Priest · Feast day September 9
St. Peter Claver
The feast day of St. Peter Claver is September 9, a memorial in the US Catholic calendar. Traditionally invoked as patron of enslaved peoples and race relations.
| Feast day | September 9 |
|---|---|
| In the US calendar | Memorial |
| Title | Priest |
| Died | 1654 |
| Patron of | enslaved peoples, race relations |
| Next on Bless’s Today screen | None left in the published calendar (through December 31, 2028) |
Life
A Catalan Jesuit who landed at Cartagena, the great slave port of the Americas, and vowed himself the slave of the Africans forever. For thirty-eight years he met every slave ship with food, medicine, and catechists.
He baptized, by his brothers’ count, some three hundred thousand souls, defended their marriages, and visited their plantations, sleeping in slave quarters. Neglected in his last illness by the very house he had served, he died in 1654; Cartagena buried him like a king.
Patron of
Tradition invokes St. Peter Claver as patron of enslaved peoples and race relations.
Patronages are traditional, not an official list. All patron saints in Bless, A to Z.
In the calendar
The upcoming dates, through December 31, 2028, when Bless’s Today screen shows St. Peter Claver. Where the US calendar keeps another celebration that day, it is named instead and no rank is given.
Readings
No dates are left in Bless’s published calendar, which runs through December 31, 2028. St. Peter Claver keeps September 9 in Bless’s calendar of saints: see the saints of September.
All the saints of September Born on September 9? A saint for every day
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