A Saint in the Slave Trade

Captured and separated from all he loved, fettered down in a ship amid relentless waves and disease, he lived at the mercy of his captors. Water and food were scarce, prisoners were tortured and tormented, and the heat and decrepitude were intolerable. Many succumbed to death, while others committed suicide or were killed.

This is the desperate situation into which St. Peter Claver (1581-1684) voluntarily entered. Author Arnold Lunn reflects that St. Peter, a learned and gifted priest, became the "slave of the slaves" in order to become a father to the fatherless. He lived in the slave ships of the West Indies to care for the sick and bring the gospel and the sacraments to the hopeless.

In A Saint in the Slave Trade, Lunn reveals how, from the early days of Christianity, the Church has worked to uphold the dignity, rights, and freedom of slaves and that man