If we were in Saint Peter Claver’s shoes, many of us could not last a single day. The suffocating heat, the horrific stench of disease, and the overwhelming heartbreak of human cruelty would break most people.

Yet, driven by charity, Claver spent over 40 years serving those whom society treated as forgotten ones.

He regularly boarded incoming slave ships as soon as they docked, entering filthy, foul-smelling holds where even hardened sailors refused to step foot due to infectious diseases.

Guided by his conviction that “we must speak to them with our hands before we try to speak to them with our lips,” he brought fresh water, food, medicine, and clean clothes to comfort their bodies before offering words to heal their souls.

When visiting local plantations, he refused the luxurious rooms offered by wealthy landowners, choosing instead to sleep directly on the floor in the slave quarters.

Overcoming language barriers through gestures, pictures, and interpreters, he personally baptized and instructed over 300,000 enslaved people.

In 1650, a devastating plague struck Cartagena, and Claver eventually fell victim to the disease after endlessly caring for others who were infected, enduring years of sickness and neglect before his death.

He was canonized by Pope Leo XIII, who declared him the patron saint of all Catholic missions to African peoples.

Today, Saint Peter Claver is also honored as the patron saint of Colombia and of all those suffering under modern human trafficking and slavery.

In the country, his legacy endures through the Church of Saint Peter Claver in Claver, Surigao del Norte, standing as the country’s sole church dedicated to his patronage.

Saint Peter Claver’s life challenges us to look beyond our comfort zones and ask who the forgotten, the marginalized, and the broken are in our own communities today.

May we have the courage to love them not just with our words, but with our hands and hearts.

Saint Peter Claver, pray for us!