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Fellow Pilgrims in Christ,

When we hear the word “missionary,” our minds often turn to distant lands and heroic journeys. Few stories embody that image more powerfully than Saint Peter Claver (1580–1654), a Spanish Jesuit who left behind a comfortable future to live and die among the most forgotten of God’s children—the enslaved Africans brought to the Americas.

Born in Catalonia, Spain, Peter grew up in a deeply Catholic home and entered the Society of Jesus at age 22. During his studies, he was inspired by Saint Alphonsus Rodriguez, a humble Jesuit porter who prophetically told him that God was calling him to the New World. Peter accepted, sailing across the ocean to Cartagena—then one of the largest slave ports in the world.

What he found shocked him. Ship after ship arrived packed with human beings who had been captured, chained, and forced to endure the Middle Passage. The conditions were horrific—starvation, disease, and death claimed countless lives before the survivors even reached shore. The moment a ship arrived, Peter rushed aboard with bread, water, citrus to fight scurvy, and medicine. He cleaned wounds, prayed over the sick, and baptized the dying so they might meet Christ in peace.

But Peter did not stop at immediate relief. He saw in each man, woman, and child a soul of infinite worth. He learned their languages, taught them the faith, and defended them against abuse. For 40 years, he was their priest, catechist, and protector—often confronting slave traders and masters to insist that these men and women were not property but persons, created in the image of God.

By the end of his life, it is estimated that Peter Claver baptized over 300,000 enslaved Africans and heard countless confessions, including those of the sailors and merchants who trafficked in the slave trade. His tireless witness came at great personal cost. Toward the end of his life, sickness left him nearly immobile, and he was neglected by the very society he had served. Yet even in suffering, he offered himself for the salvation of others, uniting his pain to Christ’s cross.

Pope Leo XIII canonized him in 1888, calling him “the patron of all missionary work among the Negroes.” Today, he remains a burning light for the Church’s teaching on the dignity of every human person and a challenge to us to recognize Christ in the marginalized, the oppressed, and the suffering.

As we honor Saint Peter Claver, we are reminded that evangelization is not just about preaching but about entering into the suffering of others, tending to their wounds, and proclaiming the Gospel through radical mercy.

“We must speak to them with our hands before we try to speak to them with our lips.” – Saint Peter Claver