Peter Claver

Saint Peter Claver was born on June 26, 1580, in Verdú, Catalonia, Spain, into a devout farming family. As a young man he studied in Barcelona and, drawn by a deep desire to belong wholly to Christ, entered the Society of Jesus at twenty. Encouraged by the holy Jesuit brother Alphonsus Rodriguez, he volunteered for mission work overseas and arrived in Cartagena, in the New Kingdom of Granada, in 1610. There he was pierced by the suffering of Africans brought in chains through the slave trade. Ordained a priest, he made the wharves and slave pens his parish. Boarding ships as they arrived, he brought food, medicine, and gentle consolation, teaching the faith through interpreters and images. Over forty years he catechized and baptized an estimated 300,000 people, heard countless confessions, and tirelessly pleaded that the enslaved be treated as brothers and sisters in Christ. In his final years he endured illness and neglect with humility, dying on September 8, 1654. He is venerated as patron of Colombia, Cartagena, enslaved people, African missions, and racial justice. His feast day is September 9.