ST PETER CLAVER’S CHURCH
DULWICH CATHOLIC
PAUL SCOTT
A brief history of this Church is given below. However, if you want to begin your tour of the Church immediately, tap / click on START . You can also access intermediate points in the tour by a tap / click on the following links:
HISTORY
Year Built: 1919, 1964
Address: 8 Stuart Road, Dulwich SA 5065
The area served by St Peter Claver’s Church, Dulwich was once part of a wider eastern Adelaide parish. In 1919 the first St Peter Claver church was built on the site of the present St Patrick’s Special School. In 1934 Dulwich became a separate parish but it was not until 1964 that the current St Peter Claver church was dedicated.
The church has always formed a key part of the Dulwich and Burnside community.
There is a very active community worshipping at St Peter Claver’s. As well as regular Masses there is Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, there are choirs, a sewing group and a conference of the St Vincent de Paul Society.
https://www.adelcathparish.org/our-communities/st-peter-claver
St Peter Claver
Born: 1581 Spain
Died: 1654 (aged 73) Cartagena Colombia
St Peter Claver (Spanish San Pedro Claver) was a Jesuit missionary to South America who, in dedicating his life to the aid of enslaved Africans, earned the title of ‘apostle of the Negroes’.
Peter entered the Society of Jesus in 1602 and eight years later was sent to Cartagena, where he was ordained in 1616. The miserable condition of enslaved people aboard ships and in the pens of Cartagena, South America’s chief slave market, caused Peter to declare himself ‘the slave of the Negroes forever’; he dedicated the rest of his life to alleviating their suffering. Accompanied by interpreters and carrying food and medicines, he boarded every incoming slave ship and visited the pens, where he nursed the sick, comforted the distraught and terrified captives, and taught religion. Despite strong official opposition, Peter persevered for 38 years, baptizing an estimated 300,000 enslaved individuals. He also visited them on the local plantations to encourage their faith and to exhort their masters to treat them humanely; during these visits he often refused the hospitality of the plantation owners and instead stayed in the slave quarters.
He was canonized by Pope Leo XIII, who in 1896 proclaimed him patron of all Roman Catholic missions to African peoples. Peter is also the patron saint of those in slavery and of the Republic of Colombia.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Peter-Claver
