St. Anthony Mary Claret

Their story

Anthony Mary Claret was born in 1807 in Catalonia, Spain, the son of a weaver, and as a young man he worked as a skilled weaver himself. He felt called to the priesthood and was ordained in 1835. He hoped to be a foreign missionary, but poor health brought him back to Spain, and he became one of the most famous preachers in the country, traveling on foot from town to town in Catalonia and the Canary Islands and preaching thousands of sermons. He also wrote and published many books and pamphlets to spread the faith, believing deeply in the power of the printed word. In 1849 Anthony founded the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, known as the Claretians. The next year he was named archbishop of Santiago, in Cuba. There he worked tirelessly to renew the Church, visiting every part of his diocese, preaching against the injustice of slavery, encouraging marriages and setting up savings banks and farms to help the poor. His reforms made enemies, and in 1856 a man attacked him with a knife and slashed his face. Anthony survived and asked for his attacker to be pardoned. In 1857 he returned to Spain as confessor to the queen, though he disliked life at court. When revolution drove the royal family into exile in 1868, he went with them. He attended the First Vatican Council and died in exile in France on October 24, 1870. He was canonized in 1950.