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For a few brief years early in the seventeenth century, two Jesuit saints-in-the-making lived together on the beautiful Mediterranean island of Majorca. Alphonsus Rodriguez, the respected older brother at the Jesuit College there, had taken under his wing Peter Claver, a devoted young seminarian.
During their time together, Rodriguez set a fire in Claver’s heart for the mission that would become his life’s work. “I can’t tell you how much it grieves me to think that God is unknown in the greater part of the world, because so few go there to make him known,” Rodriguez would say. “The seas have already been charted by greed. Can’t love cross them as well? If you love the glory of God’s house, go to the Indies and save these perishing people.” These words—and many more like them—made an indelible mark on Claver and shaped the young man’s vision for his life.
The Path to the New World. Peter Claver was born into a farming family in Catalonia, Spain, in 1580. After studying at the University of Barcelona, he decided to become a Jesuit. When he…
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