St. Anthony Mary Claret

Anthony Mary Claret was born on December 23, 1807, in Sallent, a town in the Catalonia region of Spain. He grew up in a pious working-class family, and as a young man he was trained in the textile trade, learning the craft of weaving that would later become part of his patronage. His early life coincided with a period of political upheaval in Spain, including the Peninsular War and its aftermath, which shaped the world in which he discerned his vocation. He entered a Jesuit novitiate at the age of 21 and was later ordained a secular priest, returning to Catalonia to begin his ministry.

Claret quickly gained a reputation as a powerful missionary preacher. In 1848, he was appointed Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba, a diocese marked by poverty, neglect, and the enormous social challenge of slavery in the Spanish colonial economy. During his six years there, he worked energetically to reform clerical life, promote catechesis, defend the dignity of enslaved people, and publish inexpensive devotional literature for ordinary Catholics. His vigorous denunciation of injustice, including a formal appeal to the Spanish Cortes against the slave trade, made him influential and controversial in equal measure. He also suffered a physical attack in Cuba that left lasting injuries.

Returning to Spain in 1857, Claret became a chaplain to Queen Isabella II and continued his preaching and publishing work. In 1849, while still deeply involved in apostolic life, he had founded the Congregation of Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, commonly known today as the Claretians, a religious order dedicated to evangelization through preaching, the press, and the missions. He also co-founded the Claretian Sisters. Through his writings and the activities of the order he established, he helped shape what would later be recognized as an important stream of modern Catholic publishing and missionary effort.

Claret died on October 24, 1870, in Fontfroide, France, while in exile during political upheavals in Spain. He was beatified by Pope Pius XI on March 25, 1934, and was later canonized by Pope Pius XII on May 7, 1950. He is remembered today as a pioneer of the Catholic press, a defender of the enslaved, and a founder whose religious family continues his missionary work worldwide. His remains rest in the Claretian mission house at Vic, in Catalonia.