October 24

Saint Anthony Mary Claret

Optional memorial

Catalan weaver turned missionary who preached, wrote and printed the Gospel

Anthony Mary Claret was born in 1807 in Sallent, a textile town in Catalonia, the son of a weaver. As a young man he worked at the looms in Barcelona, but he felt drawn to the priesthood and was ordained in 1835.

He became a travelling preacher, walking between towns in Catalonia and later in the Canary Islands. In Barcelona he also helped found a publishing house to print cheap religious books, and in 1849 he gathered a few priests in Vic who became the Claretian Missionaries. Consecrated Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba in 1850, he visited remote parishes, defended the poor and the enslaved, and in 1856 was slashed across the face by an attacker in Holguín. Later he served as confessor to Queen Isabella II and followed her into exile in 1868.

He died in a French monastery in 1870. Christians remember him as a missionary who used every means he had — voice, pen and printing press — to share the Gospel.

For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that One died for all, therefore all died. And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and was raised again.

2 Corinthians 5:14–15 · BSB

A prayer

God of mercy, you filled Anthony Mary Claret with such love for you that he spent himself preaching, writing and caring for the poor, even at the risk of his life. Let the love of Christ urge us on as well, so that our words and work may bring your good news to others. Amen.