SILENT
THUNDER
A LIFE OF PETER
DONDERS, CSSR
By Andrew Costello, CSSR
INTRODUCTION
On May 23, 1982, Pope John Paul II declared Peter
Donders “Blessed”. This was the next to the last step before the Church can
call him a “Saint”.
Perhaps you never heard of this
man of perseverance, this man of “silent thunder”, this priest who worked for
over 44 years in Surinam, a
former Dutch colony on the Atlantic side of the northern tip of South America.
“Donders” means “thunder”. The
word even sounds like it. Those who knew
Peter Donders, knew when he was around — like thunder — but he was silent. He
was a quiet, steady form of God’s love and God’s power to all those he served.
This short life is dedicated to
this remarkable man.
FROM HOLLAND
He was born on October 27, 1809 in Tilburg, Netherlands.
His baptismal record in the parish church
of St. Denis shows that
Peter was baptized the same day he was born.
His father, Arnold, had several
tragedies in his life. The script of his life sounds like it is straight out of
the book of Job. His first wife, Jane Van Wanroy died on May 16, 1781, leaving him no children.
They had been married less than 2 years. Shortly afterwards he married Jane
Mary Van der Waarden. They had 2 children, both of whom died in childhood. A
few years she too died. A while later he married a woman named Petronilla van
den Brekel. They had 2 children: Peter and Martin. When Peter was 6 his mom
died. Less than 2 years later, on May 19, 1817, his dad married Jane Mary Van de Pas.
They were very poor. At the age
of 12 Peter had to drop out of school to help his dad, who was a weaver.
Around 50 years later, Peter
Donders, looking back on his childhood, wrote that his dream was to become a
priest. “It pleased the good God to give me at any early age, about five or six
years, an ardent desire for the priesthood in order to work for the salvation
of souls so dear to him.”
MINOR SEMINARY
All through his adolescent years,
even though he left school, Peter never lost his dream of one day becoming a
priest.
At the age of 22 he entered St.
Michael’s Minor Seminary – especially because of the encouragement of two of
his parish priests..
Peter Donders will probably end
up as the patron saint we pray to for patience and perseverance. All through
his life he was one of those steady, reliable types. He was the type that never
gives up – the type that keeps
struggling on step by step till the job is done. He must have learned from his
dad the weaver, that thread by thread the cloth is made.
Peter had some tough problems to
cope with in life. Besides his job he had to deal with students who were much
younger, some as much as 10 years. Many were financially and academically better
off. Seeing Peter the servant, seeing that he was shy, awkward and poorly
clothed, some thought themselves better than he. Various nicknames resulted,
for example, “The Scarecrow”.
Once there his teachers didn’t
think he was bright enough, so they let him stay in the seminary as a domestic
servant and maintenance man. This didn’t kill his dream either. Within a year
he was taking courses on the side, continuing his regular job at the seminary.
In the classroom Peter found
himself in what must have seemed a foreign land. He had been away from the
books too long. He often had no idea what his teachers were talking about. When
this caused laughter because of his comments, his teachers got angry at times.
This brought even more jokes from his fellow students.
The different books on Peter
Donders say he took all this in stride. He was not going to allow anything to
block him on the road to the priesthood. But once Peter became known, he became
liked. In modern psychological terms, “Once he became a person to them, most
treated him like one.”
After Donders death, a Father
Odenhoven reported the following. He had heard it from contemporaries of Father
Donders, “He was generally among the lowest in the class; and the lack of time
for his studies is sufficient explanation. Examinations on the Bible were an
exception, as he usually came first or close to the top. The students teased
him but were generally fond of him. They supplied him with writing materials,
books and so on, and they helped him with his lessons, mathematics, history and
the rest “ 1
In the seminary, because of Peter
Donders, the name “Peerke” (Dutch for Peter) became the traditional name at St.
Michael’s given to students of exceptional piety. Those around him began to
know that behind his smile and sense of joy, there was a deep well of holiness
and spirituality.
MAJOR SEMINARY
At the age of 26 Peter was ready
for the major seminary. He had been averaging 80 in his studies. The questions
now were: What seminary should he go to? Who was going to pay for it? His
family couldn’t. His dad had died 2 years earlier. His stepmother had moved
from Tilburg.
His brother, Martin, was mentally handicapped.
The president of the major
seminary at Herlaar, Philip Van de Ven, knew him while he was at St. Michael’s.
He suggested that Peter ask a religious order to accept him. Perhaps the reason
was financial, but it was also well known that Peter wanted to be a missionary
priest. He tried the Jesuits, the Redemptorists, and the Franciscans. All refused. Peter didn’t give up. He went
back to the president of the major seminary. He accepted Peter. Arrangements
were made for Peter to receive financial aid from “grants” established by
benefactors for needy students.
Peter found the major seminary
easier than the minor seminary. Philosophy and theology were easier than Latin
and some of the courses he had trouble with at St. Michael’s.
His reputation for holiness and
zeal grew. This does not mean that Peter was not human. Unfortunately, that’s
how “saints” were often pictured in past centuries. To some “saint” meant an
aloof character on a pedestal far above people — whose job was to take the joy
out of life.
Peter Donders was a quiet
character. He wasn’t a loner, but all through his life many times he had to
deal with being alone. Not the life of the party type, he did enjoy get
togethers and games at the seminary. His biographers tell us that he drank beer
and smoked a pipe. Reading about him, one gets the impression that he was a
person you would experience a feeling of peace with. He was a good listener. He
was one of those persons you would never be scared to ask a favor. He was a “saint” with a smile.
In fact all through his life the
word “saint” was used in regards to Donders — from back in the parish he grew up
in — through the minor and major seminaries — and all through his years in
Surinam. Years later a fellow student said
“While in the seminary Peter was an example of all the virtues; we used
to revere him as a saint.”2 After Donders’ death, another priest, now in
his eighties, spoke about his days in the seminary with Peter, “I must say that
I never met a man more spiritual, a meeker man, a man more God-fearing, or more
charitable toward his neighbor. And I will add that it is well-nigh impossible
to find one who surpasses him in these virtues.”3
Knowing that Peter wanted to go
to the foreign missions, his teacher, guide, and his former parish priest,
Father Van Someren suggested that he go to Surinam, one of the Dutch missions.
If Peter wasn’t opposed to that idea, he said he would speak to the Apostolic
Prefect of the Mission
there, Bishop James Groof. When Groof came to the seminary a short time later
in search of priests for Surinam,
Peter met him and agreed to go there after his ordination.
And that’s how Peter Donders
ended up going to Surinam.
At one point he thought he would be going to North America,
because of the huge, need for priests there. How often the direction of someone’s
life flows from a single comment while having a cup of coffee or in a classroom
or in the confessional or in the sacristy or in a corridor as we move from one
room to another room in our lives. It’s like the day Jesus walked along the Sea of Galilee and called Peter to “Come after me and I
will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19). That morning Peter didn’t know
the whole direction of his life would change that day. So too Peter Donders as
he told Bishop Groof he wanted to go to Surinam.
SURINAM
In July of 1841 Peter Donders was
ordained a priest. However it wasn’t till the following: year — on August 1st, 1842,
- that he would set sail for Surinam.
Delays, more schooling, and various preparations got in the way.
The trip took 46 days. Peter
never returned to Holland spending the last 44 years of his life
working in Surinam.
Perhaps the hardest part of the trip was not being able to say Mass. He tried to pick
up a chalice in Amsterdam
but couldn’t come up with one. And on the morning of August 1st when
he was saying his prayers in the parish church before saying Mass, someone came
up behind him, tapped him on the shoulder and told him that his ship was about
to leave. He ran without saying Mass.4
Peter had a rough idea what Surinam or
Dutch Guyana was like from his readings — and also from the talk given by
Bishop Groof to the seminarians in the beginning of 1839.
Priests were urgently needed.
That was the heart of Groof’s message.
The Amerindians, the slaves, those with leprosy, the blacks, the
colonists, and the various other peoples there all needed priests who could
challenge them to lead a more spiritual life. Groof spoke of the mosquitoes,
the sickness, and the various other hardships of a missionary’s life in Surinam.
Peter was the only one who
answered his appeal. On September
16, 1842, his ship the Rathuizen, came in sight of Surinam. They sailed up the Surinam
River to the port and capital, Paramaribo. Bishop Groof
and a great crowd of people met their new priest, Father Peter Donders, and
accompanied him to the cathedral.
In this opening address that day,
Bishop Groof spoke of an “iron cross” that Father Donders would have to carry.
That’s how he described the demands of the work of a priest in Surinam.
“Jesus said to all: `Whoever
wishes to be my follower must deny his very self, take up his cross each day,
and follow in my steps. Whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever
loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit does he show who gains the
whole world and destroys himself in the process? If a man is ashamed of me and
my doctrine, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory
and that of his Father and his holy angels. I assure you, there are some
standing here who will not taste death until they see the reign of God.” (Luke
9:23-27)
Before his death 44 years later
Peter Donders tasted the reign or the Kingdom
of God in Surinam. His life was a daily
picking up of an “iron cross” because Surinam was a difficult place to
work in.
It was 5 times larger than the Netherlands.
Its population, its tropical climate, and most everything else was obviously
different than Holland.
Travel was usually by boat, because water is synonymous with Surinam. The
word “Surinam” is an
Amerindian word meaning “Rocky Waters” and the word “Guyana”
is the Amerindian word of “Land
of Many Waters”. First
there is the Atlantic, then there are the many
rivers in the coastal lowlands. Above the lowlands is a narrow belt of sandy
soil. Then one comes to a grassy, higher and almost dense, impenetrable
tropical jungle of inner hills, mountains and more rivers.
Its population today is around
400,000 – most of whom (160,000) live in the capital, Paramaribo. In Father Donders’ day the
population was less than half that. When he arrived, besides Paramaribo, there were only 2 other towns or
villages, New Rotterdam and Coronie.
Surinam
is a territory of 70,087 square miles – roughly the size of Missouri
or Oklahoma.
Its people were Dutch, Indian, Black, Mulatto, and a host of other peoples from
all over the world – especially from other Dutch colonies.
Three years later Peter Donders
wrote back to Father Van Someren in the seminary the following description of Surinam “Would you like to have a rough outline of
what this colony of ours is like? Imagine then, a vast forest, just as it came
from the Creator’s hands: Ipse dixit et
facta sunt – a forest stretching coastwise for a distance of more than a
hundred and eighty miles, with a depth, in the direction of the Tumac Humac
mountains, which I have never heard stated precisely. Imagine a forest
consisting of every species of tree – species beyond all reckoning – and alive
with every species of wild beast - tigers, monkeys, etc. – including an
enormous number of snakes, most of them poisonous. Lastly imagine this
immeasurable virgin forest intersected by rivers and streams alive, not only
with fish of many kinds, but also with crocodiles and sharks. Though most
fertile, a relatively small part of this country is under cultivation, as, up
to the present, none but slaves have been employed on the land. Outside the
town, which contains but few residences and looks as though it were buried in
the depths of the forest there are numerous plantations.”5
PARAMARIBO
When Peter arrived, Paramaribo had a
population of around 18,000 people. 2,000 were Catholics.
Like a tourist everything around
him was an “eye opener”. The Cathedral was a wooden construction. It flanked one of the oldest and principal
streets in the city: the “Gravenstraat”. Peter went out each day, walking up
and down streets that were shaded by mahogany trees, streets with Dutch names
like “Herenstraat”, “Wagenwegstraat” and “Keizerstraat”. The better homes were
brightly colored with stilted balconies. He went down to the people in the
markets and to Independence Square
– which in Dutch was “Onaflankelijkheidsplein”.
But Peter was no tourist. He had
come to preach and teach people about the love and will of God. He was surprised by the immorality and vice
in the city and how people seemed to live with little thought of God.
“Come to me, all you who are
weary and find life burdensome, and I will refresh you. Take my yoke upon your
shoulders and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart. Your souls
will find rest, for my yoke is easy and my burden light”. (Matthew 12:
28-30)
That was exactly what Peter
Donders wanted to do — to bring all people to Christ, so that He could refresh
them and help them carry the burdens of life. He wanted all to see their own
individual value —to help people to step back from their life, to step back
from their sins, to step back from their everyday small talk and pursuits, to
step back in prayer and see the importance of their souls, to hear God’s call
to each person to understand that they will only be happy by doing the Father’s
will.
The language of Surinam is a
form of “pigeon English”. It has developed through the years. Today it is
called “Taki-taki” or “Sran Tongo”. Peter picked up this language very well and
became a master at it.
The language of sermons
everywhere was this “pigeon English”, but in the Cathedral of Paramaribo, it
was Dutch. It wasn’t till October 31st, 1842
– 45 days after Peter arrived, that he preached his first sermon at the
Cathedral. The topic was the value of
the individual soul. That one idea, that single theme, sums up Peter’s main
reason for being a priest, his main reason for coming to Surinam – the
value of every person in God’s eyes.
Peter’s first 55 days were not
all spent in Paramaribo.
The Prefect Apostolic, to give him a larger picture of Surinam, and also to show him one of his special
loves, took him to Batavia,
the colony for people with leprosy. At the time it housed around 600 people.
They set out by boat on October 7th or 8th and didn’t
return till October 20th. On the way back they stopped at a few of
the sugar and cotton plantations to visit the slaves.
Peter, during those first 55
days, experienced what he was to experience for the next 44 years — visiting
the sick, preaching, taking care of the people in the city, and seeing the
people in the interior – especially the poorest and most abandoned.
PARISH PRIEST
Paramaribo was Peter’s first assignment. He spent his first 14 years there — much of
the time in the city, but at various times he made trips into the interior.
Donders’ daily schedule at Paramaribo was as
follows: He would get up very early and go to the church to pray. Then he would
say Mass at 7. After Mass he would take 15 minutes for thanksgiving prayers.
Then he would go to the rectory for a quick cup of coffee. At 8 o’clock he taught at the school.
Half the class time was devoted to praying and catechism and the other half to
reading and writing. Next he would visit
the sick and other people in the town – especially sinners.
He would aim to get back to the
rectory by noon. He would
have dinner and then go to the cathedral to pray. At that time in his life he
didn’t take the traditional siesta. Next he would teach the First Communion
children or make further visits to people in town. At times he would stop and
play the organ.
At seven in the evening he would
give adult instructions. For the remainder of the evening he would sit around
and chat with the other priests — often far into the night. Once Bishop Schaap asked Donders, “Tell me, Father,
how on earth did you become such a heavy smoker?” His answer about his pipe smoking was “Oh, ever since I used to sit up late – often
till midnight – with Mgr.
Groof.” In his life of Peter Donders,
Father John Kronenburg, C.SS.R. says that Groof was an insomniac.6
Groof realized pretty quickly
that he had an amazing priest with him
— besides a friend who would talk with him late into the night. Two
months after Donders arrived, Bishop Groof wrote to the Procurator of the Surinam mission in Holland, “I have not the smallest doubt but
that Father Donders is going to be a source of great relief and consolation to
me in the midst of my many worries. It is clearly the one wish of the young
missionary to share with me both the heats of the day and the burden of the
ministry.” Kronenberg adds that 5 weeks later Bishop Groof wrote again to the
Procurator, “May God soon raise us up another Father Donders. He is a great
help and a great comfort to me.”7
During those 14 years in
Paramaribo Donders saw his friend Groof changed to Java. He was appointed Vicar
Apostolic there. This was a severe blow to Surinam because Groof was a
remarkable worker. He was appointed Prefect Apostolic of Surinam when he was
only 27 –serving in that position from
1827-1843. And for a brief period – May
of 1853 to September of 1854 – Donders himself held the office of Pro-vicar
while Most Rev. Scheepers, who had been Pro-vicar for some years went to Holland for his episcopal
consecration.
After Peter died many witnesses
gave story after story in the Paramaribo
process of Donders life about how marvelous a parish priest he was during those
14 years. They told of his tremendous energy and strength, especially during
epidemics (for example, the yellow fever epidemic that struck in 1853 and took
thousands of lives), his great love of children and their love for him, his
ability to reach people stuck in sin, his long hours in the confessional, and
his prayer life. Nicola Ferrante says in his life of Donders that he had a
great ability to move people in his sermons because he too “was profoundly and
obviously moved.”8
In 1874, looking back on his 14
years in Paramaribo, Donders wrote, “It was God who fired me with an intense
desire to save souls; He Himself satisfied that desire by heaping apostolic
work upon me . . . In all my trials He never denied me His gifts of patience or
submission to His holy will.”9
THE PLANTATIONS
During those first 14 years as a
parish priest in Paramaribo, Peter Donders also
visited the plantations and the colony for those with leprosy at Batavia.
In the chronicles of the Surinam
mission we read, “Father Donders was the first priest who, on taking up his
residence in Paramaribo, undertook the systematic visitation of the plantations
on the Lower Surinam and, on the Commewijne, and often also of those on the
Upper Surinam and the Saramacca. Other
priests, indeed, visited individual plantations, but the fact remains that
Father Donders was the first to take an energetic initiative in this important
work and to ensure its stability.”10
In 1843, his second year in Surinam, Peter
began this work. In the beginning he was allowed into only 2 plantations. By
1852 he was allowed into 12. The number of Catholics amongst the “slaves” had
grown to a total of 1145.
The plantations were located
along the rivers that make up much of Surinam. In 1842 there were around
40 to 50 thousand “slaves” working on the plantations. Cattle, coffee, cotton,
sugar, were just some of the crops and work the “slaves” took care of.
Peter was shocked at the living
and working conditions of these people. Father Oomen, who worked with Donders
and also in visiting the plantations, said that Father Donders was horrified at
the condition of the slaves and his earnest wish was to see the practice
abolished.11
In his book about slavery, The Shameful Trade, F. George Kay said,
“The purchase or capture of some fifty million human beings month in and month
out for a period of four centuries was perhaps the greatest crime against
humanity ever perpetrated by Christendom, not least because those responsible
for the most part saw no moral evil in treating men, women, and children as
merchandise.”12
Instead of the word “merchandise”
Donders used the word “cattle”. He wrote
back to Holland,
“If only the folk here would care for their slaves as well as those at home do
for their cattle, how much better it would be.” He goes on, “If I were to tell
you all that I myself have seen and heard – but I had better pass it over in
silence, for it goes beyond all that one can imagine. I shudder when I think of
it and with pity in my heart I am forced to cry out: `Woe, woe to Surinam on the
Last Day, the Day of Judgment! Woe, a thousand times, woe to the Europeans, the
slave owners, the administrators, the managers, the overseers and all those who
rule over the slaves! O wretched men,
who enrich themselves at the cost of the sweat and blood of the poor slaves who
find no protection but in God.’”13
Like Donders, a Rev. John Newton
also used the word “cattle” when he described what the slave trade did to those
who were in it. He had first hand experience, because before his conversion, he
was a captain of a slave ship. He said that it “renders most of those who are
engaged in it too indifferent to the sufferings of their fellow creatures and that
the necessity of treating the Negroes as like cattle gradually brings a
numbness upon the heart.”14
What it did to the “slaves” was
much worse. Many died on their forced “passage” from inside Africa
to the coastal towns. They were forced to carry huge bundles of raw material to
the coast like beasts of burden. Then for the “mid-passage” – the journey
across the sea – they had to travel in
slave ships that were filthy. The air was foul.
On the floors and benches in the hold of the ship was blood, mucus and
human excrement. The “slaves” were chained and tied. Many attempted escapes and
were killed. Many went insane. Many committed suicide. 12% died on the
journey. Another 25% died within a few months
of arrival. The number of people who were forced into slavery vary from 5
million to 100 million.
Besides the uprooting and the
passage to America,
there was the horror of being sold and placed in a work camp or plantation.
That’s where Donders came in. He fought government and plantation officials to
improve the lot of the “slaves”. The slaves where Peter Donders visited came
mainly from Ghana, Togo and Angola. A naturalist, a woman, from
the 1700’s wrote the following about a certain plant found in Surinam, “This plant is used by the Indian women
of Surinam
to induce abortion. The Indian women of Surinam are very horribly treated
by their white enslavers and do not wish to bear children who must live under
equally horrible circumstances. The African women who come mainly from Guinea
and Angola also use this plant to induce abortion and they may also use the
seeds to induce suicide, since they believe their bodies will die in slavery
but their souls will go back to live in Africa ... with their loved ones.”15
Besides the desire to improve their
physical situation, Donders preached the good news of Jesus Christ to
them. Their owners might be Christians
in name; Donders tried to help the “slaves” become Christians in fact. The
theology and theory of missions in past centuries has been criticized in
various ways, for example, on the issue of “rice Christians” or one Christian
denomination trying to get more converts than another Christian denomination or
Protestant and Catholic missionaries at odds with each other. With regards to
the slavery issue, there has been mention at times of Catholic nations
justifying slavery on the grounds that it was a way “these people” could now
become Christians. For example, the Portuguese are mentioned for making a big
point to baptize slaves before taking them aboard ships to Brazil. Daniel
Mannix in his history of the Atlantic slave trade, Black Cargoes, which he wrote in collaboration with Malcolm Cowley
says, “In truth those wholesale baptisms must have been ludicrous affairs, yet
they were not without meaning. They show that the Portuguese at least regarded
Africans as human beings with souls to be saved, and they help to explain why
slavery in Brazil, though as
cruel as slavery in the British West Indies,
was in some respects a more liberal institution. The English were not in the
least concerned with the souls of their black cargoes, and, unlike the
Portuguese they did not even send missionaries to Africa
until the end of the eighteenth century; they sent only dry goods, gin and
firearms. In their practical way, and with their genius for large-scale
undertakings, they probably inflicted more sufferings on the Negroes than any
other nation. On the other hand, they were also the nation that changed its
heart, and did by far the most to abolish the trade.”16
Why did Peter Donders want to get
into the plantations? Was it just to baptize people and make them Catholics? He
wanted to bring them into the Catholic Church because he saw that as the road
to their happiness. The fact that priests were so often refused into the
plantations is a good sign. In his life of Donders, Kronenburg writes, “A
refusal, and a blunt one at that, often resulted; and this for the simple
reason that many of the slave-owners hated the Catholic religion, in which they
saw a menace to their cruelty and greed, and especially to their immorality.”17
Donders was a match for them. He
patiently kept coming back and back, over and over again, till the owners and
public officials made improvements. He wore people down. And once he got his
“foot in the door,” he moved fast. He would go to a plantation by boat and ask
to speak to the “slaves”. If the man in charge said yes, Kronenburg tells us
what happened next. “If the required permission was granted, he lost no time in
availing himself of it. With the help of his men, he got his Mass-kit ashore,
tidied up a hut, a shed, a loft – pulled in benches, fixed up an altar, and –
the church was ready. Then the Bastiaan
blew the horn to cease work, and the Negroes could be seen making their way
along numerous paths and slowly massing in front of the improvised chapel.
Father Donders awaited them with a smiling countenance and had a kindly word of
welcome for them all. Notwithstanding the heat, he set to work at once. He
instructed, exhorted, settled disputes, reconciled enemies, heard confessions,
blessed marriages, baptized – and all this he did within the narrow compass of
the stuffy cabin or loft.”18
Many excellent reports about this
side of his work were given after Donders’ death. They are from doctors,
non-Catholics, catechists, plantation owners, former slaves, boatmen, other
priests, and others. They all mentioned his love and compassion and worry about
the people enslaved on the plantations. He made lasting impressions on people.
The boatmen tell of his long hours of prayer late into the night. They tell of
his giving them his bread and wine. When a young boy, Gilbert Rups, was
traveling with them, he cried out in his sleep, “Mamma, give me some water!”
Peter naturally got up and gave him some water.19
“I
was hungry and you gave me food,
I
was thirsty and you gave me drink.
I was a stranger and you welcomed me,
naked
and you clothed me.
I
was ill and you comforted me,
in
prison and you came to visit me”
(Matthew 26:35-36).
APOSTLE TO THOSE WITH LEPROSY
Peter Donders is best know for
his work with those who had leprosy.
At dinner one day in 1856, the
Vicar Apostolic, Bishop Schepers asked his missionaries, “Which of you would
like to volunteer for Batavia?”
Peter Donders immediately responded, “I
will.” This was no surprise, because he had volunteered at other times. This
time he was accepted and was appointed to Batavia,
the place people with leprosy were sent.
Father Donders was the perfect
man for the job. It needed a “saint” with patience and compassion. Peter was to
work there for close to 30 years. When he became a Redemptorist he left for a
short time so as to make his novitiate. And in 1882 Bishop Schaap transferred
him from Batavia to Paramaribo for a short time. Then he was sent
to Coronie where he worked for about 2 years. But late in 1885, when he was 77
years old, Peter was sent back to Batavia
where he died as he predicted he would.20
Batavia was set up by the government in 1824.
Around 600 people with leprosy were rounded up from several towns, villages and
plantations. Most were poor.
Around 1825, a Father
Vanderweyden worked in Batavia
and helped 120 converts become Catholics. He died in 1826 – perhaps overwhelmed
not with leprosy, but with the moral and material decay of the place. In 1849,
a Father Heininch served there. He was poisoned to death by a man who was angry
with him because he challenged him to straighten out his life. A Father Magnee
had to leave Batavia
because he was overzealous. He “rubbed” too many people the wrong way. Bishop Groof had also worked at Batavia but had to
leave. The misery of the place was too
much for him.
Donders was able to handle the
job and was excellent. An eyewitness, Laurence Doel said, “Father Donders was
always with us in Batavia.
He helped the lepers in all sorts of ways. He fetched water, tended their
sores, swept out their houses and served them in other similar ways. He did
things like these especially when there was a shortage of staff to look after
the sick; and it was mainly due to his efforts that the government eventually
provided nurses.”21 A Francine Buthil gave almost the same
testimony after Donders death: “The people of Batavia loved Father Donders, not only
because of the many kindnesses he showed us, such as bandaging our feet,
carrying water and things like that, but because he helped us by his prayers
and teaching.”22 John Kronenburg writes,
“The evidence given by the lepers during the canonical process was most
touching. With great warmth and effusiveness, they detailed the articles of
food and clothing he deprived himself of and brought personally to their
houses, `I saw him with my own eyes,’ said one, `put food and drink to the lips
of the crippled.’ He did more: he fetched them water, chopped wood for them and
carried it to their homes; and as long as there were no nurses in Batavia, he
used to sweep out and clean up their miserable hovels, made their equally
miserable beds, dress their wounds - no matter how hideous and disgusting these
might be - and wash their linen and bandages. Kneeling on the floor, he would
remove the chigoes from their feet and thus prevent swelling and intolerable
itch. And while spending himself in doing them the most loathsome services, so
little heed did he pay to his own safety, that many a time the doctors and
officials thought it their duty to warn him. `Father,’ they would say, `take
care, you are in danger of contracting the disease.’ `Not at all,’ he would
reply with a pleasant smile, `there is nothing to fear, nothing really.’ And so
saying, he went boldly, ahead. And yet this same man, who used to dress these
horrible wounds every day without ever a thought for himself, felt such
sympathy for the suffering that he could not summon up courage enough to be
present at an amputation. `One day,’ one of the lepers relates, `I had to have
a finger removed. The Father, unable to stand it, left the room; but the
operation was scarcely over when he was back again to console me.’”23
We know a lot more about leprosy
today than they did in 1856 when Peter Donders went to Batavia. In fact up until the last century
many forms of skin diseases were labeled “leprosy” that were not leprosy. In
the middle ages people with syphilis were often thought to have leprosy. In the
Bible people who are described as having leprosy, probably didn’t have leprosy.
It wasn’t till 1874 – when Peter
Donders was 64 years of age and working in Batavia — that the cause of leprosy was
discovered. A Norwegian doctor, Gerhard Hansen, discovered that it was caused
by a bacteria, Mycobacterium leprae. We now know that leprosy is not the highly
communicable disease it was once thought to be. It is transmitted by prolonged, direct,
skin-to-skin contact. But only 5% of those married to leprosy patients develop
leprosy themselves. Leprosy is rare among doctors and nurses who care for
leprosy patients. Donders was right when he said there was nothing to fear. It
is believed that people with low resistance and who come in close contact with
people who have a large amount of the germs are the ones apt to catch the
disease. We also know that males are more likely to catch it than females –
the ratio being 3 to 1. Children are
more apt to catch it than adults.
And today people are not isolated
as they once were to places like Batavia in Surinam or Molokai in Hawaii. Sulfur drugs, for example, Sulfone
and Dapsone are used. They have been found to be quite successful in the
treatment of the 2 forms of leprosy - the one that attacks the skin (lepromatous
or cutaneous leprosy) and the other type that attacks the nerves (tuberculoid
or neural leprosy).
In 1948, the International
Congress of Leprosy passed a resolution to drop the word “leper” because it
carries a definite stigma. They resolved to use the term “leprosy patient” for
a person having this disease.
Much of this was not known when
Peter was working with leprosy patients. It must have been a horrible
experience to be classified “a leper” and then sent to a place like Batavia. Mother Teresa of
Calcutta said
that the worse disease in the world – a
disease that will always be with us – is
the disease of being unwanted. If there is any physical disease that would make
a person feel unwanted, it had to be leprosy. Many of the people who had it ended
up looking “repulsive” with curled up fingers and toes and lionlike faces.
Peter Donders did his best to make the people at Batavia feel wanted and feel wanted every
day.
THE REDEMPTORISTS
In July of 1865 the “mission” of Surinam was
handed over to the Redemptorists. It was a good move because in the 17 years
before their arrival only 5 priests came to Surinam and in the 17 years after
their arrival the Redemptorists were able to send 27 priests.
On November 27, 1863, Bishop Schepers died. He had
worked in Surinam
for 33 years. His successor, the Very Rev. Father Meurkens, realized that
dependency on volunteers of secular priests from Holland was too “iffy”. So when he went to Holland, he took a trip also to Rome. He
reported to the Propaganda about Surinam. The result was that the
Vicariate Apostolic of Surinam was handed over to the Redemptorists -- and
specifically the Dutch
Province.
In 1865, the Dutch Provincial,
Father Swinkels, was appointed Vicar Apostolic and was consecrated a bishop. On
March 26th, 1866,
Bishop Swinkels, 2 other Redemptorist priests and one brother, arrived at Paramaribo. The Catholics
gave them a tremendous welcome. Father Donders was not at the celebration. He
was at Batavia.
One month later Peter was able to
go to the capital to pay his respects to the new bishop and also to seek
admission into the Redemptorists. Swinkels gave himself and Peter a few days to
think it over. The bishop asked around about Donders and found out that he was
a “saint”. A few days later he admitted Donders into the Redemptorists as a
postulant.
Peter had to go back to Batavia till a priest
could be sent to take his place while he made his novitiate. Father Van der Aa,
one of two new Redemptorists, was sent and arrived there on October 15, 1866. Donders was now
free to begin his novitiate training to become a Redemptorist.
The last remaining secular priest
in Surinam,
a Father John Romme also asked and received permission to become a
Redemptorist. After Donders’ death, Romme wrote to a Father Oomen, “I freely
declare that he (Donders) was always and in everything a source of edification
to me. I also gratefully recall that after the good God I owe my vocation to
the Congregation mainly to him. Four of five months after Bishop Swinkels’
arrival I heard that he had been received and I began to think seriously about
it myself.”24
Peter Donders had been reading
the life of the founder of the Redemptorists, St. Alphonsus Liguori. Alphonsus
had the dream of one day going to the foreign missions to serve the poorest and
most abandoned. He never fulfilled that dream, but his priests have. Moreover
that was exactly Peter Donders’ vision and that was what he was already doing:
serving the poorest and most abandoned on the foreign missions.
On November 1st, 1866, Donders and
Romme received the Redemptorist habit from Bishop Swenkels and began their
novitiate. It is interesting to note that Bishop Swenkels (like Alphonsus and
also Saint John Neumann) had also been a secular priest before becoming a
Redemptorist. The novitiate was supposed to last a year. It didn’t. It was
supposed to be a year of prayer, reflection and quiet. Like St. John Neumann,
Donders and Romme had “to work their way through their novitiate.” There was
too much work to do and such a shortage of priests.
Their novice master, Bishop
Swinkels, soon discovered that he had 2 very holy men with him — priests who
had a deep sense of the need for work, sacrifice and prayer. In fact Swinkels
wrote to the Redemptorist superior in Rome
and got permission to shorten their novitiate. Swinkels wrote the following
description of Donders, “His health is sound and his constitution remarkably
tough, proved by all sorts of holy excesses. In outward appearance he is like
the Cure of Ars. He is a man of short stature, thin, white hair, without teeth
and a little stooped. He is young at heart.
He is hard working, ready for any task, cheerful in the community, in
conduct indistinguishable from all the rest.
He has the spirit of our Congregation in its fullness. His memory is
good, and his judgment sound and enlightened.
He knows enough of the profane sciences as if of advantage to the
Negroes and Indians.”25
After their profession on June 24, 1867, Donders was
sent back to Batavia
to relieve the 2 priests who were serving there while Peter made his 8 month
novitiate. A few weeks later he was joined by a Father Gerard Verbeek C.SS.R.
For the next 15 years Batavia
was his home and except for a space of about 2 years Donders had another
Redemptorist Father as a companion.26
Donders was now a member of a
religious order — an order who had earlier refused him. It made quite a
difference in his life — giving him companionship, traditions, and a greater
meaning in his life. Various letters that he wrote bring out the joy he felt in
becoming a Redemptorist.
In 1874 he wrote to his
Redemptorist Provincial, “From the day on which, by God’s grace, I was received
into the Congregation, I did not think I ever passed a day, or even an hour,
without experiencing great joy in my holy vocation and in common life ...
except for an odd trial or temptation which I got over, by God’s grace.”27
In May of 1875, 8 years after
becoming a Redemptorist, he wrote, “I can never thank God enough for having
called me to the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. May the God of all
bounty grant me the grace to live as a true Redemptorist and to persevere until
death. Daily I ask for this from His mercy, through the intercession of the
Blessed Virgin Mary, our beloved Mother.”28
Kronenburg says that he wrote
many letters in this vein to the Redemptorists back in Holland and to the students in the
Redemptorist seminary at Wittem. He never met them personally, but more and
more he identified himself with them.29
Father Oomen, the Redemptorist Provincial,
in his notes from the canonical visitation to Surinam in 1882 wrote, “Father
Donders spoke much with me on spiritual topics, and without any affectation and
with utter artlessness. In particular, he could not say enough of his love for
the works of St. Alphonsus, on account of their unction and their great
simplicity. He spoke with the same affection of our Institute, of its work and
its growth.”30
THE INDIANS AND THE BUSH NEGROES
Besides taking care of those with
leprosy in Batavia, Peter Donders also had a
deep feeling for the Indians and bush Negroes deep in the forests of Surinam.
The vision of Isaiah, Jesus and
also Alphonsus, was his vision,
“The
spirit of the Lord is upon me;
therefore, he has anointed me.
He has sent me to bring glad tidings
to
the poor,
to proclaim liberty to captives,
Recovery of sight to the blind
and release to prisoners,
To announce a year of favor for the Lord”
(Luke 4:18-19).
When the Europeans began settling
in Surinam and the rest of Guyana, many of
the Indians refused to be their “slaves”. To survive many escaped deep into the
forests and jungles of Surinam.
Many blacks also escaped into the
interior. In his book, Black Cargoes,
Daniel Mannix writes, “There were insurrections in Surinam all through the middle
years of the eighteenth century and the escaped slaves - called `bush Negroes’
or `Djukas’ have retained their independence to this day.”31 In his book, The Slave Community,
John Blassingame gives some of the reasons why escape was easier than in the United States.
Slaves outnumbered the Europeans by at least 20 to 1 in Surinam, while
in the States the ratio was much less. There was public knowledge in Surinam that
slaves had successfully revolted and had communities in the forests. The army
was weak. And lastly there were constant importations of slaves into Latin America, 60 to 70% of whom were males. New slaves
wanted to escape more than slaves that were broken.32
The various biographies of Peter
Donders tell of his many trips into the jungles in search of these Indians and
bush Negroes. He was almost 60 when he began this work in a much more organized
way. Because he had more nurses, catechists, and now another priest at Batavia, he had a chance
to “sail” into the wilderness.
In the Batavia chronicles we can find a long
detailed description of the Indians of Surinam written by Peter Donders. On
reading it one gets the impression that Donders studied not only their
language, but also their customs and the specific differences between the 3
main tribes of Indians in Surinam:
the Caribs, the Arrowaks and the Warros.
He describes the Caribs as the
least civilized of the three. But he
also writes, “The Caribs, then with God’s help, without which we can do
nothing, we could make something out of them.”33
Today they are all Catholics due to work of people like Donders.
Some of the trips took 25 to 30
hours and more. He and his helpers had to travel hundreds of miles, through
swamps, rivers, with bugs, snakes, and all kinds of dangers surrounding them.
Donders was not only strong, but
he was fearless. Often he stood up to threats of death. He challenged the
people of the jungle whenever he saw superstition, alcoholism, and other
problems that break down life. He baptized, preached, instructed, married, and
helped people all through the bush.
In John Kronenburg’s life of
Donders, we have the following portion of a letter written by Bishop Schaap to
Mgr. Capri, the Internuncio at The
Hague. It is dated December 1, 1875. “Father Donders is the man God is making use
of to bring those poor Indians to Himself. Their conversion is singularly
arduous work, and for all that, the Father has baptized five hundred of them
and blessed sixty marriages. The extraordinary
nature of his success can be estimated only by one who has lived in the country
and seen its nomadic population at close quarters, and who has become
acquainted in detail with the appalling difficulties that confront the
missionary before he can reach these children of the forest and keep them
together on one spot for any length of time.”34
Earlier, Bishop Schaap, had asked
Father Donders about his hopes and plans for the Indians. He copied out Donders
response to these 2 questions that he asked him: “First, are there well-founded
hopes for the conversion of the Indians of Surinam?” and “Secondly, in the
event of such hopes existing, what methods are best calculated to bring about
their realization?”
Donders answered the first
question this way, “After having weighed everything before God and asked His
light in a matter of such moment, I think I am justified in giving the
following answer: Yes, there does exist a well-founded hope, inasmuch as there
does not exist the slightest doubt, as far as the Arrowakkas are concerned.
For, after all, these people are nearly all baptized and married; we have
already fifty communicants among them, and nearly all are leading good lives.
The Caribs also give me grounds for hoping that they will improve.”
To the second question Donders
answered, “By getting them together as much as possible and then having them
instructed by good catechists or schoolmasters. It would be their business to
inculcate on them the practice of their religious duties, and, in particular,
that of prayer. They would likewise teach Catechism and accustom them to
sanctify the Sunday, both morning and evening. They would also prepare the
children for confession and communion, and do the same for the adults. In the
Tibiti district, for instance, where the catechist or schoolmaster has been at
work only for the past seven or eight months, I have baptized and shall have
still to baptize more children and adults than I had to baptize for the past
three years; about thirty children are under instruction there; even old men
attend the school, and yet the Caribs on the Tibiti are the worst of all and
are as different from the Arrowakkas as chalk from cheese. The Caribs on the
Wayombo also are crying out for a teacher, and, in the hope of getting one,
those amongst them who are scattered are now willing to live together. Even men
of advanced years and old men are beginning to join up with the rest, and
numbers of them are anxious to be instructed. If only instruction could be
given in this way, we should have a well grounded hope of working with much
fruit and of one day winning them all for God. The greater number – five
hundred, exclusive of a few individuals — are already baptized; about sixty
couples are married, and there are fifty communicants, not counting those
baptized by Father Romme. With God’s help we may one day be able to establish
one or two stations. This is what I think, before God, I should write to you on
the subject. Moreover, the main point is
to pray much for their conversion. P.
Donders, C.SS.R.”35
In October of 1886, at the age of
76, Peter Donders made his last trip to see the Indians and bush Negroes. It
was a journey of 19 days. He was stationed back in Batavia at the time.
HIS DEATH
During his last few years,
besides being stationed at Batavia, he was
appointed to the community at Paramaribo. He was only there for a short time when he
was sent to the mission at Coronie. So from 1883 to 1885 Donders was away from
his beloved Batavia.
In his last sermon before he left
in 1883 he told his people “We are all
under the Bishop’s authority and must obey. However, even though the Bishop is
taking me away from here, I promise you in God’s name that I shall die among
you. In the day of resurrection I shall be among the lepers to face God’s
judgment.”36
In 1885 he was stationed back in Batavia again and that is
where he died. On December
31st, 1886 he preached for the last time. It was New
Year’s Eve and that night he suffered terrific pains.
In his excellent and valuable
collection of material and documents on Peter Donders, Samuel Boland, C.SS.R.,
tells us that `according to the necrology written by Father Bossers, the
trouble was in his kidneys, and it gradually became worse, making it clear to
everyone that the end had come.” Samuel
Boland then gives this excerpt from the necrology, “During the night of 5th-6th
January he himself asked for the Holy Sacraments, and Father John (Bakker) at
once did as he asked. On this occasion he made two requests of his confrere,
first in his name to ask the pardon of the people if he had offended them in
any way, and secondly to tell them how sad he was at the sinful lives of many
of them in spite of his repeated pleading. Rev. Father John fulfilled this
charge with great emotion during the Mass of the Epiphany. Apart from that
occasion Father Donders spoke very little during the illness, never
complaining, always satisfied with whatever was given him. In this way, fully
resigned to God’s Will and with his thoughts filled with his Jesus and the
things of heaven, he continued to suffer without losing consciousness until
3:30 in the afternoon of Friday, 14th January 1887. In that moment
the good, zealous, devout and exemplary old man gave up his soul into the hands
of his heavenly Father.”37
“The next day,” according to the
same necrology by Father Bossers, “his body, clothed in the habit, lay in the
church during Mass, which was attended by the faithful. In the afternoon he was
buried with as much ceremony as was possible in the presence of the entire
population of Batavia.
The sacred rites were performed by Fathers A. de Kuyper and J. Bakker. Father
de Kuyper had arrived the day before, an hour after the Father’s death,
bringing with him a trainee doctor for the hospital named Batemburg. At the
burial he edified all present by his sincere words on the holy life and blessed
death of the venerable old man.”
Then he adds, “Whoever knew the
saintly man called him blessed. Would that our end be like this. His body was
buried beside the grave of Rev. G. Heininnk, who had died in Batavia in 1849.”38
CONCLUSION
Peter Donders’ body remained in
that cemetery till July 26,
1900 when it was placed in the sacristy of the Cathedral of
Paramaribo. On January 21st,
1921 it was moved into the Cathedral itself, where it lies at the
foot of St. Joseph’s
altar.
After his death, the story of
this holy man, who lived 77 years, 2 months, and 13 days slowly spread. First
it was by word of mouth. Then like the gospel stories, incidents from his life
were written down. Slowly veneration and pilgrimages were made to both Paramaribo and to his home town of Tilburg,
Holland.
The process for his beatification
began in 1900. The decree for the introduction of his cause was signed in Rome on May 14, 1913. The decree of
herocity of virtues was signed on March 25, 1945. And on Sunday May 23, 1982, Pope John Paul II declared
Peter Donders “Blessed”.
POSTSCRIPT
In his life of Peter Donders,
Nicola Ferrante, C.SS.R., presents 5 of the 40 or 50 favors and miracles that
were presented in the official record of Donders’ Cause. The fifth cure, that
of Louis John Westland, was the one that the Sacred Congregation for the Causes
of the Saints approved and the one declared miraculous by Pope John Paul II on February 24, 1979.
Father Ferrante describes the
case as follows:
The Instantaneous and Complete
Cure of an Acute Osteomyelitis of the distal Metaphisis of the Right Femur.
“This is the case submitted to
the Sacred Congregation of the Causes cf. Saint: for the beatification of
Venerable Donders. It concerns a baby, Louis John Westland, born in Tilburg, Holland
on April 17, 1928.
On August 1, 1929
he was stricken with a severe swelling of the knee. An x-ray taken on August
22, revealed a deterioration of the bone corresponding to the interior femoral
condil on the right side. The swelling was lanced on August 27 and the wound
was dressed daily. When no improvement resulted, new x-rays were taken on
November 5. These confirmed the continuing condition of Osteomyelitis: ‘There
is still inflammation of the bone — in fact it is more visible now than
previously.’ As a consequence of the
inflammation one can discern with sufficient certitude a small fragment of
decayed bone. With a view to removing this fragment and the cause of the
inflammation the doctors gathered at the child’s bedside for consultation a
little after 9:30 p.m. on
November 6. The child’s grandfather, an eyewitness, tells us: the wound looked
worse than ever, more than an inch long; the inner opening (the fistula) was
about a quarter of an inch wide. The doctor scheduled an operation for November
12. Meanwhile the tiny leg was wrapped in a regular bandage with moist
compresses and enclosed in a tube of cardboard.
“In the morning of November 7 the
parents awoke to find the baby already standing in its crib — the bandage off
to one side and the tube on the other. The wound was closed and dry. In the
father’s words: `We tried every way we could to see if our child had any pain —
pressing and pinching, twisting and turning the leg, but he showed no pain or
discomfort at all. In fact he slipped out of my hands and scampered away from
me.’
“Within seven or eight hours an
open inch-long wound had completely closed — a feat normally requiring six to
eight days. Further, a bone fragment was eliminated which normally required an
operation or the passage of considerable time.
“Louis’ parents have always
attributed his cure to Father Donders’ intercession. Actually the father had
promised that if the child were cured he would permit him to follow in Donders’
missionary footsteps.”39
1 Samuel Boland,
C.SS.R “Peter Donders As His
Contemporaries Saw Him” in Spicilegium
Historicum, Congregationis SSmi Redemptoris, Annus XXVII, 1979, Fasc. 2,
(Rome, Collegium S. Alfonsi de Urbe), pp. 381.
2 Nicholas
Govers, C.SS.R., Life of the Venerable
Peter Donders, translated from the Dutch by Rev. Anthony Nuyten, (New York,
1925), p. 12. I have what appears a
personal translation of this book and it is located at the Provincial House,
Shore Road, Brooklyn.
4 John Carr,
C.SS.R., A Fisher of Men, The Venerable
Peter Donders, C.SS.R., (Fresno,
California, Academy Library Guild, 1953) pp. 43 - 44.
5 John Baptist Kronenburg,
C.SS.R., An Apostle of the Lepers, The
Ven. Peter Donders, C.SS.R., translated from the French Version of Leon
Roelandts, C.SS.R., by John Carr,
C.SS.R., (London: Sands and Company, 1930), pp. 51 - 52.
8 Nicola
Ferrante, C.SS.R., Peter Donders, Apostle
to the Lepers, translated from the Italian by William Nayden, C.SS.R. This is in the hands of W. Nayden, p. 18.
10
Kronenburg, pp. 88 - 89.
12 F. George
Kay, The Shameful Trade, (South
Brunswick and New York, A.S. Barns and Company, 1967) p. 1.
14 Daniel P.
Mannix, in collaboration with Malcolm Cowley, Black Cargoes: A History of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1518-1865 .
(Penguin Books, NY, 1962) p. x
15 Counter,
“The African Bush People in South America,” in The Washington Post, January 2, 1982, p. C 6.
18 Kronenburg,
pp. 82 - 83.
23
Kronenburg, pp. 96 - 97.
32 John
Blassingame, The Slave Community,
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1972) pp. 124 - 125.
33 Boland,
pp. 420 - 421.
34
Kronenburg, pp. 220 - 221.
35 Cf.
Kronenburg, pp. 216 - 217.
39 Ferrante,
pp. 51 - 52.
