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| Religion Forum Index » Apologetic Forum » September 9th - Saint Peter Claver, Jesuit Missionary... |
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 Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 8:03 pm |
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September 9th - Saint Peter Claver, Jesuit Missionary
(1580-1654)
If anyone wonders what exactly it is that constitutes a Saint, he has only
to read the life of Saint Peter Claver, in whom the superhuman life of grace
acted so visibly as to create a person who seemed more than a man. This holy
Jesuit, born in Spain in 1580, was during his novitiate a disciple of Saint
Alphonsus Rodriguez, "the holy porter of Majorca", a humble lay-brother
endowed with the highest gifts of contemplation and prophecy. The two would
eventually be canonized together by Pope Leo XIII in 1888, thus cementing
the perfect union which began on earth and certainly continues in heaven.
Saint Alphonsus, when he saw the novice for the first time, was inspired to
kiss his feet; and the novice embraced his spiritual father with a
tenderness which would increase with time. A little later, the preceptor
learned from a vision that this novice was destined to save a multitude of
souls in the New World; he said to Peter: "How many peoples go astray for
lack of ministers! The fatigue of going to seek them out is dreaded, but not
the danger and crime which it is to abandon them!" Eventually Saint
Alphonsus revealed his divinely revealed calling to him, to inspire in him
an active desire to respond to the explicit Will of God.
After eight years of study and apostolic preparation in Spain, Saint Peter
asked to go to the Jesuit missions of the Western Indies, and was sent to
Carthagena in Colombia, South America, when he was thirty years old. He was
assigned to accompany an elderly priest who had undertaken a ministry of
service to the poor Africans brought to be sold in the market of that city.
These poor strangers spoke several languages but shared a common misery,
which Saint Peter soon saw clearly. When the holds of the boats were opened,
"all one beheld was a confused mass of men, women, children and old men,
sick persons mingled with healthy ones, and often, alas! living beings next
to cadavers, for the crossing made victims." The elderly forerunner of
Peter, when about to retire, asked that the objects of his care be
definitively confided to Peter Claver, a petition willingly granted.
Thus began forty-four years of unceasing dedication to their spiritual and
material betterment by Saint Peter. He watched for the arrival of the slave
ships, which brought from ten to twelve thousand souls each year, and never
failed to be the first to go aboard, accompanied by his interpreters and
carrying the provisions he had been able to beg. He greeted the living,
arranged for the burial of the dead and the transport of the sick to
hospitals. Having won their sympathy, he went to them regularly with his
interpreters and taught them, during several hours' time, the elements of
doctrine, aided by pictures. Before he died, he had baptized 400,000. He put
around the necks of each newly baptized child of God, a medal which would
thereafter distinguish the Christians from the yet untaught.
Though this was his principal industry, he also spent many days in the
nearby lazaretto - a refuge for lepers - and in the hospitals of the region.
No infirmity repelled him; the Brother who accompanied him had several times
a day to clean his cloak, on which he would lay the sick while he arranged
their poor beds. It never ceased to emit a heavenly fragrance. He slept only
two or three hours at night, and ate almost nothing. The poor were his
beloved children and he their beloved father, whose visits were anxiously
awaited and were always too short. Those who resisted him did not do so
indefinitely; one man insulted him for twenty-two years, but at the end of
that time fell on his knees and begged his pardon. The vision of his charity
is certainly reserved for heaven; his biographers scarcely find words
adequate to describe his heroic life. Pope Pius IX, who beatified Saint
Peter in 1851, commented that never had he read a life of a Saint which so
moved him.
After Saint Peter contracted the plague in his declining years, he was left
infirm and partially paralyzed. He then had himself tied to a donkey and in
that way went about begging and distributing provisions. He had a rude
servant who often neglected him and mistreated him, but when his brethren
offered him another, asked to be allowed to keep that one, who treated him
far better than he deserved. Two years after his death at the age of
seventy-four, his body was found intact, despite the humidity of the burial
site and the live caustic covering it. Miracles proliferated there and
elsewhere by the invocation of his name. A large church was built in
Carthagena in his honor, and he became the second patron of his adopted
land, Colombia.
Source: Vie abrégée de Saint Pierre Claver, Jésuite, l'Apôtre de Carthagène,
by a priest of the diocese of Montreal, 1925.
Saint Quote:
For some are in the habit of carrying about the name [of Jesus Christ] in
wicked guile, while yet they practice things unworthy of God, whom ye must
flee as ye would wild beasts. For they are ravening dogs, who bite secretly,
against whom ye must be on your guard, inasmuch as they are men who can
scarcely be cured. There is one Physician who is possessed both of flesh and
spirit; both made and not made; God existing in flesh; true life in death;
both of Mary and of God; first passable and then impassable,-even Jesus
Christ our Lord.
-Saint Ignatius of Antioch
Bible Quote:
1 At that hour the disciples came to Jesus, saying: Who thinkest thou is the
greater in the kingdom of heaven? 2 And Jesus calling unto him a little
child, set him in the midst of them, 3 And said: Amen I say to you, unless
you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into
the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this
little child, he is the greater in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And he that
shall receive one such little child in my name, receiveth me. (Matthew
18:1-5)
<><><><>
A prayer to one's Guardian Angel when you cannot attend Mass:
O Holy Angel at my side,
Go to the church for me,
Kneel in my place, at Holy Mass,
Where I desire to be.
At Offertory, in my stead,
Take all I am and own,
And place it as a sacrifice
Upon the Altar Throne.
At holy Consecration's bell,
Adore with Seraph's love,
My Jesus hidden in the Host,
Come down from heaven above.
Then pray for those I dearly love,
And those who cause me grief,
That Jesus' Blood may cleanse all hearts,
And suff'ring souls relieve.
And when the priest Communion takes,
Oh, bring my Lord to me,
That His sweet Heart may rest on mine,
And I His temple be.
Pray that this Sacrifice Divine,
May mankind's sins efface;
Then bring me Jesus' blessing home,
The pledge of every grace.
Amen. |
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