Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Barcelona (Agenzia Fides) - Celebrations to mark the bi-centenary of the birth of Saint Anthony Maria Claret, were officially opened 20 and 21 October in Sallent, Barcelona (Spain). The Claretian year will close in the Summer 2008 in Tanzania, on a date still to be set.
The theme of the bi-centenary "Born to Evangelise", in reference to the date of birth (23 December 1807) - the reason for the bi-centenary: was the life of the Saint evangelisation, announcing the Gospel. With these celebrations the intention is to make known an important evangeliser and missionary who left traces of his spirit in more than 60 different countries all over the world.
Last week in view of Mission Sunday, 21 October there was a gathering at Sallet for the representatives of the Claretian Family in the world, seven institutions: Claretian Missionaries, two secular institutions (Cordimariana Filiation and Secular Claretians) and five congregations of women religious (Claretian Missionary Sisters, Missionary Sisters of Mary Immaculate, the Missionary Cordimarianas, the Missionary Sisters of the Claretian Institution and the Missionary Sisters of S. Antonio M. Claret). Present for the celebrations, Bishop Romá Casanova, Bishop of Vic, Archbishop Dionisio García Ibáñez of Santiago in Cuba and seven Claretian Bishops from Chile, Colombia, Spain, Honduras and Porto Rico.
Saint Antonio Maria Claret was born on 23 December 1807 at Sallent (Barcelona). In 1829 he entered the seminary at Vic and was ordained a priest at Solsona (Lerida) on 13 June 1835, at the age of 27. In 1839 he decided to go to Rome to Propaganda Fide College (today Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples) to ask to be sent to a mission territory. With the title “Apostolic Missionary” he preached all over Catalogna and the Canary Islands, from 1841 to 1849. On 16 July 1849 in Vic he founded the Congregation of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the Claretian Missionaries. On 4 August he was appointed Archbishop of Santiago in Cuba where he was a tireless missionary for six years. In 1855 in Paris he founded the Sisters of Mary Immaculate, Claretian Missionaries. Appointed confessor to Queen Regina Isabella II, in 1857 he was in Madrid, where he engaged in intense pastoral activity taking advantage of the journeys on which he accompanied the Queen. In 1869 he took part in the sessions of the First Vatican Council in St Peter's Basilica in Rome. Infirm he returns to France and died on 24 October 1870 at the Cistercian Abbey of Fontfroide, at the age of 63. He was beatified in 1934 by Pope Pius XI and canonised in 1950 by Pius XII. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 22/10/2007; righe 31, parole 428)
