A Spanish Jesuit priest and missionary born September 8, 1518 in Verdu Catalonia, Spain;  died September 4, 1654 in Cartagena, Colombia. He dedicated his life to minister and to aide African slaves who survived the long journey from their homeland for forty years until his death. St. Peter Claver actually boarded slave ships when they arrived in port to provide aide to the African “cargo.” It is estimated that St Peter Claver baptized over 300,000 slaves. St Peter Claver became known as the “Apostle of the Negros.”  He is considered the heroic example of Christian love and of human rights.  He arrived in Cartagena, Columbia a major slave trading port in colonial times.  It was the key city in the new world for the administration and expansion of the Spanish empire and the center of ecclesiastical, political and economic power of Spain.  Pope Paul III condemned the slave trade and Pope Urban VIII later prohibited it through a papal decree. St Peter Claver is the patron saint of slaves, African Americans, The Republic of Columbia, seafarers as well as The Knights of Peter Claver and Ladies Auxiliary, the largest African American fraternal society in the United States.