Editing Peter Claver (section)

==Ministry to the enslaved==
[[File:131 Cathedral San Pedro Claver Dome Cartagena.JPG|thumb|[[Iglesia de San Pedro Claver, Cartagena|Church of St. Peter Claver]] in [[Cartagena, Colombia]], where Claver lived and ministered]]Whereas Sandoval had visited the slaves where they worked, Claver preferred to head for the wharf as soon as a slave ship entered the port. Boarding the ship, he entered the filthy and diseased holds to treat and minister to their badly treated, terrified human cargo, who had survived a voyage of several months under miserable conditions. It was difficult to move around on the ships, because those trafficking in slaves filled them to capacity. The slaves were often told they were being taken to a land where they would be eaten. Claver wore a cloak, which he would lend to anyone in need. A legend arose that whoever wore the cloak received lifetime health and was cured of all disease. After the slaves were herded from the ship and penned in nearby yards to be scrutinized by crowds of buyers, Claver joined them with medicine, food, bread, and lemons. With the help of interpreters and pictures which he carried with him, he gave basic instructions.<ref name="ewtn">{{Cite web|url=http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/P/stpeterclaver.asp|title=EWTN's Saints and other Holy People Home|website=EWTN's Saints and Other Holy People|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180226151125/http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/P/stpeterclaver.asp|archive-date=26 February 2018|access-date=2018-08-22}}</ref>

Once baptized, Claver saw the slaves as fellow Christians, and encouraged others to treat them as such. During the season when slavers were not accustomed to arrive, he traveled the country, visiting plantation after plantation, to give spiritual consolation to the slaves.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=June 1854|title=The Saints and Beatified Servants of God Who Have Flourished in America|url=https://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/AMSAINTS.HTM|url-status=dead|journal=The Metropolitan|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180822145450/https://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/AMSAINTS.HTM|archive-date=22 August 2018|via=Eternal World Television Network}}</ref> During his 40 years of ministry it is estimated that he personally catechized and baptized 300,000 slaves.  He would then follow up on them to ensure that as Christians they received their Christian and [[civil rights]]. His mission extended beyond caring for the slaves, however. He preached in the city square, to sailors and traders and conducted country missions, returning every spring to visit those he had baptized, ensuring that they were treated humanely. During these missions, whenever possible he avoided the hospitality of planters and overseers; instead, he would lodge in the same quarters as the slaves.<ref name="peterclaver1"/>

Claver's work on behalf of the enslaved did not prevent him from ministering to the souls of well-to-do members of society, traders and visitors to Cartagena (including Muslims and English Protestants) and condemned criminals, many of whom he spiritually prepared for death; he was also a frequent visitor at the city's hospitals. Through years of unremitting toil and the force of his own unique personality, the slaves' condition slowly improved. In time he became a moral force, the [[Apostle]] of Cartagena.<ref name="peterclaver1"/>