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Anthony Mary Claret

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Anthony Mary Claret
Born 23 December 1807, Sallent, Spain
Died 24 October 1870, Fontfroide Abbey, France
State of life Missionary priest, religious founder, and archbishop of Santiago de Cuba
Religious institute Claretians (C.M.F.)
Ecclesial status Saint; canonized on 7 May 1950
Recognition Beatified in 1934; canonized by Pius XII in 1950
General Roman Calendar 24 October — Optional Memorial
Dies natalis 24 October 1870

Anthony Mary Claret was a Spanish missionary archbishop, spiritual writer, and founder of the Claretians whose preaching, publishing, and social initiatives served evangelization in Spain and Cuba.

Overview

Anthony Mary Claret, CMF (born Antoni Maria Claret i Clarà;[1] Spanish: Antonio María Claret y Clarà; 23 December 1807 – 24 October 1870) was a Spanish Catholic prelate and missionary who served as Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba and was the confessor of Queen Isabella II. He founded the congregation of Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, commonly called the Claretians.

In addition to the Claretians, which in the early 21st century had over 450 houses and 3100 members, with missions in five continents, Claret founded or drew up the rules of several communities of religious sisters. Claret is the patron saint of weavers.

Life

Antoni Maria Claret i Clarà was born in Sallent, in the county of Bages in the Province of Barcelona, on 23 December 1807, the fifth of the eleven children of Juan and Josefa Claret. His father was a wool manufacturer. As a child he enjoyed pilgrimages to the nearby Shrine of Our Lady of Fussimanya.[2][3]

Claret received an elementary education in his native village, and at the age of twelve became a weaver. At the age of eighteen, he went to Barcelona to specialize in his trade as a Jacquard loom programmer, and remained there until he was 20 years old. Meanwhile, he devoted his spare time to study and became proficient in Latin, French and engraving.[4]

Frightened that his love of active time and design was causing him to become obsessed and burned out, and feeling a call to religious life, he left Barcelona. Although he initially wished to become a Carthusian monk, he entered the diocesan seminary at Vic in 1829, and was ordained on 13 June 1835, on the feast of St. Anthony of Padua. He received a benefice in his native parish, where he continued to study theology until 1839; but as missionary work strongly appealed to him, he proceeded to Rome. There he entered the Jesuit novitiate but had to leave due to ill health. He then returned to Spain and exercised his pastoral ministry in Viladrau and Girona, attracting notice through his efforts on behalf of the poor.[5]

Recalled by his superiors to Vic, Claret was sent as Apostolic Missionary throughout Catalonia which had suffered from French invasions. He travelled from one mission to the next on foot. An eloquent preacher fluent in the Catalan language, he drew people from miles around. After a lengthy time in the pulpit, he would spend long hours in the confessional. In 1848, Claret's life was threatened by anti-clericalists and he was sent to the Canary Islands where he gave retreats for 15 months. His missions were so well attended that he often preached from an improvised pulpit in the plaza before the church.[2]

Origins and formation

Antoni Maria Claret i Clarà was born at Sallent in Catalonia on 23 December 1807 into a textile family. He learned weaving and worked in Barcelona, where technical skill and commercial prospects competed with a growing priestly vocation. He entered the seminary at Vic and was ordained in 1835. An attempted Carthusian vocation was interrupted by illness, and brief formation with the Jesuits in Rome ended for the same reason. These false starts clarified a call to itinerant mission. Authorized as an apostolic missionary, Claret preached throughout Catalonia and the Canary Islands, heard confessions, distributed devotional literature, promoted retreats, and organized lay cooperation. His facility with inexpensive print would become central to a ministry aimed at people who might never receive sustained formal instruction.

Ministry and historical setting

On 16 July 1849 Claret founded the Congregation of Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the Claretians. Named archbishop of Santiago de Cuba, he arrived in 1851 and undertook repeated visitations, clerical reform, parish missions, schools, publications, prison ministry, and measures supporting farms and savings for poor families. He challenged abuses surrounding slavery and irregular unions, survived an assassination attempt at Holguín, and also acted within a colonial system whose injustices must be faced explicitly. Recalled to Spain in 1857 as confessor to Queen Isabella II, he used court access for appointments, education, and publishing while trying to remain detached from party politics. He attended the First Vatican Council, followed the exiled royal household after revolution, and died at Fontfroide Abbey in France on 24 October 1870.[6][7]

Teaching and Christian witness

Doctrine and spirituality

Claret understood mission as the charity of Christ pressing the apostle to use every licit means for salvation. Preaching, the confessional, popular missions, books, libraries, schools, religious institutes, and social projects formed one apostolate. His devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary was ordered to conformity with Christ and zealous service, not sentiment detached from conversion. He also promoted the apostolate of laypeople and founded or inspired initiatives for women’s religious life. His willingness to exploit mass printing makes him significant in Catholic communication, but effectiveness never dispenses with truthfulness or ecclesial accountability. A modern reception should learn from his speed and range while rejecting propaganda, personality cults, and the use of Marian devotion to conceal institutional failure.

History, tradition, and evidence

Claret’s autobiography records locutions, visions, prophetic impressions, temptations, and extraordinary graces in the devotional language of his period. They belong to his spiritual testimony but remain private revelation, which no Catholic is obliged to accept as part of the deposit of faith. Accounts of the Holguín attack and political hostility should distinguish documented violence from later partisan interpretations. His relationship to Queen Isabella II exposed him to accusations from opposing factions; canonization does not certify every royal policy or clerical appointment he influenced. His Cuban ministry must likewise be evaluated within slavery and Spanish colonial rule. He opposed specific abuses and promoted human dignity, but a saint’s actions do not erase the structural evil of the system around him. Faithful history can be reverent and candid at once.

Ecclesial recognition and cult

Recognition and present status

The Claretian family, dioceses, and communities connected to Anthony preserved testimony to his virtues and missionary fruit. Pope Pius XI beatified him on 25 February 1934. Pope Pius XII canonized him in Saint Peter’s Basilica on 7 May 1950, presenting his varied apostolates as unified by zeal for souls. His exact status is Saint, bishop, and founder. C.M.F. identifies the Claretians, whose official Latin name is the Congregation of Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Canonization authorizes public veneration but does not make all of Claret’s prudential judgments, political associations, or private experiences normative. The congregation’s mission today is governed by the Church’s current teaching, canon law, and approved constitutions.[8]

Liturgy and devotion

The General Roman Calendar assigns Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Bishop, an Optional Memorial on 24 October, his dies natalis. The day may be observed where rubrics permit and yields to Sundays, solemnities, feasts, and other higher-ranked celebrations. Claretians, the Archdiocese of Santiago de Cuba, Vic, and other proper calendars may celebrate him more solemnly under approved law. Canonization authorizes his public cult throughout the Church. Fitting devotion includes prayer for missionaries, publishers, bishops, and victims of political violence; reading his spiritual writings with discernment; support for Catholic media that prizes accuracy; and renewed commitment to evangelization joined to practical education, economic dignity, and defense of the oppressed.

Claretians

On his return to mainland Spain, he established the Congregation of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (The Claretians) on 16 July 1849, the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, and founded the great religious library at Barcelona which was called "Librería Religiosa" (now "Librería Claret").[5] Pope Pius IX gave approval to the congregation on 22 December 1865.[9]

Archbishop

Pope Pius IX, at the request of the Spanish crown (Queen-regnant Isabella II of Spain), appointed him Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba, in 1849. He was consecrated at Vic in October 1850. Before he embarked, he made three separate pilgrimages: to Our Lady of the Pillar, patroness of Spain; to the Virgin of Montserrat, patroness of Catalonia; and to Our Lady of Fussimanya, near his home village.[2]

The Santiago seminary was reorganized, clerical discipline strengthened, and over 9,000 marriages validated within the first two years of his arrival. He erected a hospital and numerous schools. He made a visitation of the entire diocese three times, and gave local missions frequently.[5] Among his initiatives were trade or vocational schools for disadvantaged children and credit unions for the use of the poor. He also wrote books about rural spirituality and agricultural methods, which he himself tested first. On 25 August 1855, he founded the Religious of Mary Immaculate together with Maria Antonia Paris, considered the first women religious institute in Cuba. His work stirred up opposition and at Holguín his cheek was stabbed by a would-be assassin.[9] Claret obtained a commutation of the assailant's death sentence to a term in prison.[10]

Claret was a charismatic preacher who could reportedly perform miracles. Among them were claims that his body would become transfigured while preaching or in prayer; that he would at times levitate up to six feet off the ground; that he stopped a series of earthquakes in Cuba by kneeling on the ground and placing his palms to the earth while uttering prayers; that he could calm storms by raising a hand to the sky and blessing the storm clouds; that he experienced apparitions of both Jesus and Mary; and that he seen walking on water. In addition, claims circulated that a supernatural light could be seen radiating from his body while he was saying Mass. Queen Isabella of Spain produced a written statement declaring that she had personally witnessed this phenomenon.[11]

In February 1857, Claret was recalled to Spain by Queen Isabella II, who made him her confessor. He obtained permission to resign his Cuban see and was appointed to the titular see of Trajanopolis. His influence was now directed solely to help the poor and to propagate learning; he lived frugally and took up his residence in an Italian hospice. For nine years he was rector of the Escorial monastic school, where he established a scientific laboratory, a museum of natural history, a library, college and schools of music and languages. In 1868, a new revolution dethroned the queen and sent her and her family into exile. Claret's life was also in danger, so he accompanied her to Paris.[9] He stayed with them for a while, then went to Rome where he was received by Pope Pius IX.

He continued his popular missions and distribution of books wherever he went in accompanying the Spanish Court. When Isabella recognized the new, secular government of the Kingdom of Italy, he left the Court and hastened to take his place by the side of the Pope. At the latter's command, however, he returned to Madrid with faculties for absolving the queen from the censures she had incurred.[5]

Last years

In 1869 he went to Rome to prepare for the First Vatican Council. Owing to failing health he withdrew to Prada de Conflent in the French Pyrenees, where he was still harassed by his Spanish enemies; shortly afterwards he retired to the Cistercian abbey at Fontfroide, Narbonne, southern France, where he died on 24 October 1870, aged 62.

His remains were buried in the Catalan city of Vic, in the County of Osona.

Works

Anthony Mary Claret wrote 144 books. His sermons and writings contributed to bringing about the revival of the Catalan language, although most of his works were published in Spanish, especially during his stay in Cuba and Madrid. Among his printed works are "Autobiography of Anthony Mary Claret", "La escala de Jacob"; "Máximas de moral la más pura"; "Avisos"; "Catecismo explicado con láminas"; "La llave de oro"; "Selectos panegíricos" (11 volumes); "Sermones de misión" (3 volumes); "Misión de la mujer"; "Vida de Sta. Mónica"; "La Virgen del Pilar y los Francmasones."

In addition to the Claretians, which in the early 21st century had over 450 houses and 3100 members, with missions in five continents, Archbishop Claret founded or drew up the rules of several communities of religious sisters.[12]

Veneration

Claret was declared venerable by Pope Leo XIII in 1899. His relics were transferred to the mission house at Vic in 1897, at which time his heart was found incorrupt. His grave is visited by many pilgrims.

Anthony Mary Claret was beatified in Rome by Pope Pius XI on 24 February 1934. He was canonized 16 years later by Pope Pius XII on 7 May 1950.[13][14] Pope John XXIII included him in the General Roman Calendar in 1960, and fixed his feast on 23 October, where it remained for nine years until the 1969 revision of the calendar moved it to the day of his death, 24 October, which had been the feast of Saint Raphael the Archangel since 1921.

Anthony Mary Claret is the patron saint of weavers.[10]

Educational legacy

Many educational institutions ranging from kindergarten to undergraduate school are named after Claret and run by the Claretians in Europe, South America, Africa and Asia. They are located in Catalonia (Barcelona, Valls and Sabadell), rest of Spain (Madrid, Gran Canaria,[15] Sevilla,[16] and Valencia), Colombia (Cali), Dominican Republic (Santo Domingo), Peru (Trujillo, Huancayo, Arequipa and Lima), Argentina (Buenos Aires[17] and Bahía Blanca), Venezuela (Caracas,[18] Maracaibo and Mérida), Equatorial Guinea (Malabo), Chile (Temuco[19]), Costa Rica (Heredia[20]), the Philippines (Zamboanga City,[21] Quezon City[22]), India (Ziro), and Bangalore.

He is portrayed by Antonio Reyes in the 2022 film Slaves and Kings, produced by the Claretians and Stellarum Films, and directed by Pablo Moreno. The film is a re-release of the 2020 film Claret.

See also

References

  1. Back to citation In this Catalan name, the first or paternal surname is Claret and the second or maternal family name is Clarà; both are generally joined by the conjunction "i".
  2. Back to citation occurrence 2.0 Back to citation occurrence 2.1 Back to citation occurrence 2.2 St. Anthony Claret, Restless Apostle, Claretian Publications, Chicago
  3. Back to citation Claret, St Anthony Mary (2009). The Autobiography of St. Anthony Mary Claret. TAN Books. ISBN 978-1-5051-0457-8.
  4. Back to citation Callahan, William James. Church, politics, and society in Spain, 1750–1874 p. 298, 1984 "Antonio Claret (1807–1870), the son of a Catalan textile manufacturer,... After serving as a parish assistant, he began a successful career as a missionary in Catalonia during the 1840s."
  5. Back to citation occurrence 5.0 Back to citation occurrence 5.1 Back to citation occurrence 5.2 Back to citation occurrence 5.3 "Catholic Encyclopedia: Ven. Antonio Maria Claret y Clara". www.newadvent.org.
  6. Back to citation Dicastery profile of Saint Anthony Mary Claret — Competent dicastery biography supporting Claret’s textile background, priesthood, missions, Claretian foundation, Cuban archbishopric, royal service, death, beatification, and canonization.
  7. Back to citation Claretians: life of Saint Anthony Mary Claret — Official congregational account of the founder’s formation, itinerant preaching, publishing, foundation on 16 July 1849, episcopal work in Cuba, court ministry, exile, and spirituality.
  8. Back to citation Claretians on the founder’s canonization — Official Claretian record of Pius XII’s 7 May 1950 canonization and the institute’s reception of Anthony Mary Claret as saint, missionary, archbishop, and founder.
  9. Back to citation occurrence 9.0 Back to citation occurrence 9.1 Back to citation occurrence 9.2 "The Congregation | Claretian Missionaries – USA–Canada Province". www.claretiansusa.org.
  10. Back to citation occurrence 10.0 Back to citation occurrence 10.1 "Miller OFM, Don. "Saint Anthony Mary Claret", Franciscan Media". Archived from the original on 17 July 2019. Retrieved 17 July 2019.
  11. Back to citation The Miracles of St. Anthony Mary Claret by Juan Echevarria
  12. Back to citation [which?]
  13. Back to citation "MAY 7 – CANONIZATION OF FATHER FOUNDER". 4 September 2018. Archived from the original on 22 May 2020. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  14. Back to citation Canonization of Claret Movie showing images from the canonization of Anthony Mary Claret
  15. Back to citation "Inicio". www.claretlaspalmas.es.
  16. Back to citation "Claretian order in Seville website". Archived from the original on 20 September 2008.
  17. Back to citation "Colegio Claret Buenos Aires – Colegio Claret del la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, desde 1950 en Misión Educativa, enseñando para la vida". Colegio Claret Buenos Aires – Colegio Claret del la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, desde 1950 en Misión Educativa, enseñando para la vida (in Spanish). 2 June 2020. Archived from the original on 31 May 2011. Retrieved 24 October 2020.
  18. Back to citation "Claretian order in Caracas, Venezuela website". Retrieved 24 October 2020.
  19. Back to citation "Claretian order in Temuco website". Archived from the original on 10 December 2008. Retrieved 14 August 2008.
  20. Back to citation "Inicio | Colegio Claretiano". www.claretiano.com.
  21. Back to citation Claretian order in Zamboanga City website
  22. Back to citation "Home". Claret School of Quezon City.

Bibliography

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