His last years (1868-1870)

Exiled

By September 18, 1868, the revolution was already in progress and beyond control. Twenty-one cannon shots of the frigate Zaragoza, in the Cadiz Bay, announced the dethronement of Queen Isabel II. With the defeat of the Isabelline army in Alcolea, Madrid fell and the revolution spread throughout the whole of Spain like wildfire.

On the 30th, the royal family, with some supporters and the Queen’s confessor, left for their exile in France, first toward Pau and then Paris. Fr. Claret was 60 years old.

The outrages and burning of churches proliferated and another one of the prophecies of Fr. Claret was fulfilled: the Congregation will have its first martyr in this revolution. Fr. Francis Crusats was assassinated in La Selva del Campo.

On 30 March 1869 Claret definitively left the Queen and went to Rome.

Father of the First Vatican Council

On December 8, 1869, 700 bishops from the whole world, superiors of religious Orders, archbishops, primates, patriarchs and cardinals gathered in Rome. The First Ecumenical Vatican Council was beginning. Fr. Claret was there.

One of the most debated themes was the Papal infallibility in matters of faith and morals. Claret’s voice resounded, already with difficulty, in the Vatican basilica on 31 May 1870: “I bear in my body the marks of Christ’s passion, -he said, referring to the wounds at Holguín- would that I could shed all my blood once for all, confessing the infallibility of the Pope.”

He is the only Father present at that Council who has reached the altars.

The Decline of his Days

On 23 July 1870, Archbi­shop Claret arrived at Prades, in the French Pyrenees, accompanied by Fr. Joseph Xifré, Superior General of the Congregation. The community of missionaries in exile, mostly young students, received the Founder, already sick, with great joy. He knew that his death was imminent. But not even in the placid atmosphere of that retreat did his enemies leave him in peace. On August 5, a notice was received. They wanted to take the Archbishop into prison. Even sick and in exile, Fr. Claret was forced to flee. He took refuge in the neighbouring Cistercian monastery of Fontfroide. With great joy, the monks in that cloister, near Narbonne, admitted him.

His health was totally undermined. Fr. James Clotet never separated from his side and carefully took note of the incidents of his sickness. On October 4 he had a brain haemorrhage.

On the 8th he received the last sacraments and made his religious profession as a Son of the Heart of Mary, at the hands of Fr. Xifré.

The morning of the 24th of October came. All the religious were kneeling around his deathbed. Frs. Clotet and Puig were at his side. Amid prayers Claret gave up his spirit into the hands of the Creator. It was 8:45 in the morning, and he was 62 years old.

His body was laid in the monastic cemetery with an inscription of Gregory VII that said: “I loved justice and hated iniquity, therefore I die in exile.”