SAINT ANTHONY MARY CLARET
<http://olrl.org/lives/claret.shtml>http://olrl.org/lives/claret.shtml
Spanish Light of the Church
Archbishop of Cuba
On October 6, 1850, in the Cathedral of Vich,
Anthony Mary Claret was consecrated Archbishop of
Santiago, Cuba. Father Claret, who, at the time
of his Episcopal consecration, added the name of
Mary to his own, gave a delicate example of his
devotion to the Blessed Virgin. "I must leave
Madrid in a hurry because before departing for
Cuba I have to make three important visits," the
Archbishop said one day to a friend of his who
was urging him to prolong his stay at
court. What visits could those be that wore so
urgent? They were three. There first was to the
Shrine of "La Virgen del Pilar," Patroness of
Spain, which he had visited in the month of
February of the same year, and which he had
desired to visit again to place his pastoral ring
on the column upon which Our Lady stands. He
later wrote to the chaplain asking that a "Salve"
be recited, after the rosary, for his
intentions. The second visit was to Our Lady of
Montserrat, Patroness of Catalonia. He arrived
at Montserrat on the second of November. A
solemn religious function was organized in
commemoration of the day. The third visit was to
the Virgin of Fusimanya, Patroness of
Sallent. The Sallentinos prepared a splendid
reception for him. Music and poetry,
enthusiastic acclamations and tears of affection
were offered on his arrival in his native
town. Father Claret was satisfied now. He had
consecrated his three loves at the feet of the
three images; namely, his love for Spain, before
Our Lady of the Pillar; his love for Catalonia
before the Virgin of Montserrat; and his love for
his village before Our Lady of Fusimanya. The
three visits were a preamble of a happy omen for
his episcopate. The following February he
arrived in Cuba and was installed in his See.
Archbishop Claret believed that his new post
required him to be as much a missionary as he had
been before. Accordingly he generally completed
a visit of his entire archdiocese – half of the
island of Cuba – once every 18 months. So
difficult was the terrain and the traveling that
even one such visitation had never been completed
in all the previous history of Cuba. Each tour
meant months of laborious travel over wild, rough
country, under a blistering sun one day and
through deep mud in blinding rain the next.
Everywhere Archbishop Claret went he preached,
ignoring neither the rich nor the poor, the
learned nor the ignorant. He would preach a
mission in each town or each little group of
villages he came to. Besides his mission sermons
he would preach special sermons to the societies
of the parish. He would also confer with the
clergy, and when he could gather a number of them
together, he would sometimes preach to them in a
closed retreat. Many of his priests had scarcely
seen a bishop since the day of their ordination.
To give the faithful the greatest possible
opportunity for confession he would hear
confessions himself five or six hours each day,
for many people would not confess their sins to
any other priest. The fruit of his missions was
chiefly seen in the unprecedented number of
people who received Holy Communion on the closing
day. At the end of his mission in Santiago, in
Lent, 1851, it took three priests, distributing
Holy Communion steadily from 6:00 A.M. until 1:00
P.M., to care for the thousands of communicants.
In his first two years he confirmed 100,000
persons, was instrumental in bringing 300,000 to
the confessional, married in the church 9,000
couples who had been living in concubinage, and
reunited 300 couples who were divorced.
Furthermore, during his first visit alone he
distributed free – or in exchange for bad books –
38,217 books, 83,500 holy cards, 20,663 rosaries,
and 8931 medals. As Archbishop, he consecrated
the Archdiocese of Santiago to the Immaculate
Heart of Mary and established the Confraternity
of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Refuge of
Sinners, in every parish and mission station.
While giving a mission at Manzanillo, he foretold
that earthquakes would soon harass the
island. Three months later a number of violent
quakes left ruin in their wake, demolishing the
cathedral of Santiago and leveling the
archbishop's residence. One day the archbishop
was preaching in a public square when the noise
of distant thunder accompanied by tremors was
heard. The people gave forth a cry of terror and
began to flee. "Do not fear; that is nothing!"
the archbishop said to them. "Everything will
soon pass!" He descended the pulpit and,
kneeling down, he touched the earth with his
hands, causing the earthquake to cease. "Be
tranquil! The quakes will not molest you again
today!" he said, and then continued his
sermon. Shortly thereafter an epidemic of
cholera broke out according to another prediction
he had made. Undaunted, Archbishop Claret
visited every part of his diocese giving aid and comfort to the stricken.
One day he made the following comparison: "God
does with many of us as a mother does to a lazy,
sleeping child; she shakes the cot or bed so as
to awaken him and cause him to arise. If that
does not suffice, she whips him. God does the
same with many of his children, lethargic
sinners. He shakes their beds, that is, their
houses, by means of earthquakes, saving their
bodies and their lives. If that does not awaken
them and they do not arise, He will give them
blows, sending them the cholera and the pest. God has made that known to me."
So that the spirit of religion might burn
brighter in the Archdiocese of Santiago, St.
Anthony Claret ordered that at least on Sundays
and feast days the rosary should be recited
publicly in all the churches and this was one of
the points he closely inspected during his pastoral visitations.
One Sunday he dropped into a parish church and
found the people gathered to recite the
rosary. But the pastor was not present to lead
it. The archbishop himself went to the altar
steps and led the rosary with edifying piety. The
pastor hurried to the church and explained that
he had been detained by very urgent
business. "That was what I thought," said the
archbishop. "Therefore I ask that you tell me
when you are going to be busy; for when I am
giving a mission in the neighboring towns I will
come personally to lead the rosary when you are
not able to do so." After that, when the bell
sounded at nightfall for the rosary the pastor
would say to his companions, "I will go, lest the
archbishop come and take my place." On his long
journeys through his archdiocese, the rosary was
never out of his hands. In the missions he gave
everywhere he taught the people how to say the
rosary and urged them to say it often.
In his six years of ministration he had restored,
both materially and spiritually, the languishing
Archdiocese of Santiago. He had more than
doubled the number of parishes; he had
re-established the diocesan seminary from which
no priest had been ordained in 30 years; he had
lifted the morale and zeal of the clergy and had
obtained an increase in their salaries; he had
also helped establish a number of communities of
religious, where formerly they had been suppressed and prohibited by law.
Confessor of the Queen
Queen Isabella II recalled Archbishop Claret from
Cuba because she desired a wise and holy
confessor. She believed Archbishop Claret would
be the ideal one, but to him the idea of a court
post was appalling. He disliked the worldliness,
the intrigue and the idleness of court life. He
agreed, however, to accept the counsel of the
Papal Nuncio to Spain and that of his personal
advisers. They urged him, for the good of the
Church, to accept. He set three conditions: He
was to reside away from the palace, and need come
only to hear the queen's confession or instruct
her children; he was to be exempted from
attending court functions and from abiding by
court ceremony; he was to be free to preach, to
visit hospitals and jails, and to attend to his
apostolic projects. The queen gladly
agreed. Archbishop Claret entered upon his
duties by reuniting the royal pair and by
suggesting a plan of life to the queen. First,
he directed her to make a spiritual retreat with
the ladies of the court, which became an annual
event. To prolong the influence of their retreat
he presented the group with copies of a prayer
book he had written and published entitled The Right Road.
The current Prime Minister, the mildly Liberal
General Leopold O'Donnell, made approaches to win
the queen's confessor to his party, but failed.
Within six months a Conservative, General
Narvaez, was Prime Minister and he too tried to
get Archbishop Claret on his side. Narvaez
argued, truthfully, that the Conservatives were
more friendly toward the church. Said the
Archbishop: "I look upon the nation in its
present state as like a card table with the
players sitting around it. If there is someone
who is only an onlooker he ought to keep
silent. He would rightly be called imprudent if
he showed signs of favor toward one player or
another. That is the way it is with me. I am
the onlooker, so I will say nothing in your
favor. The duty that rests on me is to see that
the queen be a good Christian and a good
queen. And with God's grace I will let her avail
herself of Peter, or Paul, or Zebedee as she may be inclined."
But some people doubted the Archbishop's
political neutrality, while others detested his
Catholic piety. Scarcely had he taken residence
in Madrid when one day a big crate, apparently a
case of books, was delivered to him. On opening
it he found a dead man with a dagger through his
heart. There was a note attached which read,
"Within a few days you will be like this corpse."
There were in Madrid in the year 1866 – according
to statistics published in "Le Monde" –
forty-nine lodges and one thousand Masons. It is
certain that they formed a great conspiracy to
impede the apostolate of Father Claret and make attempts on his life.
This persecution by the enemies of the Church was
one of the greatest glories of the holy
missionary. He thereby proved the greatness of
his moral personality and the triumphs of his
ministry, something which the Masonic
organizations abhorred. The words which he
himself wrote to encourage those who suffer
persecution for justice' sake, may be applied to
the servant of God. "Have you ever seen a
fig-tree laden with figs, and many birds coming
to eat them? Do you wish to know which are the
best figs? The birds will tell you. The best
ones are those that have been picked at
most. This agrees with the Gospel. Our Divine
Master, Jesus Christ, has said: 'If you were of
the world, the world would love you. But since
you are not of the world, the world abhors you.'"
The life of Blessed Anthony was interwoven with
persecutions, intrigues, and threats. The world
laid snares of death in his path, and God
frustrated them from Heaven's heights. This is
the historical truth. Fourteen attempts, like
fourteen crowns that impiety placed at the feet
of Father Claret were made on his life;
poisonings, incendiaries, assaults, knife and
dagger thrusts; in the house, on the streets, in
fields, but above all in the church and the
confessional. Defeat was always the result: the
poisons were ineffective, the knife thrusts
deviated, the daggers discovered. The assassins
either converted or died shortly
thereafter. Blessed Anthony's attitude toward
all these persecutors was that of Jesus before
his enemies, – silence. "Let them alone," said
Father Claret, "they are the builders of my
soul. Let them alone. I know what is good for
me. Poor creatures! If my enemies knew how much
good they do me, they surely would not do it."
Thus spoke and acted Father Claret! What more
have the great martyrs of Catholicism done in
presence of their executioners? Yet, the people
at large loved him, flocked to his sermons, and
heeded what he said to them. He wrote in his
journal in April, 1864, "I have been informed
that in the Parish of St. Andrew, (Madrid) where
I preached the Lenten Mission, 4000 souls more
than in former years have fulfilled the precepts
of the Church. Blessed be God and glory to
Him. Some men have confessed for the first time
in 40 years, and women who had not done so in 30
years. 'Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to Thy
name be the glory.' " Other than parish churches,
he preached in the convents, hospitals, and
asylums of Madrid. He preached even more when
the queen and her court were on their many visits
in the Spanish provinces. Upon arriving in any
town, he would leave the party, go into the
streets, and ask the first child he met to direct
him to the nearest church. There he would go,
regardless of the time of day, and ask if he
might preach. The news would circulate and a
crowd would soon gather. After preaching to them
he would go to another church, then still
another. As when in Madrid, he would also seek
out and preach to those who could not come to
him: the sisters in convents, sick in hospitals, and prisoners.
One day the queen said to Archbishop Claret, "No
one tells me things as clearly and as frankly as
you do." It would have been well if she had even
one political adviser as able and unselfish as
her confessor but she never did. Another day she
said to him, "Everyone else is constantly asking
me for favors, but you never do. Isn't there
something you would like for yourself?" "Yes," he
said, "that you would release me from my
post." The queen gasped. She could never do
that. Never again did she offer to grant him favors.
By concordat with the Holy See, the Spanish
monarch had the right to nominate candidates for
bishoprics. Archbishop Claret knew the worthiest
priests of Spain and gladly advised the queen
whom to nominate. Their piety, zeal, and
education were his chief criteria. Any priest's
ambition to be a bishop absolutely disqualified
him. The queen had also the custom of giving
funds to convents of sisters. Here, too, the
archbishop advised her which were the deserving
ones: namely, those that followed canonical rules
and strove to practice the evangelical
virtues. Besides his preaching, his charities,
and his assignments from the queen, Archbishop
Claret carried on many other apostolic works
which he saw to be necessary. He continued, with
his colleagues, to run the Religious Publishing
House, making sure that it published good and
necessary works, well printed and at a moderate
cost. This was the major Catholic publishing
venture in Spain at a time when the secular
press, dominated by the Liberals, was fiercely
assailing the faith. Only 25 percent of the
population was literate at the time, but Fr.
Claret still saw the need for the distribution of
Catholic literature. By 1866, the organization
had published 4,000,000 copies of its pamphlets
and books. Fr. Claret sought good writers, doled
out books, and wrote diligently for the press
along with all his other duties, choosing his
themes according to the needs of the
apostolate. Among the most influential of his
120 written works were a Spanish Catechism and a
Manual for Seminarians. The Blessed Virgin once
audibly commanded him, "Anthony, write!" And
five times he heard Jesus or Mary tell him that
he had written well. History has likewise
approved, for the Spanish people have kept the
Faith – in which outcome St. Anthony Claret, his
writing, and his publishing have played a major role.
Our dear Lord, who had preserved the life of
Father Claret from so many attempts, defended his
books from the fire of hate as well as from fiery
flames. The following incident in April, 1852,
gives evidence of the fact: Dominicans, Jesuits,
and secular priests were conjointly giving a very
solemn Mission in Balaguer. Father Serra, one of
the missionaries, gave one of Father Claret's
books entitled Advices to Maidens, to a young
girl who had been to confession to him. "They
have made me a present of a book, a book of
Father Claret," said the young girl joyfully, as
she entered her home. She pressed it to her
bosom like a treasure and a relic. "Such things
are for priests and friars," disdainfully said
the master of the house, an infidel and a
blasphemer. A little later, the young girl
opened the book and began to read it by
candle-light in the kitchen. The man became
infuriated and snatched the book out of her
hands. "Take this book which will please you
more," he said to the young girl, giving her an
obscene novel. The young girl rejected it with
holy indignation. The man then threw Father
Claret's book into the fire, saying: "Thus I
would do with the author, if I could." God,
however, wished to honor the author in his
book. Instantly the live coals burst into flames
which spread into the room burning the immoral
book but leaving the book of Blessed Anthony
intact amid the flames. "A miracle, a great
miracle!" exclaimed the young girl
enthusiastically, The man, filled with terror,
left the house. He looked for his friends and
told them what happened, saying "Either my
servant and the missionaries are demons, or they
have a special protection of God." Night came
on, but he could not sleep. "If the flames burn
my kitchen thus, how will the flames of hell
burn?" That was the thought which penetrated his
mind like a fiery dart. Early in the morning, at
dawn, he called a missionary priest. He wished
to go to confession. The sacristan saw him in
the church. On remembering the deeds of that
wicked man, he asked himself with uneasiness: "Is
it confession or a conspiracy?" The new
prodigal's tears of contrition proved his
sincerity. His conversion was a miracle. The
cause of all of this was one of Fr. Claret's books.
God granted Fr. Claret two great spiritual
consolations. In his Autobiography he writes:
"On the 26th of August, 1861, at seven o'clock in
the evening, Our Lord granted me the great grace
of retaining the sacramental species. Day and
night I have the Most Holy Sacrament in my
breast. For this reason, I must always be
recollected and devoted to Him Who abides so
intimately within me." Blessed Anthony Maria
Claret preserved in his bosom uncorrupted, from
one Communion to the other, the sacramental
species, from August 26th, 1861 until the date of
his death on October 24th, 1870. This was a most
singular favor which has scarcely ever occurred
in the lives of the saints. The Most Holy Virgin
had the sublime privilege of lending her bosom to
be the first tabernacle of the world to preserve
in it the Incarnation of the God-man; thus he
gave his heart for the first tabernacle of the
church wherein the Eucharistic God would always be preserved.
It was in Madrid in the year 1864 on Christmas
night, during the thanksgiving after the Midnight
Mass, in the Convent of the Sisters of Perpetual
Adoration, that Father Claret had a vision of
Mary holding the Infant Jesus and, like St.
Anthony of Padua, was privileged to receive the
Child in his arms. Some privileged soul among the
Religious of Perpetual Adoration must have seen
the apparition of the Blessed Virgin placing the
Child Jesus in the arms of Father Claret, for
soon the community knew of the favor from Heaven.
A letter preserved by Sister Angelica, a
religious of Perpetual Adoration, is proof of
this fact. "That Christmas night," it says, "the
five hours we remained in the chapel listening to
and seeing Father Claret seemed but brief moments
to us. No one tired. We felt as though we were
in a region of happiness. The Sisters said that
during his thanksgiving Father was in ecstasy and
had received the Child Jesus in his arms. The
Blessed Virgin had given the Child to him."
Death and Sainthood
On October 24, 1870, Father Claret passed from
this life to receive his eternal reward in
heaven. Miracles did not leave him after his
death. At death, his color had been ghastly, but
it freshened at once and, before the interment,
took on a living tint, a little dark as he had
been in health. Moreover, the body had remained
perfectly flexible for, at the end, it escaped
rigor mortis. On the nights of the twenty-fourth
and twenty-fifth there had been, for this
southern mountain country where he died, an
exceptional celestial manifestation. The heavens
had been brilliantly illuminated by the aurora
borealis. Those who had loved Anthony Claret
could not be dissuaded from their fancy that a
radiantly smiling Heaven was celebrating his
reception into glory! During the funeral and the
Mass, a mysterious little bird appeared in the
Church. It fluttered over the remains of the
archbishop and sang sweetly, joining the psalmody
of the monks. The little bird was silent while
the celebrant officiated, but when the choir
intoned the responses it gave full power to its
voice. At the end of the funeral rites it
disappeared from the church in the same
mysterious way in which it had made its
appearance at the beginning. On June 11, 1897,
his tomb was opened and the caskets
extracted. The outer casket of timber was in an
advanced stage of decay, a result of the water
which, as shown by the sediment it contained,
had, in submerging the cemetery, invaded the
crypt. Even the zinc inner casket was badly
perforated. This indicated there could be small
hope that the remains might be found in
recognizable condition. Nevertheless – they
were! "... the body and facial features, were
perfectly preserved, the latter, however, a
little wasted. The two Narbona doctors who
examined the corpse verified the muscular
intactment and, in the abdomen, the tension or
resistance that indicated the incorrupt state of
the internal organs. All who witnessed the
exhumation certified that the body gave off no noxious or disagreeable odor."
In 1899, Pope Leo XIII declared him
venerable. In 1934, Pope Pius XI pronounced him
blessed and on May 7, 1950, Pope Pius XII
declared Anthony Mary Claret a saint.
This brief account of St. Anthony Mary Claret's
life cannot do justice to this great man of God,
but it is hoped that it will arouse your interest
to study more of his life. There are three good
books readily available on his life:
* The Miracle of St. Anthony Mary , 318 pages by Fr. Juan Echevarria;
* The Autobiography of St. Anthony Mary Claret , 227 pages;
* The Life of St. Anthony Mary Claret , 302 pages, by Fanchon Royer.
These books have an imprimatur of the Church and
are available from <http://www.tanbooks.com>Tan Books.
Appreciation is extended to Claretian
Publications, Chicago, Illinois, for permission
to use their booklet, St. Anthony Claret Restless
Apostles, in preparing this work.
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Lord, may everything we do begin with Your
inspiration and continue with Your help,
so that all our prayers and works may begin in You and by You be happily ended.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
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