Saint Anthony Claret

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Anthony Claret was the founder of the Claretian order. He was born in 1807 in Spain. Saint Anthony was a weaver by trade, like his father, but studied Latin in his spare time. At 22, he entered the seminary and was ordained in 1835. He preached missions for 10 years before founding the Claretians in 1849. Shortly thereafter, he was named archbishop of Santiago, Cuba, where he reformed the clergy and the laity. In 1857, he returned to Spain to be Queen Isabella II’s confessor, to oversee his growing congregation, and to publish books.

In 1868, with the Spanish Revolution, both Archbishop Claret and the queen were exiled. After Vatican I, the archbishop sought refuge at a Cistercian monastery in France, where he died in 1870. He was canonized in 1950.