Deepertruth: Stand in the Gap with us and St. Peter Claver

Stand in the Gap with us and St. Peter Claver 9/9/2023 September 9th, the Church celebrates the life of St. Peter Claver which illustrates the very intent of St. Paul’s writing to St. Timothy and to the Galatians. His whole life was modeled after the New Testament. St. Peter was born of impoverished parents at Verdu, Catalonia, Spain. This early experience would be the foundation that St. Peter would come to understand the people whom he would serve with pastoral care. In 1580 Spain St. Peter grew up in the environment that is not too different from what is happening in the United States today. The Spanish tax burden fell upon the poor, hitting the agricultural sector particularly hard. Despite this, the Spanish Government’s expenditures continue to climb. As a result, the Spanish Government both borrowed money, and then assigned future revenues to the bankers. Does this not all sound familiar? The interest that the Government has to pay back kept the Government from ever paying off their debts. This was the environment that St. Peter Claver was raised and he really didn’t have the heritage that his ancestry once had owned. From his early years, he places himself in the heart of Jesus and Mary. His love for the Lord was apparent to all who knew him. As expected, St. Peter decided to attend a Jesuit college in Barcelona and in 1602, at age 18, became a novitiate at Tarrangona. He took his final vows on August 8th, 1604. St. Peter was only 20 years old.