The Church of San Pedro Claver.

by Blair Wainman

Title

The Church of San Pedro Claver.

Artist

Blair Wainman

Medium

Photograph - Print

Description

Saint Peter Claver (aka) San Pedro Claver Corber� (June 1581 - September 1654) was a Spanish Jesuit priest and missionary born in Verdu (Catalonia) who, due to his life and work, became the patron saint of slaves, the Republic of Colombia and ministry to African Americans.
Cartagena, which owed its commercial importance to the superb natural harbor, was the principal slave market of the New World. Slave traders bought slaves in Angola and the Congo and sold them in Cartagena for fifty times more than they had paid for them. The two-month sea voyage between Africa and South America was both cruel and inhuman and claimed an average of one-third its human cargo. The approximate one thousand slaves a month who reached the port were sold as chattels into the South American economy.
Despite the brutal dehumanization by the slave masters, Claver was able to instill in the slaves a degree of self-respect, dignity and worth. During the intervals between the arrival of slave ships, Claver would wander through the town and beg substance and support to supply comfort for the next ship to arrive. He also tended to Dutch and English prisoners after the Spanish captured St. Christopher and St. Catherine.

Enjoying the respect of the responsible officials of Cartagena and the devout Catholics of the community, his only opposition came from the traders and planters who were often inconvenienced by his prayer and instructional sessions among their slaves. Peter Claver became known as the Apostle of Cartagena as well as the Apostle of the Negroes.

In 1650 Fr. Claver was stricken with a deadly plague which beset Cartagena. Becoming helplessly dependent during the last years of his life, he was racked with pain and unable to celebrate Mass. He remained in his cell, not only inactive, but neglected and forgotten. He lapsed into a coma and died on September 8, 1654.

Fr. Claver was canonized in 1888 when Pope Leo XIII declared St. Peter Claver as the patron saint of all missionary enterprises among Negroes.

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March 26th, 2013

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