Most of the stories about St. Mary of the Head are included in the sources relating to the life of her husband St. Isidore. In them, the holy spouses are presented as a model of holiness and example of virtues. St. Peter Claver is the patron saint of missions with Africans, for his dedication to the slaves.
Santa Maria de la Cabeza (XII century), married Saint Isidore, with whom she had a son. He shared with her husband a life of work, piety and charity. It seems that her name was Toribia, and she became Mary because of the hermitage where she was buried until her transfer to Torrelaguna in 1615. The appellative "de la Cabeza" seems to come from the cult given separately to her head as a sacred relic.
It may be recalled that her husband, St. Isidore Labrador, is celebrated on May 15, was canonized in 1622, together with St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Francis Xavier, St. Philip Neri and St. Teresa of Jesus. The only layman and father of a family in a group of distinguished religious.
Patron saint of Catholic missions among Africans
Pedro Claver, S.J., born in 1581, from Lleida, had not yet finished his theological studies when he was assigned to the mission in New Granada, the former name of Colombia. The young man landed in Cartagena in 1610, and was ordained a priest in 1616 at the mission where, for 44 years, he worked among the African-American slaves. It was a period of booming human trafficking.
Peter vowed to always serve African slaves. The coasts where thousands of people were disembarked became the field of the young Jesuit's apostolate. Every month, Peter Claver went out to meet them with his boat to bring them food, relief and comfort.
It awakened the sense of human dignity and carried the faith to the unbaptized. In 1650 St. Peter Claver fell ill with the plague and died in 1654. He was canonized in 1888 by Leo XIII. In 1896 he was proclaimed patron of Catholic missions among Africans.
