Saint Peter Donders

Petrus Norbertus Donders (27 October 1809 – 14 January 1887) was a Dutch Roman Catholic priest and member of the Redemptorists. He served in various missions in the Dutch colony of Surinam. He started working in the capital Paramaribo, but is predominantly known for his work in and around the leper colony Batavia, where he died in 1887. Peter Donders was beatified as 'Apostle of the Indians and Lepers' in 1982. The miracle needed for his beatification was found in the cure of a Dutch child from bone cancer back in 1929. Peter Donders was born in Tilburg in the Kingdom of Holland (current-day Netherlands) on 27 October 1809 as the eldest of two children to Arnoldus Donders and Petronella van den Brekel. When he was seven, his mother died. He desired to become a priest, but his father could not afford proper education. Donders worked in the local textile industry. Later he attended Beekvliet seminary in Sint-Michielsgestel. In 1831 he was deemed unfit for military service. In 1833 he applied to join the Jesuits in Belgium but was denied; he met the same results from the Redemptorists and Franciscans. Than a benefactor enabled him to pursue his theological studies at the College of Haaren, which he entered in 1837. Reports in the Annals of the Propagation of the Faith, a journal about various Catholic missions, attracted Donders interest to go abroad and work among the 'Indians' in America. In 1839 Surinam apostolic prefect Jacobus Grooff visited the College of Haaren in search of missionaries for the colony (now the independent Republic of Suriname). Donders applied and was accepted. He was ordained to priesthood in 1841. In September 1843 Donders arrived in Paramaribo, where he was a chaplain for 14 years. He served under four successive vicars. From Paramaribo he visited some plantations owned by Catholics along the Suriname River and Commewijne River.