Sacred Calendar

Prayer and Apostolate

When we attentively recall the life of the holy citizen of heaven Anthony Mary Claret, we know not whether to admire more the purity of his soul, which from tender childhood he preserved unstained with the greatest care and diligence like a lily among thorns; the ardor of his charity, by which he was driven to strive to relieve every kind of misery; or, finally, the zeal of his tireless apostolate. Moved by that zeal day and night, he contributed greatly to reforming private and public morals in the spirit of the Gospel by urgent prayers offered to God for the salvation of others, by undertaking innumerable journeys, and by sermons breathing divine love.

As a young man he practiced the weaver's trade in obedience to his father's will. He shone before the other workers in the workshop by such an example of Christian virtue that he aroused the admiration of all; and whenever he was able to rest from his manual labor, he hastened to the church. There, either at the altar of the august Sacrament or before an image of the Virgin Mother of God, he passed the sweetest hours in prayer and contemplation. Divine Providence willed that, before he was raised to higher things, he should give workers also splendid examples of uprightness and holiness to imitate.

Doctrine, Discipline, and Missionary Preaching

After some years, with divine grace helping him to overcome various difficulties, he was at last able to accomplish what he had always desired: to devote himself wholly to God. Admitted to the seminary of his diocese, he earnestly took care to learn doctrine with eager diligence, to obey most carefully the established rules of discipline, above all to adorn his soul with heavenly gifts, and to reproduce in himself by word and deed a living image of Jesus Christ. Thus, when his course of studies was completed and he had received sacred orders, he sprang as a valiant soldier into the open field of the apostolate, armed not with human resources but with divine help, and from the beginning of his priestly ministry brought forth the richest fruits of salvation.

Seeing that Christian piety was languishing, churches were being deserted, and public morals were being ruined with the greatest harm, either through the widespread ignorance of the divine commandments or through a certain weariness of heavenly things that had crept into many souls, he adopted the timely plan of undertaking sacred campaigns called missions. In various cities, towns, and villages he preached to the people for a fixed number of days. In giving these sermons his face shone with the divine charity by which he burned, and such forceful eloquence burst from his mouth and from the depths of his heart that he often moved those present to tears and, more importantly, to form sincere resolutions for a better and holier life. Thus there came about not merely a salutary amendment but a renewal of morals.

A Shepherd of Courage and a Son of the Immaculate Heart

When the fame of his holiness spread more widely each day, he was judged worthy to receive the archiepiscopal office in Cuba. Although he continually experienced the gravest difficulties and succeeding obstacles on the island, neither the harshest labors nor dangers of every kind deterred him from striving, as a most excellent and fearless shepherd, to accomplish what he had done in Spain as a good soldier of Christ. Later recalled to his native land as the Queen's confessor and counselor, he had nothing more at heart than to provide in the most fitting way he could for the salvation of his royal penitent, to defend the rights of the Church, and by every means to promote the progress of the Catholic religion.

The most salutary plan he had long conceived of founding a missionary congregation dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mother of God he was able not only to carry into effect but to strengthen and fortify with most wise laws. In the course of time this congregation spread with happy success through Spain, almost all the other nations of Europe, and even the distant regions of America, Africa, and Asia. If workers, priests, bishops, and finally the whole Christian people look to him, all have reason to be moved by his splendid examples and stirred to attain that Christian perfection proper to each one's state, from which alone timely remedies for these disturbed conditions can arise and better times be brought about.