Antonio Claret was born into a large family. Two days later, on the feast of the Nativity of the Lord, his parents, Juan and Josefa, baptized him in the parish church of Santa Maria, in Sallent. Antonio is the fifth of eleven siblings, five of whom die before their fifth birthday. He lives in a home dedicated to textile manufacturing. A few months later, the sound of the looms is disturbed by the French invasion, recounted the claretian web.
He was educated as a Christian and was immediately distinguished by his devotion to the Virgin and the Eucharist. He had to help support the family, and dedicated himself to weaving with his father. However, Antonio already knew that his place was elsewhere.
At the age of 22 he entered the seminary of Vic. He had not yet completed his theological studies, and on June 13, 1835 he was ordained to the priesthood. His ideal was to leave for the mission, he went to Rome and came into contact with the Jesuits. But due to an illness he had to return to Spain, and preached throughout Catalonia and the Canary Islands. The vatican saints' calendar says that “he was very convincing because of his consistent witness and his limpid ascetic life: he always walked on foot, like a pilgrim, with a Bible and a breviary in hand”.
Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba, and return to Spain.
On July 16, 1849, in a cell of the seminary of Vic, he founded the Congregation of Missionaries Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. “The great work of Claret begins humbly with five priests endowed with the same spirit as the Founder”. And a few days later, on August 11, Mgr. Anton was informed of his appointment as Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba.
In spite of his resistance and his concern not to leave the Religious Bookstore and the recently founded Congregation of Missionaries orphaned, he accepted the position out of obedience. But in 1957, Queen Elizabeth II chose him personally as his confessor and he was forced to move to Madrid. He would later participate in the First Vatican Council.
The Roman Martyrology says: “St. Anthony Mary Claret, bishop, who, ordained as a priest, for several years devoted himself to preach to the people in the regions of Catalonia, in Spain. He founded the Society of Missionaries Sons of the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary and, ordained bishop of Santiago de Cuba, worked admirably for the good of souls. Having returned to Spain, he had to endure many trials for the Church, dying banished in the monastery of Cistercian monks of Fontfroide, near Narbonne, in the south of France († 1870)”.
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