St. Anthony Mary Claret

St. Anthony Mary Claret was born at Sallent in Catalonia, Spain, on 23 December 1807. He became a priest, missionary, founder, archbishop, writer, and one of the great Catholic communicators of the nineteenth century. He is patronally associated with the Catholic press, missionary clergy, textile workers, and those devoted to evangelization through preaching and print. As a young man he worked in his father’s textile trade and showed real skill, but his heart turned increasingly toward the priesthood. Ordained in 1835, he became known as a powerful preacher in Catalonia. He traveled on foot, preached missions, heard confessions for long hours, and used simple, direct language to reach ordinary people. His missionary method joined preaching, catechesis, sacramental renewal, and printed materials. In 1849 he founded the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, known as the Claretians. That same year he was appointed Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba. In Cuba he visited parishes, corrected abuses, defended marriage, helped the poor, promoted education, and founded works of charity. His reforms made enemies, and he survived an assassination attempt in Holguín. Later he was called back to Spain as confessor to Queen Isabella II, a position he accepted reluctantly. Even at court he lived simply, preached, wrote, and promoted Catholic publishing. His writings were numerous, including his Autobiography, The Right Road, catechetical works, devotional works, and many pamphlets meant to spread Catholic teaching among the people. Claret also had a deep mystical and Eucharistic life. He spoke of an interior grace by which the Blessed Sacrament remained present in him from one Communion to the next, a claim handled reverently in accounts of his spiritual life. He died in exile at Fontfroide in France in 1870. His body is venerated in Vic, Spain, and is often reported as incorrupt. Canonized in 1950, he remains a saint of preaching, publishing, Marian devotion, and missionary zeal.

Claret also used the press with unusual energy. He founded or supported religious publishing projects and wanted inexpensive Catholic books and pamphlets to reach ordinary people. His missionary heart was therefore both spoken and printed. In his Autobiography he described his desire to run through the world preaching so that sinners might be saved. The wound from the attack in Holguín left visible scars, yet he forgave his attacker. During the revolution that drove Queen Isabella from Spain, he went into exile and attended the First Vatican Council before his final illness. His life joined missionary preaching, episcopal reform, publishing, and Marian devotion.