Memorial of Saint Peter Claver, Priest

Lectionary: 437


(Jesus) realized their intentions
and said to the man with the withered hand,
“Come up and stand before us.”
And he rose and stood there.




On this ninth day of September the Church celebrates the Jesuit Saint Peter Claver. Reading his life is painful work. This sixteenth century Spaniard threw himself into missionary work, leaving the comfort and assurance of Spain to travel to the "new world" of South America.

There he found a flourishing slave industry. Like the drug epidemics of today, slavery rebounded from near extinction to overwhelm the moral scruples of the Church, new governments and empires, expanding commerce and individual investors. There was money to be made in sugar and no apparent reason not to invest in it, even if it required the brutal labor of African slaves.

Just as Columbus was "discovering" the western continents, Europe discovered how to extract sugar from sugar cane. Because the process was cheap, everyone could enjoy it and everyone from rich to poor wanted it.

By the time Columbus died a three way commerce had developed. Sugar was grown and processed in South America and exported to Europe for consumption. Sugar profits went to Africa to purchase more slaves from African rulers who captured and sold their enemies to Europeans. Slavers hauled the human cargo for sale to South America.

It was good business; not as lucrative as today's markets in cocaine, opium and weaponry; but substantial. Investors profited so long as the slave ships made the crossing in timely fashion, if they were not destroyed by storms or overwhelmed by disease.

Few Europeans had ever seen a slave; fewer knew what they suffered. Like today's investors, they didn't ask about the human cost. The recently invented system of book-keeping -- balancing debits and assets with numbers -- had no metrics for suffering.

The people of Columbia knew. Those who went down to the ports and saw the ships come in watched impassively as survivors of the journey were hauled into the brilliant sun of the new world. Centuries would pass before philosophers of the Enlightenment would reflect on the dignity of the human person. In the 16th and 17th centuries, slaves were poor people and the scriptures said "the poor are with you always." Poverty was God's will; it always was and always would be. Who would challenge that? And why? 

Police at the Fair teach children
about green, red, and amber lights

The Jesuit priest Peter Claver knew that thinking as well as anyone, but his heart was moved with compassion for his fellow human beings. His devout prayer led him to become "the slave of the slaves." Imitating the Savior in the spirit of Saint Francis, this Jesuit aspired to be the least of the least. 

Some might suppose he tried to subvert the system by baptizing the human cargo. That may be expecting too much of a 17th century hero. I think it more likely he believed the unfortunate men and women would find consolation where the poor have always found it, in the Catholic faith.

No sooner did the ship arrive, with its overwhelming stench of excrement, disease and death than he rushed into the hold to begin instructing. His first message was compassion as he gave them food and drink and bandaged their sores. He carried the sick and the dying out into the sunlight to breathe fresh air. With his own slave interpreters, he tried to speak with them, telling them of Jesus and Mary and the God who is human. Many Africans supposed they were brought on that terrible voyage to feed cannibals. They were surprised at any sign of compassion, even if it was only a kind man trying to speak to them.

Was this "slave of the slaves" successful? He is believed to have baptized 300,000 people. He also advocated for them, urging their owners to show mercy to fellow Christians. When the life expectancy of a slave after arriving in South America was less than ten years, any kindness at all must have helped.

If slavery seems a thing of the past, the overall system has not changed much. We still have no metrics to measure human suffering. We do not calculate the human, cultural or environmental costs of maintaining a few in enormous wealth. Saint Peter Claver still speaks to us; his work is not finished. He urges us to see what we're doing and ask whether the profits offset the losses.