Happy St. Peter Claver Day! Or, in the calendar of my former terminally-corrupt Episcopalian Church, Martyrs of Memphis Day.

It has now become a multicultural must to step on Christmas by never mentioning it except in connection with other “holidays”, notably Hanukkah, aptly described by American Heritage's Frederic Schwarz (December 2000) as the “Jewish Kwanzaa.”

Somehow, however, the MSM neglects to provide the nearest Saint's day in the Christian calendar to each year's Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Passover—there are a lot of saints! So it has become a VDARE.com service (as so often) to fill the gap.

According to Catholic Online (links in original):

St. Peter Claver was born at Verdu, Catalonia, Spain, in 1580, of impoverished parents descended from ancient and distinguished families. He studied at the Jesuit college of Barcelona, entered the Jesuit novitiate at Tarragona in 1602 and took his final vows on August 8th, 1604. While studying philosophy at Majorca, the young religious was influenced by St. Alphonsus Rodriguez to go to the Indies and save "millions of perishing souls."

In 1610, he landed at Cartagena (modern Colombia), the principal slave market of the New World, where a thousand slaves were landed every month. After his ordination in 1616, he dedicated himself by special vow to the service of the Negro slaves-a work that was to last for thirty-three years. He labored unceasingly for the salvation of the African slaves and the abolition of the Negro slave trade, and the love he lavished on them was something that transcended the natural order.

Boarding the slave ships as they entered the harbor, he would hurry to the revolting inferno of the hold, and offer whatever poor refreshments he could afford; he would care for the sick and dying, and instruct the slaves through Negro catechists before administering the Sacraments. Through his efforts three hundred thousand souls entered the Church. Furthermore, he did not lose sight of his converts when they left the ships, but followed them to the plantations to which they were sent, encouraged them to live as Christians, and prevailed on their masters to treat them humanely. He died in 1654.

I have a vague feeling that St. Peter Claver (and especially his portrait, above) would now be viewed as Politically Incorrect for some reason. But that's how he spent his life.

The Martyrs of Memphis were Episcopalian nuns who stayed in Memphis, Tennessee to tend to the sick (including a home for black children) duriing the 1878 Yellow Fever epidemic; several, including their superior, Sister Constance, died.

That's how they spent their lives. It's a pattern.

Oh, and it's also Rosh Hashnanah.

Unlike the unpleasant War On Christmas perpetrators, VDARE.COM wishes all our readers a Blessed Day. We mean it.