Slave of the blacks: a visit to San Pedro Claver church and cloister

Known as the “slave of the blacks”, San Pedro Claver was a revered yet polemical character who dedicated his life to the aid of slaves. A visit to his eponymous church and cloister in Cartagena is recommended.

A historic colonial city

Cartagena sweats history. It was founded in 1533 on the site of an indigenous settlement by Pedro de Heredia. With its strategic location, it quickly became the main Spanish port on the Caribbean coast and the most important gateway to South America, growing rich on the cargo, including humans, that passed through the city.

The old town, surrounded by thick walls to protect against invaders, is packed with preserved colonial churches, plazas and mansions. Ambling around the old town and soaking up its rich, and often bloody history, is the best way to appreciate the city. On one such meander, I stumbled upon San Pedro Claver church and cloister.

It was named after Pedro Claver, a Spanish Jesuit born monk that lived and died in the humble cloister. Beside it is an imposing baroque church, its facade built from golden coraline rock, and now the resting place for Claver’s bones.

The open square is busy with tourists and hawkers trying to attract their attention. Facing the church is an up-market colonial hotel, beside which are rusted iron sculptures, skeletal figures designed by Carmona, a local artist, depicting traditional life in Cartagena. The square is connected to Plaza de la Aduana, the city’s old slave market and where a statue of Christopher Columbus stands today.

The early life of Pedro Claver

Pedro Claver was born in Catalonia in 1580, just 70 years after King Ferdinand of Spain legitimised the culture of slavery by giving permission to directly import slaves from Africa.

Claver studied in Barcelona and Mallorca and entered the society of Jesus in 1602. 8 years later he moved to modern-day Colombia to continue his theological education and was ordained in 1616.

In Cartagena, the main centre of the slave trade in the new world, he met Jesuit Alonso de Sandoval, author of De instauranda Aethiopum salute, the earliest known book length study of African ethnicity and culture which included an expose on slavery. Against the custom, Alonso would baptise the slaves as they arrived at the port. Inspired by his colleague, Claver started doing the same.

The slave trade

By this time, the slave trade had been established for over a century. Mine owners considered indigenous people ill-suited to work in their mines and so met their labour requirements by importing people purchased in West Africa. Others were captured at random, especially able-bodied males and females deemed suitable.

“The slave of the blacks”

The miserable conditions of the enslaved people aboard ships and in the pens of Cartagena prompted Pedro to declare himself “the slave of the blacks forever”. He dedicated his life to relieving their suffering.

Accompanied by interpreters and carrying food and medicines, he would board incoming slave ships and visit the pens, where he tended to the sick, comforted the distraught and terrified captives, and taught religion.

During the fallow season when slave ships were less common, Claver would visit, slaves on local plantations to encourage their faith and to ask their masters to treat them humanely. During these visits, he often refused the hospitality of the plantation owners, preferring to stay in the slave quarters.

Despite opposition from proponents of the lucrative trade, Pedro continued for 38 years, preaching against the ill-treatment and baptising an estimated 300,000 enslaved individuals.

A visit to San Pedro Claver church and cloister

The cloister is a three story building that surrounds a tranquil and jungle-like courtyard. It’s been turned into an eclectic museum, each room covering a different theme. One shows Haitian paintings and African masks, another is covered from wall to wall with pencil sketches of Afro faces, perhaps a tribute to the countless slaves that passed through the city and their descendents.

On the third level, there’s a thought-provoking exhibition dedicated to feminism, possibly inspired by the saint’s progressivism. Other rooms show religious iconography and paintings of every bishop the city has had (predominantly male and white – despite over 36% of the population being black – 2005 census). Paintings along the colonnade tell the story of Calver’s life. A highlight is the visit to the humble and dark cell where the saint lived and died.

The adjacent church, which can be admired from the choir stall, shows off impressive stained glass windows and a spectacular altar made of Italian marble. Below which you can find the saint’s remains, including his visible skull.

Future legacy

Claver died in 1654 in the cloister, having been confined to his cell for the previous four years after contracting the plague. It’s said that when news of his death spread, such big crowds, many seeking relics, came to the church that soldiers had to be called to protect his body. The city authorities, who had considered him an annoyance for his advocacy, ordered a public funeral and buried him with pomp and ceremony.

In 1896, he was canonised by Pope Leo XIII, who proclaimed him patron of all Roman Catholic missions to African peoples. He is also the patron saint of those in slavery and the Republic of Colombia.

Pedro Claver is the saint that has most impressed me after the life of Christ.

Pope Leo XIII

In 2017, Pope Francis honoured the saint on his final day of his visit to Colombia.

However, the saint for some is still a divisive figure. Katie Grimes, author of Fugitive Saints: Catholicism and the Politics of Slavery, believes that the way the church celebrates Claver as “the saint of the slave trade” upholds racism more than it undermines it.

She argues that it gives the impression the church was historically fighting racist practices rather than actively participating in them. Instead of searching inside itself for racial heroes, Grimes believes, the church should celebrate the black fugitives who sought refuge outside of it.

Perhaps they should. Even still it’s no surprise that a church that today struggles for relevance continues to celebrate a figure that went against societal norms to support the downtrodden.

Further information

Entry costs 24,000 pesos for foreigners and 16,000 pesos for Colombians. You can hire a guide for 30,000 pesos. Opening hours are 10am – 5pm.

The address is Plaza de San Pedro Claver, Cra. 4 #30-01.

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