[Officium]
S. Peter Claver, priest

[Oratio]
O God, who to call enslaved Negroes to know your name, strengthened blessed Peter with wondrous love and patience in helping them; grant by his intercession, that, seeking the things of Jesus Christ, we may love our neighbors in deed and in truth.
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[Lectio94]
Peter Claver was born in Catalonia. As a young man, already a model of innocence, he entered the Society of Jesus. While engaged in the study of philosophy, he was instructed by St. Alphonsus Rodriguez in the secrets of higher virtue. At New Cartagena in South America, having been ordained to the priesthood, he resolved by a special vow to devote his whole life to the service of the Negroes whom the infamous slave trade brought to this port. Words cannot adequately express the degree of patience and charity exhibited by him towards these unfortunate slaves in such works as nursing, feeding and providing for them, instructing them in Christian doctrine and baptizing them over a period of more than forty years. God added to his fame by bestowing upon him the grace of healing. After the labors of the day, he was wont to pray far into the night and to practice severe penance, for which he had an insatiable zeal. At the age of seventy-one, he became seriously sick and was confined to his room for four years. He finally passed to his heavenly reward on the birthday of the Mother of God whom he always venerated with the most tender devotion. Leo XIII canonized him and appointed him the special Patron of all the Catholic missions among the Negroes.
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