St. Anthony Mary Claret, Bishop

Some Notes on St. Anthony Mary Claret:

1. Born Antoni Maria Claret i Clara (in Spanish, y Clara) in Sallent near Barcelona, on 23 December 1807, the fifth of the 11 children of Juan and Josefa Claret. His father was a woolmaker. At the age of 12, he became a weaver and later went to Barcelona to specialize in his trade. At first, he wanted to become a Carthusian monk. But in 1829, he decided to enter the diocesan seminary at Vic (Vich). He was ordained in 1835 and continued to study theology until 1839. 

2. Missionary work appealed strongly to him. So he entered the Jesuit novitiate in Rome but did not continue. Returning to Spain, he ministered in Viladrau and Girona, preached missions throughout Catalonia, and then missioned in the Canary Islands. He worked among the poor, walked on foot from mission to mission, spent long hours preaching to large crowds and hearing confessions. 

3. On 16 July 1849, he established the Congregation of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Misioneros Claretianos) and founded the Libreria Religiosa of Barcelona (now Libreria Claret). Pope Pius IX approved the new congregation in 1865. 

4. In 1849, he was appointed Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba and was consecrated at Vic in 1850. In Santiago, he reorganized the seminary, strengthened clerical discipline, erected a hospital and numerous schools, thrice visited the entire diocese, gave numerous missions, visited jails, defended the oppressed, and denounced racism and wrote many books on spirituality. 

5. He stirred up opposition by liberal secularizing forces in Cuba and later in Spain. In one of many attempts on his life, a would-be assassin severely injured him. But Claret compassionately obtained a commutation of the assailant’s death sentence to a term in prison.

6. On 25 August 1855, together with Maria Antonia Paris, he founded the Religious of Mary Immaculate, the first women’s religious institute in Cuba. In 1857, Claret was recalled to Spain by Queen Isabella II, who made him her confessor. He was appointed to the titular see of Trajanopolis. Living frugally, he dedicated himself to helping the poor.

7. The 1868 Spanish revolution ultimately dethroned and exiled the inept and promiscuous Queen Isabella II. Claret accompanied the Queen into exile in France. Later, he left the Queen and went to Rome. But the Pope sent him back to Madrid with faculties to absolve the Queen of the censures she had incurred for ending the Church’s status as the official religion of Spain, for her role in Spain’s secularization, and for her many extramarital affairs.

8. In 1869-1870, he attended the First Vatican Council in Rome. His ailing health forced him to go to Prada de Confient in the French Pyrenees. Shortly afterwards, he retired to the Cistercian Abbey at Frontfroide, Narbonne, southern France, where he died on 24 October 1870, aged 62.  His remains are in the Catalan city of Vic, in the county of Osona.

9. Claret was an exceptional preacher with incredible charisms: his body would become transfigured while preaching or praying. He had the gift of levitation; he experienced apparitions of both Jesus and Mary. Light radiated from his body when he celebrated Mass. He spread devotion to the Eucharist and to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

10. In his autobiography, he revealed that he had experienced a Eucharistic miracle and also had a vision of Jesus speaking of the future and the rise of Communism. Aside from the Claretians, he founded or drew up the Rules of several communities of Religious Sisters. Today the Claretians (CMF, “Cordis Mariae Filius,” Son of the Heart of Mary) are present in 70 countries around the world.

11. Archbishop Anthony Mary Claret was beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1934 and canonized by Pope Pius XII on 7 May 1959. In the 1969 revision of the Roman calendar, his feast was moved to 24 October.

12. Prayer: O God, for the evangelization of peoples, you strengthened the Bishop St. Anthony Mary Claret with admirable charity and long-suffering. Grant, through his intercession, that, seeking the things that are yours, we may earnestly devote ourselves to winning our brothers and sisters for Christ, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.