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St. Peter Claver was a Jesuit missionary from Spain who, in the 1600s, served and ministered to captured and enslaved Africans as they were taken off the slave ships landing in South America. St. Peter Claver desired to offer his life as “a slave of the slaves.”1
The U.S. Catholic bishops suggest that parishes “could use the National Day of Prayer for Peace in Our Communities, which falls on the feast of St. Peter Claver (September 9), to organize activities that foster community, dialogue, and reconciliation. These encounters will help open our minds and hearts more fully and continue the healing needed in our communities and our nation.”2
1 USCCB, Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love, 4.
2 Ibid, 30.
(Photo: CNS/Gregory A. Shemitz)
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