic phenomena were not uncommon among the uncivilized races. 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. A child could understand it, and these blacks were like children. Cartagena needed a saint. The descendant of these six hundred English and Dutch converts can be seen to this very day in their blond-haired, blue-eyed progeny whom one may see walking the streets of Cartagena. 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