Priest, apostolic missionary and founder (1829-1850)

 

In the Seminary

In the seminary of Vic, forge of apostles, Claret was formed as an extern seminarian, living as a famul­us (helper) of Don Fortián Bres, the Steward of the bishop’s palace. Soon he stood out for his piety and his industriousness. He chose Fr. Peter Bach of the Oratory as his confessor and director. After a year, the time arrived to carry out his decision to enter the Carthusian monastery of Montealegre. He left for the monastery, but he ran into a summer storm that ruined his plans. Perhaps God did not want him a Carthusian. He took a half turn and went back to Vic. The following year he passed the acid test of chastity in a temptation that came up to him a day that he was lying sick in bed. He saw the Blessed Virgin appear to him and, showing him a crown, she said to him: “Anthony, this crown will be yours if you overcome.” Suddenly, all obsessive images vanished.

Under the wise guide of Bishop Corcuera, the atmosphere of the seminary was optimal. There he made friends with James Balmes, who would be ordained Deacon in the same ceremony that Claret was ordained Subdeacon. It was in this epoch that Claret entered into a deep contact with the Bible, which would impel him unto an insatiable apostolic and missionary spirit.

Priest

At age 27, on 13 June 1835, the Bishop of Solsona, Fr. John Joseph de Tejada, former General of the Mercedarians, conferred upon him the sacred order of the Priesthood. He celebrated his first Mass in the parish of Sallent on 21 June, with great satisfaction and joy on the part of his family. His first assignment was precisely Sallent, his hometown.

At the death of Ferdinand VII the Spanish political situation had worsened. The constitutionalists, imitators of the French revolution, had taken over the power. In the Parliament of 1835 the suppression of all religious Institutes was approved. The possessions of the Church were confiscated and auctioned, and the people were instigated to burn the convents and kill the priests. The Provinces of Navarre, Catalonia and the Basque country soon revolted against this disorder and the war broke out between Carlists and Isabellines.

But Claret was not a politician. He was an apostle. So he dedicated himself, body and soul, to the priestly tasks, despite the enormous difficulties he encountered due to  the hostile ambience of his hometown. His charity had no bounds. Therefore, the horizons of a parish did not satisfy Claret’s apostolic zeal. He con­sulted and decided to go to Rome to enrol in the Propaga-tion of the Faith, with the intention of going to preach the Gospel in pagan lands. It was the month of September 1839. He was 31.

In Rome he Seeks his Missionary Identity

With a little bun­dle of things and without money, a young priest crossed the Pyrenees, bound for the eternal city. When he arrived in Marseilles, he took a ship for Rome.  In the eternal city, Claret made the Spiritual Exercises with a priest from the Society of Jesus. He felt called to enter as a Jesuit novice. He had gone to Rome in order to offer himself as a missionary of the world, but God seemed not to want him either as a missionary ad gentes nor as a Jesuit. A malady, a stabbing pain in his right leg, made him understand that his mission was in Spain. After three months he left the noviciate on the advice of Fr. Roothaan.

Back in Spain, he was temporarily assigned to Viladrau, a small woodmen town at the time, in the province of Gerona. In his capacity as Regent, since the Pastor was an elderly and disabled man, he set about the ministry with great zeal. He also acted as a physician, because there was none in the town or its environs.

Apostolic Missionary in Catalonia

Since Claret had not been born to remain in just one parish, his spirit pushed him on towards wider horizons. In July 1841, when he was 33, he received from Rome the title of Apostolic Missionary. At last, he was someone destined to the ministry of the Word, in the style of the apostles. This type of missionaries had disappeared since the time of Saint John of Avila. From that moment on, giving missions was his work. Vic was to be his residence. Claret walked always on foot, with an oilcloth map, his small bundle of things and his Breviary, through the snow or in the midst of storms, sunken between ravines and mudholes.  He joined muleteers and merchants, talked to them about the Reign of God and they were converted. His footsteps were left imprinted on all the roads. The cathedrals of Solsona, Gerona, Tarragona, Lérida, Barcelona and the churches of other cities filled up with people when Padre Claret spoke.

Once, as he was walking toward Golmes, they invited him to rest, because he was perspiring; he answered in jest: “I am like the dogs: they stick their tongue out but they never get tired.”

“Father, hear my ass’ confession,” a muleteer told him mockingly. “You are the one who needs to confess, -Claret answered- you have not done it in seven years and you need it indeed.” And the man confessed.

Another time he got a poor smuggler out of a jam by changing a tobacco bale into beans when some revenue guards stopped them. Upon arrival home, the good man was greatly surprised when he saw that the beans had turned again into tobacco. These are some of the “Claretian little flowers” of that epoch.

Other miraculous facts are being told about Claret but, above all, his power to penetrate the conscience of people was outstanding. He had enemies who slandered him and strove to thwart his missionary activity, so that the Archbishop of Tarragona had to come out in his defence. But he had a steel temper. He withstood it all and came out unscathed from all the ambushes they laid for him.

In addition to preaching, Fr. Claret devoted himself to giving Spiritual Exercises to the clergy and to religious women, especially during summer. In 1844, for example, he gave a Retreat to the Carmelite Sisters of Charity of Vic, in which St. Joaquina Vedruna participated.

During this time he also published numerous pamphlets and books. Among them we can highlight the “The Straight Path,” published for the first time in 1843, which would become the most read pious book of the XIX century. He was then 35 years old.

In 1847, together with his friend and future Bishop of Seo D’Urgel, Joseph Caixal and Antonio Palau, he founded the Religious Press. That same year he founded the Archconfraternity of the Heart of Mary and wrote the statutes of the Fraternity of the Most Holy and Immaculate Heart of Mary and Friends of Humankind, made up of priests and lay men and women.

The list of disciples and companions he had in this epoch is long and worth noting, men who would remain engraved in the Catalonian church history: Stephen Sala, Manuel Subirana, Blessed Francis Coll, Manuel Vilaró, Dominic Fábregas…

Apostle of the Canaries

On 6 March 1848 he left for Madrid and Cadiz, on his way to the Canaries, together with the newly elected Bishop Msgr. Bonaventure Codina. He was 40. The reason was that, after the recent armed rebellion of 1847, it was no longer possible to preach missions in Catalonia. The persuasive voice of Claret resounded from the Puerto de la Luz of Grand Canary to the rugged sandy spots of Lanzarote. He evangelised Telde, Agüimes, Arucas, Gáldar, Guía, Firgas, Teror… The miracle of Catalonia repeated itself. Claret had to preach in the plazas, on platforms, in the open air, amid multitudes that hemmed him in. Despite a pneumonia, he never stopped in his intensive work. In Lanzarote he gave missions in Teguise and Arrecife.

He spent 15 months of his life in the Canary Islands, leaving behind conversions and miracles, prophecies and legends. With tears in their eyes the Canarians saw their Padrito leave one day and they bade him farewell with nostalgia. It was towards the end of May 1849. His memory still lingers.

Founder of the Congregation of Missionaries, Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Shortly after his return to Cata­lonia, on 16 July 1849, at three o’clock in the afternoon, in a cell of the seminary of Vic, he found­ed the Congregation of the Missionaries, Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, an idea he had been thinking about for quite some time. He was 41 years old. Cofounders were Frs. Stephen Sala, Joseph Xifré, Manuel Vilaró, Dominic Fábregas and James Clotet.

“Today a great work begins,” Fr. Claret said.

Claret was no pseudo-charismatic who liked to speak in his own name, rather he felt impelled by God. And God revealed three things to him: first, that the Congregation would spread throughout the whole world; second, that it would last till the end of time; third, that all those who should die in the Congregation would be saved.