Blessed Peter Donders, Apostle of Suriname

Peter Donders (1809–1887) was a Dutch priest who devoted his life to the enslaved, the Indigenous peoples and the lepers of Suriname, and whom John Paul II beatified on May 23, 1982.

He was not a martyr and did not suffer violent persecution. What he faced was the resistance of the colonists, the slowness of the authorities, and his own poverty and poor health, which is why his story is above all one of quiet perseverance.

A Poor Childhood and a Late Vocation

Peter Donders was born on October 27, 1809, in Tilburg, the Netherlands, the son of Arnold Denis Donders and Petronella van den Brekel. His family was poor: he could barely attend school and worked from childhood to help at home.

He had wanted to be a priest since he was a boy, but only at age 22, with the help of his parish clergy, was he able to enter the minor seminary. He was ordained a priest on June 5, 1841. While still studying theology, his superiors steered him toward the Dutch colony of Suriname.

Missionary Among the Enslaved

Donders arrived in Paramaribo on September 16, 1842. He spent his first years traveling by boat along the rivers of the colony's plantations, where he preached and administered the sacraments, mostly to enslaved people.

It is estimated that he came to minister to some 40,000 enslaved people spread across about 400 estates. In his letters he criticized the harsh treatment the African workers received. In a letter of 1846 he defended the enslaved and condemned the owners and administrators who profited from them; he wrote: “Woe, woe to Suriname on the great day of judgment!” Slavery was abolished in Suriname in 1863, when he had already been in the colony for more than twenty years.

Batavia: Three Decades with the Lepers

In 1856 he was sent to the leprosarium at Batavia, and there he worked for the rest of his life with few interruptions. He gave the patients religious care and tended them himself, personally, until the authorities agreed to provide an adequate nursing service. He also pressed the colonial authorities to attend to the needs of the sick.

When the Redemptorists arrived in 1866 to take over the Suriname mission, Donders and another priest asked to join the congregation. They did their novitiate under the vicar apostolic Johan Baptist Swinkels and professed their vows on June 24, 1867. He then returned to Batavia.

As a Redemptorist he also devoted himself to the Indigenous peoples, a mission that had been abandoned for lack of priests. He learned their languages and taught them the faith until his health forced him to leave that work in the hands of others.

Opposition and Hardship: What He Did Face

The historical records speak of no formal persecution, imprisonment or martyrdom. What they describe are real obstacles:

• The colonists. He often met resistance from “Christian” colonizers who barred him from the plantations, even to administer the sacraments.
• The authorities. He had to press the colonial government to attend to the lepers, and its response was slow: for years he was the one who cared for them personally.
• The Indigenous peoples. He worked with the Arawaks, Warraus and Guaranis, battered by alcohol and by diseases such as smallpox brought by the Europeans, and had difficulties with the Caribs.
• Poverty and health. He grew up without resources, began his studies late, and his health kept worsening until it forced him to give up some of his work.

Death, Beatification and Legacy

In 1883 the vicar apostolic transferred him to Paramaribo and then to Coronie to ease his burden; in November 1885 he returned to Batavia and resumed his work. Illness left him bedridden in December 1886, and he died on January 14, 1887, surrounded by the sick whom he had served.

His reputation for holiness spread beyond Suriname and Holland, and his cause reached Rome. Pope John Paul II beatified him on May 23, 1982. In Suriname he is remembered as the “apostle of the Indigenous peoples” and as the priest of the lepers.

Sources

• Blessed Peter Donders (1809–1887), Redemptorists of Canada
• Blessed Peter Donders: Prophet of Justice and Liberation, CSSR

Image: photograph of Peter Donders from the 1880s, author unknown, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.