DONDERS, PETER, BL.

Redemptorist missionary priest; b. Oct. 27, 1809, Tilburg, the Netherlands; d. Jan. 14, 1887, Batavia, Suriname (formerly Dutch Guiana), South America; beatified May 23, 1982.

Born into a poor family, headed by Arnold Denis Donders and Petronella van den Brekel, he received little schooling and had to delay his vocation in order to help support the family by working in a factory. He was accepted as a domestic in the minor seminary of St. Michiels-Gestel, Holland, in the autumn of 1831 and the following year was admitted as a student. Having unsuccessfully sought entry into the Franciscans, Jesuits, and Redemptorists, he made his major seminary studies at Oegstgeest, South Holland, and was ordained June 5,1841. On Aug. 1, 1842, he departed for Suriname, arriving September 16. He labored there on the missions until his death. His first duties entailed preaching and ministering the sacraments to plantation slaves. In the course of eight years, he instructed and baptized 1,200.

The mission was ceded to the Dutch Redemptorists in 1865, and Donders entered that congregation on Nov. 1, 1866, making his profession to the first Redemptorist apostolic vicar (Johan Baptist Swinkels) on June 24, 1867 (age 57), at Paramaribo. He was dedicated particularly to the care of the 600 inmates of the leprosarium at Batavia, and he labored there for many years (1856–66, 1867–83, 1885–87) as priest and nurse. Endowed with a spirit of prayer and charity, he exhibited mercy to the most miserable and abandoned of all classes. In 1868 and 1869, he also learned the languages of and worked among the Arrowaks, Warros, Caribs and Maroons. In 1883, when his health began to fail, he was transferred to Paramaribo, then to Coronie, but he returned to Batavia in November 1885 to resume his previous work. He died in the leprosarium, was buried in Batavia, and later placed in a vault in the Cathedral in Paramaribo (1921).

Pope John Paul II praised Donders as "an incentive for the renewal and flourishing of the missionary thrust which in the last century and in this one has made an exceptional contribution to the carrying out of the Church's missionary duty."

Feast: Jan. 14 (Redemptorists).

Bibliography: Acta Apostolicae Sedis 74 (1982): 1205–7. L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, no. 24 (1982): 6–7. c. j. antonellis, The Story of Peter Donders (Boston 1982). j. carr, A Fisher of Men (Dublin 1952). j. l. f. dankelman, Peerke Donders: schering en inslag van zijn leven (Hilversum 1982). j. kronenburg, An Apostle of the Lepers (London 1930). b. l. j. rademaker, Petrus Donders (Bussum, Netherlands 1956).

[a. sampers]