SAINT OF THE DAY WEDNESDAY, 9 SEPTEMBER, 2026 SAINT PETER CLAVER CONFESSOR (June 26, 1581 - September 8, 1654) Peter was born of a distinguished family in Catalonia, Spain in 1581. He joined the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), and after his novitiate in Taragona was sent to the college of Montesione, at Palma in Majorca. There he met Brother Alphonse Rodriguez (also a saint), the humble porter of the convent. Alphonse set Peter's soul on fire to save the souls of the African slaves — thousands being lost because there was no one to minister to them. His superiors finally sent Peter to New Granada in April of 1610. He was never to return to his native Spain. By 1615 Peter finished his studies and was ordained a priest in Cartagena. When he made his final vows, he added a personal one: Peter, slave of the slaves for ever. Here in this busy seaport city, in a hot, humid, tropical climate, Father Claver spent most of his priestly life. Cartegena was the principal slave market for the New World. Thousands of blacks were brought there, herded into warehouses and auctioned to the highest bidder. Captured in Africa, these slaves were chained in groups of six and crammed into the lower holds of ships designed to hold 100-200, but holding 600-800 humans. Their treatment was so inhumane that 1/3 of the slaves died in the sea journey. It was to these people that Peter would minister. He would meet each slave ship as it arrived. Peter would go to the warehouses and bring them food, water, medicine and clothing, for, as he said "We must speak to them with our hands, before we try to speak to them with our lips". But most of all, he brought them God. While nursing them back to health, he would teach them of Christ, explain to them that they were loved by God more than they were abused by man, and that evil outraged God. He offered their only consolation: hope in the promises of God. Nearly three hundred thousand of them received baptism at his hands. After twenty-seven years of devotion to the black slaves, St. Peter Claver died at Cartagena on September 8, 1654. Leo XIII canonized him on January 15, 1888, proclaiming him special patron and protector of the negroes. St. Alphonsus Rodriguez, porter of the college, who inspired Peter to become a missionary for the slaves was canonized at the same time. PATRON: Against slavery; foreign missions; black people; race relations; Colombia; diocese of Shreveport, Louisiana; diocese of Lake Charles, Louisiana. PRAYER: O God, who made Saint Peter Claver a slave of slaves and strengthened him with wonder charity and patience as he came to their help, grant, through his intercession, that, seeking the things of Jesus Christ, we may love our neighbor in deeds and in truth. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
How wonderful to see that St Peter took care of these poor slaves. I wonder sometimes about our Fellow Catholics who supported slavery and even kept slaves themselves. They went to Mass, they read the Bible , they had the teachings of the Church but still they were slavers. I suppose it all had to do with money. It reminds me that we as societies can suffer from a real communal blindness in seeing the truth. It is not that long ago , for instance, that black people in various parts of the World were refused admittance to Catholic seminaries and Catholic schools. It is a young Catholic priest who says the Mass every morning here in Spain and the three novice nuns are all from Africa. Sp strange but nice. What else as Catholics have we and are we being blind about as a Church? I suppose one of them is Clerical sexual abuse. Another would be homosexual priests, Bishops , Cardinals and (maybe) Popes. Another thing we may be blind to as a Church is the Great Apostacy, that many if not most of those who rule over us are no longer Catholics and are building a False Church. Psalm 119:18: "Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law."
SAINT OF THE DAY THURSDAY, 10 SEPTEMBER, 2026 SAINT NICHOLAS OF TOLENTINO CONFESSOR (1245 - September 10, 1305) Nicholas was born in 1245, in answer to the prayer of his holy mother. The same mother vowed him, before his birth, to the service of God. Nicholas' parents had made a pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Nicholas of Myre and had asked his intercession to obtain a child; the infant granted them was given the same name in his honor. St. Nicholas of Tolentino never lost his baptismal innocence. His austerities as a very young religious were conspicuous even in the austere Order to which he belonged, the Hermits of Saint Augustine. To the remonstrances of his superiors he only replied, How can I be said to fast, while every morning at the altar I receive my God? The demons undertook a war against his spirit of prayer, going so far as to beat him and leave him inert on the floor, but they could not separate his soul from his Lord. He did, however, remain lame for life. He conceived an ardent charity for the holy souls of purgatory, so near and yet so far from their Saviour. Often, after his Mass, it was revealed to him that the souls for whom he had offered the Holy Sacrifice had been admitted to the presence of God. He received visions, including images of Purgatory, which friends ascribed to his lengthy fasts. He had a great devotion to the recently dead, praying for the souls in Purgatory as he traveled around his parish, and often late into the night. Like many of the saints, Nicholas received from God a particular calling. It was not to feed the poor, although he did, nor to be zealous for the salvation of souls, although he was. His call was to help the Holy Souls in Purgatory. St. Nicholas had a great love for the Holy Souls. He would offer Mass, pray and do penance for them so they could more quickly enter Heaven. On a certain Saturday night as he lay in bed, Nicholas heard the voice of someone who identified himself as Fra Pellegrino of Osimo, a deceased friar whom Nicholas had known. Fra Pellegrino revealed that he was in Purgatory and begged Nicholas to offer Mass for him and for other suffering souls so that they might be set free. For the next seven days Nicholas did so and was rewarded with a second vision in which the deceased confrère expressed his gratitude and assurance that a great number of people were now enjoying the presence of God through Nicholas' prayers. As this event became known, many people approached Nicholas, asking his intercession on behalf of their own deceased relatives and friends. Saint Nicholas frequently went out of his monastery to beg for aid to the poor. He visited prisoners and the dying to administer the Last Sacraments. And this great Saint resurrected over one hundred children, on one occasion bringing back to life several who had been under water for several days. During an illness, he was ordered to eat meat by a physician, which he had made a vow never to do. A plate containing well-prepared fowl was brought to him. In the presence of several witnesses, he made the sign of the cross over it, and the bird flew away out the window. During the year preceding his death, a star always appeared over the altar where he said his Mass; afterwards it would conduct him to his cell, or lead him back again, later, to the altar. Amid his loving labors for God and man, he was haunted by thoughts of his own unworthiness. The heavens, said he, are not pure in the sight of Him whom I serve; how then shall I, a sinful man, stand before Him? One day, as he pondered on the greatness of God and his own nothingness, Mary, Queen of all Saints, appeared before him. Fear not, Nicholas, She said, all is well with you: My Son bears you in His Heart, and I am your protection. Then his soul was at rest.At the hour of his death, which occurred on September 10, he heard, it is said, the songs which the Angels sing in the presence of their Lord. He died and was buried in the chapel where he was accustomed to offer Holy Mass and say his prayers. He was canonized in 1446 by Pope Eugene IV. Three hundred and one miracles were recognized during the process. His tomb has become renowned by many more, despite the fact that his relics have been lost, save for two arms from which blood still exudes when the Church is menaced by a great danger. This occurred, for example, when the island of Cyprus was taken over by infidels in 1570. The religious of Saint Augustine continue to maintain the service of the large basilica of Saint Nicholas in Tolentino. Saint Nicholas of Tolentino, like Saint Joseph, virginal father of Jesus, has been declared a Patron of the Universal Church. PATRON: Lost souls; mariners; infants; animals; dying people; souls in purgatory. PRAYER: Assist us mercifully, O Lord, in these our supplications which we make before Thee on the feast of blessed Nicholas, thy holy Confessor: that we, who put not our trust in our own righteousness, may be succoured by the prayers of him that found favour in thy sight. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who being God, lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen. PRAYER FOR THE DECEASED BY ST. NICHOLAS: Lord, God of holiness and light. You do not allow any shadow of darkness or evil in your sight, and so in your mercy you grant to those who have left this world burdened with sin, a time of purification, applying to them the spiritual treasurers of your holy Church. Hear my prayer and through the merits of Christ, the Blessed Virgin, the saints, and all your faithful people bring to an end this time of waiting for our beloved dead, especially . In your providence you have chosen Saint Nicholas as a special intercessor on behalf of the departed. Hear also his fervent prayer for those whom I recommend to you through his intercession. Amen.
I so love the Saints who had special devotion to the Holy Souls. All Catholics should have such a Devotion, they say that above all else our very first acts of Charity should be towards the Holy Souls. I had a dream last night. I dreamt a man with a shirt and trousers that looked like he came from the 18th or nineteenth centuries stood before me. He looked slightly blackened as though covered slightly in soot and was in a cell where he was locked as though in prison. In the dream I asked him if he suffered very much and he said only as much as people suffer when they mourn someone they love very much. I was praying for a priest who died recently and he came to urgently asking prayers as he was suffering very much where he was. But it did not last long. A brief purgatory is very much to be hoped for no matter how sore.
