Apostle in Madrid (1857-1868)

The Queen’s Confessor and Missionary in the Court of Spain

When he arrived in Madrid, he learned that he had definitively been appointed the Queen’s confessor. Upset, he accepted but put three conditions: that he should not live in the palace, that he should not be involved in politics, and that he should not be made to wait in line to be received, and should have freedom for apostolic action. He was 49 when he returned from Cuba. In the 11 years that he stayed in Madrid, his apostolic activity in the court was intense and unceasing. Few were the churches and convents where his voice was not heard, forceful and convincing. From the church of the Italians, situated in the present enlargement of the Parliament and from the Montserrat church, where the Monumental Theatre is now located, he developed an unstoppable activity. He was especially outstanding for his popular missions and his retreats to the clergy.

While he accompanied the Queen in her trips throughout Spain, he also seized the occasion to carry out an intense apostolate. Towards the beginning of June 1858 the royal entourage rolled along the plains of La Mancha, Alicante, Albacete, Valencia… Then to the Northwest of Spain: Leon, the mining coal field of Mieres and Oviedo, Galicia, Balearic Islands, Catalonia, Aragon and Andalusia. The sojourn in the South was full of enthusiasm and the royal confessor used it to preach missions everywhere; sometimes he managed to preach no less than 14 sermons in one day: Cordoba, Seville, Cadiz, Granada, Malaga, Cartagena and Murcia. Later on, again in the North: the Basque country, Old Castile and Estremadura. God’s Kingdom was being announced and the people responded generously.

President of the Escorial Monastery

The Queen appointed him President of the Royal Monastery of the Escorial for its restoration, because of the lamentable condition it was in, since the law of sale of Church lands and closure of convents of 1835. He held this position from 1859 to 1868. Not a long time, but enough to demonstrate his organ­ising talent. He repaired the towers and wings of the building and of the great basilica. He restored the choir loft and the altars, installed two organs, acquired scientific material for the Physics and Chemistry laboratories, restored the dilapidated library and set up a new one; he landscaped the gardens, planted a great many fruit and garden trees. With all this, the Archbishop managed to turn over yearly to the Queen a considerable surplus. It seemed a miracle.

Together with the material restoration, he undertook the spiritual one. He created a true ecclesiastical University, with the studies of humanities and the classics, modern languages, natural sciences, archaeology, schola cantorum and music band. He also set up studies of Philosophy and Theology, with patristics, Moral Liturgy and biblical sciences, as well as the Chaldean, Hebrew and Arabic languages, etc. With the inestimable help of his collaborator from Cuba, Don Dionisio González de Mendoza, he made of this monastery one of the best centres of Spain. And thanks to his zeal, the eighth wonder of the world recovered its former splendour.

Apostle of the Press

He felt as if Christ and the Blessed Virgin were telling him, “Write, Anthony!” Like an enormous and sensitive radar screen, Claret continuously scrutinised the signs of the times: “Experience has taught me that one of the most powerful forces for good is the press, -he said- just as it is one of the most potent weapons for evil, when abused.” He himself wrote some 96 works (15 books and 81 booklets) and edited 27 others, annotated and, at times, translated by him. Only by taking into account his extreme industriousness and the strength God gave him can one understand the fact that he wrote so much while exercising such an intense dedication to the apostolic ministry. Claret was not only a writer. He was a propagandist. He profusely disseminated his books and loose leaflets. As for this diffusion, he reached truly large quantities. He never claimed any amount from the edition and sale of his books; on the contrary, he invested great sums of money in it. Where did he get this money from? From what he received for his office and from donations. “Books –he used to say- are the best alms.”

In 1848, as we have already said, he had founded the Religious Press together with Dr. Caixal, future bishop of Seo de Urgel. Before that, he established the Spiritual Fraternity of good books which, during the years it was under Claret’s direction until his departure for Cuba, printed great quantity of books, booklets and leaflets, with a yearly average of more than half a million printed materials. In the first decade of its foundation he received a personal congratulation from Pope Pius IX. When he was still a priest, he had founded the Fraternity of the Most Holy and Immaculate Heart of Mary. The aim of this fraternity was to maintain permanently the diffusion of books, which constituted one of his first attempts of active lay apostolate, since it was composed of priests and lay men and women.

One of his most brilliant works was the foundation of the Academy of St. Michael (1858). He wanted to gather in it the living forces of plastic arts, journalism and Catholic organisations: artists, writers and propagandists from all over Spain for the cause of the Lord. In nine years, many books were given away, many more were lent, and an incalculable number of leaflets were distributed. Here are some names of the members of the Academy, according to his main biographer, Fr. Christopher Fernández, minister Lorenzo Arrazola, journalists Carbonero y So and Ojero de la Cruz, Professor Vincent Lafuente. Its influence reached even writers of the stature of Ayala and Hartzenbusch.

He also founded popular libraries in Cuba and in Spain, where more than one hundred were functioning in the last years of his life. Fr. Claret deserves indeed the title of Apostle of the press.

Spiritual Director and Cofounder

Fr. Claret’s most significant work was the foundation of the Congregation of Missionaries, Sons of the Heart of Mary. But in the splendid flowering of new religious institutes that took place in the XIX century, the royal confessor was the most decided collaborator that almost all founders and foundresses of his time could find.

Together with Mother París, he had already founded in Cuba in 1855 the Institute of Religious of Mary Immaculate, called Claretian Missionary Sisters, for the education of girls.

Under his spi­ritual direction we must include St. Michaela of the Most Blessed Sacrament, foundress of the Sisters Adorers, and St. Joaquina de Vedruna, foundress of the Carmelite Sisters of Charity.

He directly or indirectly intervened in other foundations. He had contacts with Joachim Masmitjà, founder of the Missionary Sisters “Immaculate Heart;” with Mark and Gertrude Castañer, founders of the Sisters of St. Philip Neri; with Mary of the Heart of Jesus, foundress of the Handmaids of Jesus of Charity; with Blessed Mary Ann Mogas, foundress of the Missionary Franciscan Sisters of the Divine Shepherd. We find him with the Blessed Francis Coll, founder of the Dominican Sisters of the Annunciata. He also had something to do with the foundation of the Missionary Handmaids of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, of Mother Maria Esperanza González. And we should also add his influence in the Teresian Sisters, Daughters of Christ the King, etc.

All these institutions were born or sprouted under the influence of Fr. Claret.

A Saintly Man

The lavishness of the Court did not prevent Fr. Claret from living as the most observant of religious. Everyday he dedicated much time to prayer. His austerity was proverbial and his sobriety in eating and drinking, admirable.

This was his timetable: He rose at three o’clock in the morning after scarcely six hours’ sleep; by the time the others rose, he had already spent two hours in prayer and reading of the Bible, and then one more hour together with them. After that, he celebrated the Eucharist and attended another one in thanksgiving. From breakfast till ten o’clock he heard confessions and, after that, he wrote. What he disliked most was the hour dedicated to audiences towards twelve noon. Afternoons he preached, visited hospitals, prisons, schools and convents.

He was a model of poverty. One day he had a shock when he put his hand into his pocket. He thought he had felt a coin, but soon he was relieved when he saw it was not a coin but a medal. On another occasion that he had nothing to help a poor man, he pawned his Archbishop’s pectoral cross.

Claret was a true mystic. Several times he was seen in a state of deep reverie before the Lord. One Christmas Day, in the church of the Sisters Adorers of Madrid, he said he received the Child Jesus in his arms.

He received a unique privilege, to wit, the conservation of the sacramental species from one communion to the next for nine years. He wrote in his Autobiography: “On August 26, 1861, at 7:00 in the evening, while I was at prayer in the church of the Rosary at La Granja, the Lord granted me the great grace of keeping the sacramental species intact within me and of having the Blessed Sacrament always present, day and night, in my breast.”

This almost sensible presence of Jesus within him must have been so great that he went to the extent of exclaiming: “Nowhere do I find myself as recollected as amidst the crowds.”

A Persecuted Man

It is not surprising that a man as influential as Fr. Claret, who drew the crowds after him, should also attract the fury of the enemies of the Church. But all their threats and attempts were being frustrated one by one, because Divine Providence watched over him who, in turn, rejoiced in persecutions. In his life he underwent numerous personal attempts. Most of them were frustrated by the conversion of the would-be assassins.

Nevertheless, a much worse defamatory campaign was organised on a large scale throughout the whole of Spain in order to discredit him before the simple people. He was accused of interfering with politics; of belonging to the famous camarilla or clique of the Queen with Sor Patrocinio, Marfori and others; of being of little intelligence, obscene in his writings, referring especially to his book “The Golden Key;” of being ambitious and even a thief. But Claret knew how to keep silent, happy to suffer something for Christ.

Facing the Recognition of the Kingdom of Italy

On July 15, 1865, the Government held a full meeting in La Granja de San Ildefonso in order to extort from the Queen her signature about the recognition of the Kingdom of Italy, which was tantamount to approving the pillaging of the Pontifical Estates.

Fr. Claret had already warned the Queen that the approval of this outrage was, in his opinion, a grave crime, and he threatened to leave her, should she sign it. The Queen was deceived and signed. Claret did not want to be an accomplice by remaining in the Court. He prayed before the Christ of Pardon in the church of La Granja, and he heard these words: “Anthony, leave.”

Racked with sorrow at being forced to leave the Queen in such situation, he went to Rome. Pope Pius IX consoled him and ordered him to return again to the court. The royal family was immensely happy with his return. But a new storm of calumnies and attacks broke out against him. It can be said that Claret was one of the most persecuted public men of the XIX century.