Claretian Formation

THE CLARETIAN FAMILY

Religious Sisters of Mary Immaculate, Claretian Missionary Sisters

St. Anthony Mary Claret, in one of his apostolic trips to Tarragona in the year of 1850, met the novice Maria Antonia París. During the dialogue they held, she expressed to him what she had understood to be God’s Will regarding the foundation of a new apostolic Institute for the proclamation of the Holy Law of God. He assured her that the work would push through.

The Venerable Maria Antonia París was born in Vallmoll, a small town of the Province of Tarragona in Spain, on June 28, 1813. The following day, feast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, June 29, she was baptised in the Parish of St. Mary of Vallmoll. In keeping with her religious vocation, she enters the noviciate of the Society of Mary on October 23, 1841. In 1842, while in prayer, she has a mystical experience in which the Lord makes her understand her calling as a foundress. She is to found a new Institute of apostolic life, in which the living of evangelical poverty and the proclamation of the Holy Law of God play a very important role in promoting the renewal of the Church. In 1851 she leaves the noviciate in order to be more free to carry out the work God had shown her. For one and a half years she devotes herself to the formation of the young ladies who join her in order to share her own ideal. On August 15, together with them, she makes the vow not to leave the group and to cross the ocean, should this be God’s will. On February 22 of the following year, called by St. Anthony Mary Claret, newly consecrated Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba, she embarks, together with her four companions, headed for the pearl of the Antilles. After a journey full of dangers and vicissitudes, she reaches Santiago on May 26, 1852. A little time later they begin their apostolic labour among the Cuban children, thus collaborating with the pastoral plan of the Archdiocese.

On August 25, 1855 Archbishop Claret signs the Decree of Foundation and, two days later, on August 27, Maria Antonia makes her profession in the hands of the saintly Archbishop, Founder together with her of the Religious of Mary Immaculate, Claretian Missionary Sisters. In 1859 St. Anthony Mary Claret, who was in Spain at the time, calls Maria Antonia to the Peninsula for the purpose of establishing a noviciate house in Tremp, Province of Lerida, for the missionary formation for the New World. Then follow the foundations of Reus, Province of Tarragona, Carcagente, Province of Valencia and Vélez-Rubio in Almeria, in Spain, and Baracoa in Cuba. On January 17, 1885, after a long sickness, Maria Antonia dies in Reus. Her cause of Beatification and Canonisation has already been introduced. The Decree on the heroicity of her virtues was signed on December 23, 1993. At present the Sisters, faithful to the mission bequeathed to them by their Founders, are working in the spreading of the Gospel throughout all the different parts of the world where the Congregation is established.

Cordimarian Filiation

Between 1840 and 1850 a singular idea started to haunt the heart of Claret and to “keep him busy before God:” Is the external structure of religious life essential to the consecrated life? How can the opportunity of embracing the gospel radicalism be offered to those who wish to remain in the world or are compelled to live in it? Furthermore, should the process of de-Christianisation, which was then beginning, continue its progression, how to bring the Good News to people when they should come to reject whatever was presented to them as a visible sign of gospel demand? Claret then began to glimpse the need of introducing in the very heart of the world the transforming force of people who should have made of Christ the supreme value in which all other values could find their place and meaning. Little by little this idea was taking shape until it became a dream and, later on, a joyful reality.

The first step was the publication of a booklet, “The Daughters of the Most Holy and Immaculate Heart of Mary,” which was published in the spring of 1850. The ideal presented was almost revolutionary at that time: living the fullness of consecrated life in the world, side by side with the rest of people, having the Heart of Mary as cloister. In the time of Claret nothing more could be done, and Cordimarian Filiation could only be a water spring born in silence, a current perceived only by those who, like Claret, received a prophetic vision projected toward the future. But the life of that inexhaustible spring unhurriedly pushed from inside. More than a century would go by before the Church would realise that a new current had been born in her inner self, that was struggling to permeate the most hidden corners of the world with Gospel transparency. That current would come to be known as Cordimarian Filiation.

Plasencia (Spain), 1943. A group of Claretian Missionaries lovingly picks up the lamp lighted by Fr. Claret and decides to make the dream come true. The Claretian book becomes the “rule of life” for a core of enthusiastic young girls, decided to constitute themselves into a “family” within the Church. At the same time, the same spark ignites in several places of Europe and America and several groups are organised. All of them are animated by the same spirit and a strikingly rich unity can already be seen in that diversity that had brought it to life. In 1947 Pius XII promulgates the apostolic constitution Provida Mater Ecclesia, that recognises and approves the Secular Institutes among the forms of life that imply Gospel radicalism. Fr. Claret’s dream has already got its own channel within the Church, and the organisational efforts are now directed to obtain its definition as a Secular Institute. On November 21, 1973, feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin, Cordimarian Filiation is approved by the Church as a Secular Institute of Pontifical right. It was the end of a long journey and the beginning of a horizon hopefully open toward the third millennium of the Christian era.

Following Christ virgin, poor and obedient in the midst of a world dominated by selfishness, consumerism and self-sufficiency, thus making of one’s own life a self-sacrifice for the sake of the brethren: this is Cordimarian Filiation today. Claret did not want the Daughters of the Hear of Mary “separated” from the rest of society. They were born in the Church to “remain and act in the world until it is transformed in Christ.” Through their life and their word, the radicalism of the Gospel must be made present in daily life, in the common conditions of the world, in the general law of work, with its risks and insecurities.

Lay Claretians Movement

“In these last days it seems that God wants the laity to play an important role in the salvation of souls “ (St. Anthony M. Claret).

The Lay Claretians Movement has its origin in the groups of lay people St. Anthony M. Claret organised for the work of evangelisation. Among these groups stand out: the Fraternity of the Heart of Mary (1847), the Fraternity of Christian Doctrine (1849), the Academy of St. Michael (1858) and the Popular and Parochial Libraries (1864). This same year he planned to create an association with the name of Archconfraternity of the Heart of Mary that he conceived as a great army of evangelisers with three branches: the Missionaries, Sons of the Heart of Mary, dedicated to itinerant evangelisation, the Diocesan Clerics who would carry out their apostolic mission through fixed and stable structures of evangelisation, and the laity.

Claret’s death (1870) and the difficult situation brought to the Spanish Church by the coming of the revolution of 1868 made it very difficult for the lay groups created by Claret to survive. In effect, in the course of a few years all of them disappeared. The groups disappeared, but many lay persons remained who, animated by the spirit of Claret, co-operated in the evangelising work, usually side by side with the Claretian Missionaries.

The process of reorganisation of the Claretian laity began in the year 1938, when the Superior General of the Missionaries created the association of “Claretian Collaborators.” This association that was conceived as a “proper work” of the Congregation, was approved by the Hole See in 1943. In its statutes it is stated that those who wish to live in keeping with the spirit of the Congregation and collaborate in its apostolate may be Claretian Collaborators.

In 1972 the Claretian Collaborators begin to be called Claretian Associates. The General Chapter of 1973 says that Claretian Associates are clergymen and lay people that share in the Claretian charism and commit themselves, in various degrees and in a permanent way, to live that charism in communion with the Congregation of Missionaries.

In 1979 they take the name of Lay Claretians. The General Chapter of this same year gives a new orientation to the Claretian laity. It states that the promotion of the Lay Claretians should not be done for the sake of the needs or the interests of the Congregation. The Lay Claretian vocation has in itself its own inner value and there is a need to support the action of the Spirit who from the beginning has also called the lay people to fulfil the Claretian mission.

The laity and the religious are two different manners of being Claretian. The Lay Claretians do not share in the charism of the Congregation, as used to be said in earlier times, but rather in the charism and mission of Claret.