Peter Claver

Prologue:

Born in Spain in 1581, Peter Claver entered the Jesuit novitiate in 1602. In 1610, he sailed to Cartagena, Columbia, in South America. This city, settled by the Spanish, was the center of the slave trade. At Cartagena, Claver began to work among the West Africans who had been captured and forcibly brought to the New World.

It is now 1615. Jordan has come to Cartagena to meet Father Claver and to learn about the slave trade. The two of them have spent the morning begging for food in the rain.

Jordan: We've got oranges, lemons, sweet biscuits, and all sorts of food here, Father. Is this all for the slaves?

Claver: Yes. They're starved when they get here. They are lonely for home, and are half crazed with fear.

Jordan: Fear of being a slave?

Claver: They don't know what's going to happen next. Most think that they'll be eaten alive! The sailors have beaten and chained them. They've known only hatred and violence for weeks on end.

Jordan: I don't get it! Why do the Spanish do this to other people?

Claver: Actually it's quite simple, Jordan. Surrounding the city of Cartagena are plantations that need workers. Beyond that are gold mines that need to be mined.

Jordan: Why don't the Spanish do the work?

Claver: They say, "Why should we work when we can get others to do it?" That attitude has led to the evil of slavery.

Jordan: How long has this been going on?

Claver: Nearly a hundred years. At first, the Spanish made slaves of the natives. But they soon died off, so then the city looked to West Africa for slaves.

Jordan: But, it's wrong!

Claver: True. Pope Paul III condemned slave trading, but that doesn't stop the English and the Spanish!

Jordan: I see sails in the harbor! Does that mean the slave ship has arrived?

Claver: Yes! Let's hurry this donkey along with the food! We've got to get down into the ship's hold.

Jordan: There it is, up ahead! If we leave the food here, will someone steal it?

Claver: No. Everyone knows that I bring food and medicine, bread and drink to the slaves. They don't like my doing this, but they know that nothing will stop me.

Jordan: Thank you for letting me come today.

Claver: You're going to see awful things! I hope you can stomach it.

Jordan: What should I say to them?

Claver: The first time I stepped down into the dark hole of a slave ship I realized one thing. We must first speak to these lonely, starved, scared people with our hands. Only afterward can we speak to them with our lips.

Jordan: I have two good hands, Father.

Claver: Then let us go below.

Jordan: The smell is awful!

Claver: That's what comes from being cooped up for weeks in the hold of a ship. All their bodily waste falls to the floor or smears their bodies.

Jordan: It's slimy!

Claver: And the slaves can't escape their chains until the sailors come and take them topside. About one-third of the captured West Africans die on the trip. Still, the English slave-traders sell over one thousand of them a month to the Spanish plantation and mine owners.

Jordan: Do they make much money?

Claver: Plenty! They buy the slaves in West Africa for two coins and sell them for two hundred!

Jordan: It's all for greed!

Claver: That's true. And we must be all for love. Come! The sailors are taking the slaves out to the yards. The captain will soon sell them to the highest bidders.

Jordan: They're being herded like animals! It's like a stockyard for cattle!

Claver: Hurry! We must find the sick who are near death.

Jordan: The sailors are throwing them down in the puddles. And they're naked, Father!

Claver: It's like this every time. Every time. But crying about it doesn't help! We've got to do something! Help me hand out these sweet biscuits and oranges and lemons. Tell me if you see anyone who's really sick.

Jordan: Here's a woman who's throwing up. And this man is hardly breathing! This baby is limp!

Claver: Hurry! Get some wood from the warehouse. Build a fire. I'll toss herbs in it. Sometimes the smoke revives them.

Jordan: So this is how you use your hands to speak to them!

Claver: This is it! I show God's love before I talk about it.

Jordan: Do you ever see the slaves again after the masters take them off to the mines and plantations?

Claver: That's a problem. I don't, and I worry that they may forget my message of God's love.

Jordan: Could you go to the plantations and talk to the slaves?

Claver: I've wanted to do that, but the masters insist that I stay with them in their fine homes. Somehow I can't bring myself to do that. How can I sleep in a bed with silk sheets when the slaves sleep on the ground?

Jordan: Why don't you stay in the homes of the slaves?

Claver: Homes? They live in shacks! Even after they're herded from a ship and sold, their life is hellish!

Jordan: But couldn't you stay in one of those shacks and bring them God's comfort?

Claver: If I could convince the slave masters.

Jordan: Why wouldn't the Spanish masters let you do that?

Claver: They fear that I would bring disease into their fine homes.

Jordan: Disease?

Claver: Many of the slaves die from horrible diseases.

Jordan: Tell the masters that you will stay in the shacks. You won't enter their homes.

Claver: That just might work.

Jordan: Then go to them.

Claver: I will. I'll stay in the slaves' shacks and move among them for a few days. That way, I'll know if the masters are honoring the few laws that protect the slaves.

Jordan: Will you ever go back home to Spain?

Claver: I vow here and now never to leave these people. I am the slave of the Negro slaves. I cannot end their slavery, but I can make life better for them.

Epilogue

For forty years, Peter Claver worked as the apostle of the West African slaves. He never returned to his homeland. According to records, Claver baptized more than 300,000 slaves. Until his death in 1654, Peter Claver defended enslaved people against the greed and violence of their captors.

Besides meeting the slave ships and visiting the plantations, Peter Claver preached to the citizens of Cartagena and to the sailors who came to its ports. Always, he preached the evils of slavery. Because of this, the slave merchants and many Spanish plantation owners hated him.

In 1650, the plague struck Cartagena; Peter Claver became one of its victims. For four years, he was bedridden and unable to go among those whom he had defended for so many years. The townspeople ignored him, but when he died on September 8, 1654, the city magistrates gave him a grand funeral. In life, they had criticized his work among the slaves. In death, they made much of him. In 1888, Pope Leo XIII canonized Peter Claver as someone who lived the Gospels in a heroic way.

There is a church called St. Peter Claver. Discover what this parish does to follow Peter Claver's example.