Happy Feast of St. Anthony Claret!

He is a favorite and deserves to be much better known. He essentially invented Catholic press as we know it today, revolutionized Cuban agriculture, was a miracle-factory, and founded seminaries and his own religious order. He wrote some 200 or so books, confirmed about 300,000 people and rectified some 12,000 marriages as Archbishop in Cuba, and visited each parish at least twice, almost always by walking. He essentially didn’t sleep.

As confessor to the Queen of Spain later on, he suffered much on account of the culture of the court… He deeply disliked it. The various politicians would write him letters all the time – he received (and read) about 100 each day. He never responded to a single one. The only time he intervened on a political matter was on the Queen’s approval of the unification of Italy – she disobeyed him, and she was excommunicated; he had to go fix everything, as she went into a kind of exile in France.

I have visited his tomb… Sort of. I went all the way there, some years ago when I first came to Italy. The place was locked! I wrote about that trip here. I owe it another try.

He is a saint for our times… A strong preacher and defender of the integrity of marriage, a courageous and merciful man (who faced many assassination attempts – including twice from the same man, who had been pardoned by him once back in Spain, but then somehow ended up being hired by Anthony’s presbyterate in Cuba to kill him – the second time he sent him back to Spain to stay in prison)… He knew the stakes were high for clergy and for souls. He also dealt with a major outbreak of cholera in Cuba, and an earthquake in the same city. He didn’t close the churches. He didn’t “suspend the sacraments.” He didn’t tell people to follow medical superstitions (“fires in the street will burn up the disease”). It was the opposite.

He gave a brief but powerful intervention at Vatican I in favor of papal infallibility. As one Austrian bishop was speaking against it, it was noticed that the normally meek Anthony was becoming so angry that saliva was bubbling out through the scar on his cheek, where he had once been stabbed in a failed assassination attempt. Leo XIII remembered Anthony from the Council, and he advanced his cause, making him “Venerable” in 1899. Pius XI beatified him, and Pius XII canonized him. That’s FAST.

Go read his life. He’s one of the only saints who has left us a meaningful autobiography. It is an incredible read, especially useful for missionary clergy, and for men who are turned away from religious life (he tried to enter the Carthusians and the Jesuits, but it failed – he started his own order and then was promptly chosen bishop, so he was never really able to live that life). There’s another book which is a proper biography, and another book just documenting his miracles.

We must not forget our saints – especially the recent ones who are so strong and prophetic.

St. Anthony Claret, pray for us!