Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Bishop & Confessor

On the twenty-third of October the Church commemorates Saint Anthony Mary Claret, bishop and confessor, one of the great apostolic labourers of the nineteenth century. He was born in 1807 at Sallent, in Catalonia, in Spain, the son of a weaver, and in his youth he worked at his father’s trade. Drawn by God to the priesthood, he was ordained in 1835, and from the first he burned with zeal to make Christ known.

A tireless missionary

For years Saint Anthony travelled through the towns and villages of Catalonia, preaching missions and retreats, hearing confessions, and recalling the people to the faith and to the practice of Christian life. Convinced of the power of the printed word, he wrote and distributed great numbers of books and pamphlets of sound doctrine and devotion, and he founded a religious publishing apostolate to spread good reading among the faithful. In 1849, with a small band of companion priests, he founded the Congregation of Missionaries, Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, known after him as the Claretians, that the work of preaching might be carried on and multiplied.

In 1850 he was named Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba. There he laboured for some years with the same untiring zeal, reforming the clergy, instructing the people, defending the poor and the enslaved, and visiting every corner of his vast diocese. He endured opposition and even an attempt upon his life, and bore all with patience for the sake of the Gospel. Recalled afterward to Spain, he served for a time as confessor to the queen, while continuing to preach, to write, and to promote every good work, until political upheaval drove him into exile.

His holy death

Saint Anthony Mary Claret spent his last years in exile in France, worn out by his labours and sufferings, and died there at a Cistercian monastery in 1870. He was canonised by Pope Pius XII in 1950. Throughout his life he had cherished a tender devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, especially to her Immaculate Heart, under whose patronage he placed his congregation and all his works.

In Saint Anthony Mary Claret the Church honours a model of apostolic zeal: a preacher who never wearied of proclaiming Christ, a bishop devoted to his flock, and a founder who sought by every means — the spoken word, the written word, and the example of holy life — to win souls for God. His feast is kept on the twenty-third of October.

Patronage

He is venerated as the founder of the Claretian Missionaries and is invoked as a patron of weavers, of Catholic publishers and the apostolate of good books, and of the Church in Cuba.