Saint Anthony Mary Claret

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2262 In the way in which he was editing this text, with a farewell and final signature, he seems to be answering a question from various people who were asking Claret to indicate the manner of honoring the Virgin. The Saint wrote this beautiful text with great joy, which is a small compendium of Marian piety.

2263 Granada, Fray Luis de, Guía de pecadores (Madrid 1730) book 2, chap. 14 pp.451-452.

2264 Cf. Lk 7:11-17.

2265 St. John of Avila, Talks to Priests, 2, in BAC, Obras completas (Madrid, 1970) III, pp. 389-390. For English see Studies of the Spanish mystics, vol.1-3, by E. Allison Peers (The Sheldon Press, London 1927, 1930, 1960).

2266 Cf. Lk 7: 14-15.

2267 Cf. Mt 15:28.

2268 St. Monica (Tagaste 332 - Ostia Antica 387). Longing for the conversion of her son, Augustine, one day she told a bishop that she spent many years praying for the conversion of her son. And the prelate answered her: “Be calm. It is impossible that your son will be lost with so many tears.”

2269 Cf. Ex 17:2-5; 32:7-14.

2270 A commentary on this text can be seen in: Espósito Castro, Alfredo Mario, San Antonio María Claret. Experiencia sacerdotal, misionera y mariana para el siglo XXI (Rome 1998) 140 pp.

2271 I will espouse you to me forever.

2272 Cf. 1 Cor 13:8.

2273 Rom 8:35: Who then shall separate us (from the love of Christ)?

2274 Prov 23:26.

2275 Gal 2:20.

2276 Songs 8:6.

2277 Cf. Jn 15:13.

2278 Prov 23:26.

2279 Cf. Acts 7:51.

2280 Gal 2:20.

2281 In the Gospel image of the child, Claret sees the ideal of innocence and humility. In other contexts, he considers the child/parent relationship with God. In his view, the ideal child exists only in the Child Jesus. His own spiritual childhood, even under the aspects of innocence and humility, is gauged by the degree of his conformity with the Child Jesus.

2282 Mt 18:3. In Claret’s edition of The Holy Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to St. Matthew (Barcelona 1856), the complete text is paraphrased as follows: Unless you turn and become as little children in simplicity and innocence, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. In the footnote to this passage, Claret explains: “The Lord speaks to them of His true kingdom, which is utterly heavenly. And so that they may renounce their pride, he sets before them an innocent child, telling them that if they want to enter the kingdom of heaven, they must be in their will, what children are by age. The latter have no other anchor than their father and mother, and even though their mother be but a poor woman dressed in rags, they prefer her to the most richly bedecked queen. Children do not go around worrying about what they will eat or what they will wear; they do not seek riches or honors; they do not harbor hatred in their heart; they are at peace with all and are totally innocent of seeing any vice in others” (pp. 124-125).

2283 The Saint wrote the word ‘mother’ in lower case, but. Fr. James Clotet, corrector of the originals, changed it to upper case, as an explanation of the total sense of the phrase, expressing Claret’s filial attitude toward the Blessed Virgin.

2284 Cf. Is 9:6.

2285 “Before God, our spirit should become like that of a little child who is poor in spirit, since for our sake God himself was born a little child.”

2286 An allusion to the vision he had during his second year of philosophical studies, when he was a lodger at the Casa Tortadés in Vic: “I saw myself as a beautiful white child kneeling with his hands joined” (Autob. n. 96).

2287 Cf. Songs 5:10.

2288 Is 9:6: For a child is born to us, and a son is given to us, and the government is upon his shoulders.

2289 Lk 2:51: And he was subject to them.

2290 And He advanced in wisdom, and age, and grace with God and men.

2291 Cf. Mt 18:3.

2292 Prov 8:31: My delights are to be with the children of men.

2293 Cf. Venerable Tomé de Jesús, Trabajos de Jesús (Barcelona 1726) l, p. 19.

2294 Cf. Sir 10:15.

2295 Blessed John Duns Scotus (1265-1308), known as Doctor Subtle.

2296 Ps 113:1: Not to us, O Lord, not to us but to your name give the Glory.

2297 Cf. Mt 26:63.

2298 Ps 118:71: It is good for me that you have humbled me.

2299 Ps 83:3: My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God.

2300 Lk 1:47: And my spirit has rejoiced in God my savior.

2301 St. Augustine, May I know myself, may I know Thee. Soliloquies, book 2, chp. 1, no. 1: See note 87.

2302 Cf. Gen 1:26-27.

2303 Lk 1:49: For he who is mighty has done great things to me, and Holy is his name.

2304 Cf. Is 64:5. The Vulgate text (Is 64:6) has …and all our justices have become like the rag of a menstruous woman.

2305 May I know myself, may I know Thee, that I may love Thee and despise myself: Soliloquies, book 2, chp. 1, no. 1: See note 87.

2306 Cf. Ex 3:114.

2307 Cf. Rev 22:13.

2308 Cf. Gen 18:27.

2309 Cf. Ps 50:2.

2310 Cf. 1 Cor 15:10.

2311 Cf. Autob. 628.

2312 The chalice that my Father has given me, shall I not drink it?

2313 You could have power at all against me unless it were given you from above.

2314 Ágreda, María de Jesús de, Mística ciudad de Dios (Barcelona 1860). See The Mystical City of God online: < http://www.themostholyrosary.com/mystical-city.htm>.

2315 Cf. Mt 26:61-63.

2316 Lk 21:18.

2317 To underscore the benefits of patience, he remarks elsewhere: “Patience is the most profitable investment: there is more call for it and it yields the highest interest” (MSS Claret X, 342).

2318 Cf. Autob. n. 354.

2319 Tomé de Jesús, Trabajos de Jesús (Barcelona 1726) II, p. 619.

2320 On May 11, 1862, in the Blessed Sacrament chapel, St. Anthony Mary Claret offered himself in a special way to preach, exhort, labor and even to die (cf. Autob. n. 698). The offering that he expresses here may well be the formulation of the one he mentions in the Autobiography.

2321 Cf. Gal 6:14. Also, in Works II, p. 278, Fr. Daries notes the original translation of abordar by the English word “welcome” is not active enough. “One may welcome what befalls one, whereas the nuance here is one of going out and looking for work and gladly taking it on.

2322 It should be mentioned that in the Autobiography (n. 494) neither the biblical quote to boast of the Cross of Jesus Christ nor the verb to pray appears.

2323 This “remembrance,” traditionally known in the Congregation of Claretian Missionaries as the “Definition or Pen-portrait of the Missionary,” contains a few variants from the one he copied in his Autobiography (n. 494). The version presented here is probably the one Claret sent to Fr. Joseph Xifré from La Granja on August 20, 1861, with the request that “each one of the Missionaries copy it and carry it about with them” (EC II, p. 352). That being the case, the text which is published here would be prior to the text of the Autobiography (cf. Munárriz, Julián, La definición del Hijo del Corazón de María: Annales CMF, núm. extr. [1949] pp. 17-30; Asolo, Marcos de, La acción misionera [Buenos Aires 1931] pp. 59-144; Claret, Constituciones y textos... ed. cit., pp. 614-616; Bermejo, Jesús, La definición del misionero: Noticias de Bética CMF 53 [1973] 78-92; Álvarez Gómez, Jesús, Claretian Missionaries. Vol. II: Transmission and Reception of the Claretian Charism (Quezon city, Philippines 2000) pp. 94-119.

2324 This note corresponds to the Resolutions of 1867.

2325 Acts 22:10: Lord, what would you have me do?

2326 “For the greater glory of God.” The chapter alludes to “Two Very Helpful Counsels for Making Prayer and Deriving Fruit from it” (Rodríguez, Alonso, Ejercicio de perfección y virtudes cristianas [Barcelona 1861] l, pp. 246-249). Ex libris. See Alphonsus Rodriguez, The Practice Of Christian And Religious Perfection, 3 vols., (Kessinger Publishing, 2006).

2327 Songs 8:6.

2328 Cf. Acts 6:15.

2329 Croisset, Juan, Año cristiano: diciembre (Barcelona 1854) p. 399. Ex libris.

2330 The heavens, the Earth, and all things tell me that I should love thee. (St. Augustine, Confesiones, book X, chap. VI). See note 87.

2331 Acts 22:10: Lord, what would you have me do?

2332 Ps 57: 7, (Vulgate, Ps 56:8): My heart is ready, O Lord, my heart is ready.

2333 Songs 2:16: My beloved for me, and I for him.

2334 Cf. 2 Cor 10:4.

2335 “These are the arms of our warfare: to be killed, not to kill”. – On a copy of the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius, discussed by Fr. Ignatius Diertins, that ruled the Jesuit Fathers upon leaving the novitiate in Rome, and which is preserved in the Claretian museum in the eternal city, Fr. Claret wrote these words: Hae sunt arma militiae nostrae [These are the arms of our warfare.] He wished to show here the manner of engagement characteristic of his apostolate, as in battle, with the sword of the Word of God, against the powers of evil and lies.

2336 “A Christian can be killed but not conquered.” Actually, St. Cyprian refers to the priest: Sacerdos Evangelium Christi tenens, occidi potest, vinci non potest. This phrase has been adopted as the theme of the Missionaries of Salette: Missionarius Salettensis, occidi potest, vinci non potest.

2337 Mt 10:16: Behold, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves.

2338 “So long as we are sheep, we overcome; but if we become wolves, then we are overcome.” (Homilies 33-34 on Mt 10:16: PG 57, 389).

2339 Jas 1:20: For the anger of man does not work the justice of God.

2340 Claret may very well have heard this from the lips of Felix Dupanloup himself (1802-1878), Bishop of Orleans from 1849, Deputy and Senator.

2341 “Surely you didn’t become a Christian to flourish in this World?”

2342 Is 38:14: O Lord, I am in Straits, be my surety.

2343 This note, written in Rome, is an orderly treatment of what he vividly understood and experienced on October 12, 1869 (cf. “Lights and Graces,” 1869).

2344 Mt 5:44: Love your enemies.

2345 Lk 23:34.

2346 Cf. Mk 12:30-31, 33.

2347 Gal 2:20: I live, not now I, but Christ lives in me.

2348 Cf. Rom 8:5, 11, 14.

2349 Cf. Autob. 448.

2350 Cf. Lk 23:34

2351 1 Jn 3:14: He who loves not abides in death.

2352 Cf. St. Teresa of Jesus, Obras..., LR (Barcelona 1852) III, pp. 156-169. For English reference see note 89.

2353 He refers to the 2nd point of Meditation 27, “Del prodigioso amor que manifestó Jesús en la cruz a sus enemigos” [“Of the Wondrous Love that Jesus on the Cross Showed Toward His Enemies”] (Spiritual Exercises... Explained [Madrid 1859] pp. 344-356; cf. Mss. Claret, VII, 634).

2354 These notes were written in 1869 or 1870. Claret was convinced that his end was near, not only because of the extraordinary revelation he noted in his Retreat Resolutions for 1869, but also because of his awareness of his growing physical disabilities: “Everyday I am losing more memory, sight and agility. It seems to me that I won’t live much longer” (cf. the following Spiritual Note, no. 4).

The Archbishop of Valencia (later Cardinal) Don Marian Barrio (1805-1876) wrote to Don Francisco de Asís Aguilar after Claret’s death: “During our stay in Rome, he told me at least twice in the Council Hall, that he was going to die soon, and that, as he doubted whether he would have a secretary with him at the time, he wanted me to give the news to his brethren, so that they could advise me which Masses of theirs should be applied for his intention” (cf. Ven. James Clotet, Resumen de la vida admirable [Barcelona 1882], p. 217).

2355 It is appointed unto men once to die.

2356 The proverbial phrase Nulla dies sine linea is attributed to Apelles, famous Greek painter of the 3rd Century, B.C. of the Court of the King of Macedonia. Pliny the Elder wrote: “Apelli fuit alioquim perpetua consuetudo numquam tam occupatum diem agendi, ut non lineam ducendo exerceret artem, quod ab eo in proverbium ven it.” Apart from this Apelles, the painter, had the same constant custom, that he would never have a day so full of obligations that he would not work on his art drawing at least one line, and thus remains this proverb ever since then (Historia natural, 35, 84). Erasmus writes it thus: Nullam hodie lineam duxi (Adagia 1. 4. 12 ).

2357 Fr. Claret wrote in his notes: “We are dying. Like the candle, the hourglass … Contra malum mortis non est medicamentum in hortis» [Against the evil of death there is no medicine in the garden] (Mss. Claret, IX, 77). «Quotidie morimur, from the time we can begin to live we die: candle, oil lamp, hour-glass, years past” (ib., p. 659).

2358 Ps. 33:22 Vulgate, (Ps 34:22): The death of the wicked is very evil.

2359 Ps. 115:15 Vulgate, (Ps 116: 18): Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints.

2360 Rev 14:13: For their works follow them.

2361 Rodríguez, Alonso, Ejercicio de perfección y virtudes cristianas (Barcelona 1861) part 1, pp. 83-87. Ex libris. See Alphonsus Rodriguez, The Practice Of Christian And Religious Perfection, 3 vols., (Kessinger Publishing, 2006).

2362 Ecclus 7:40: In all your works, remember your last end, and you will never sin.

2363 Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.

2364 Lk 16:2: Render an account of your stewardship.

2365 In another place he writes: “If only they would know that mortals are standing between two eternities, and that death is near…” (Mss. Claret, VII, 409).

2366 St. Anthony of Padua (1195-1231).

2367 St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153).

2368 St. Leonard of Port Maurice (1676-1751).

2369 St. Paul of the Cross (1694-1775).

2370 St. Vincent de Paul (1581-1660).

2371 St. Alphonsus Mary Ligouri (1696-1787).

2372 Claret never doubted his own salvation and placed it on the same list of Saints, including the other two not canonized: the Venerable John of Avila and Fray Luis of Granada.

2373 St. John of Avila (1499-1569).

2374 Fray Luis of Granada (1504-1588).

2375 St. Francis Borgia (1510-1572).

2376 St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556).

2377 St. Teresa of Jesus, Avisos, n. 69: in Obras completas, BAC (Madrid 1962) p. 639. The complete phrase is: “Your desire is to see God; your fear, if you were to lose him; your pain, that you will not enjoy him; and your joy is what you can bring there, and you will live with great peace.” See note 89.

2378 St. John Gilbert (995-1073).

2379 St. Bonaventure (1218-1274).

2380 St. Camillus de Lellis (1550-1614).

2381 St. Jerome Emiliani (1486-1537).

2382 This writing is very important in the spirituality of Claret. The Saint was exiled and persecuted. He did not consider himself a hero, but a servant who configured himself to Christ. The Divine word gave him consolation and strength to love until the end. This is the last writing published in his life; a confession and glorification of the Trinity, at the same time a communion with each one of the Persons. His answers echo the Resolutions, the Spiritual Notes, and the “Lights and Graces,” 1870.

2383 Jn 15: 20.

2384 Jn 15: 18.

2385 Jn 16: 21.

2386 Jn 14: 1.

2387 Jn 14: 1-3.

2388 Jn 14: 18.

2389 Jn 16: 16.22.

2390 Jn 16: 27-28.

2391 Jn 16: 33.

2392 1 Cor 15:57.

2393 Cf. Resolutions, 1870, gift.

2394 Cf. Heb 20:7, 9; Lk 22:42.

2395 Lk 2:49: I must be about my Father’s business.

2396 Lk 23:46.

2397 Cf. Autob. Doc. VIII.

2398 Cf. Archivo Histórico CMF (Madrid 1915) l, pp. 287-288.

2399 Autob. n. 76.

2400 Letter to the Missionary Theophilus in Works III, n.2, p. 415.

2401 Cf. ib.

2402 This notion of instrumentality is expressed in Claret’s own vivid, varied and imaginative way (cf. Autob. nn. 348, 664, 668, 671, 697).

2403 “The apostolic missionary..., following Christ’s example, should first practice, then teach.” (Autob. n. 340).

2404 “Jesus Christ … Ah, I can see Him hanging dead upon the cross, scorned by all. For this reason I, even I, with the help of his grace, am resolved to suffer pains, fatigue, contempt, mockery, complaints, slanders, persecution – even death.” (Autob. n. 752).

2405 Positio super virtutibus, I, n. 25, De donis supernaturalibus Ven. Servi Dei, pp. 812 ss.

2406 One of his missionary companions in Cuba often saw him at night in ecstasy, lifted up from the ground and surrounded by rays of light. While celebrating Mass he was sometimes rapt in God and outside himself. The Royal Family saw him in this state. Sometimes this phenomenon occurred while he was preaching, as in the cathedral of Vic, in Málaga and in El Escorial. In the School of the Carmelite Sisters of Charity in Madrid, while speaking on the love of God, he remained transported for a while in a blissful attitude, his eyes open and fixed on heaven, his face transformed. On another occasion, while addressing the Claretian Sisters and their pupils, he fixed his gaze on the Sacred Host, and in a penetrating voice, said: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!” Then he was lifted up from the floor and remained in levitation for several minutes. (For all these cases see: Positio super virtutibus, 1915 I, n . 25, p. 812 ff.).

2407 Ib., I, n. 120.

2408 Although we cannot pinpoint the date, this happened between 1860 and 1866. The Saint’s chaplain, Fr. Carmelo Sala so testified in the Informative Process of Tarragona (cf. IPT ses. 7 and letter to Fr. Clotet, 18-12-1879).

2409 Testified to by the Venerable Mother Paula Delpuig (1811-1899), a spiritual daughter of the Saint, then Mother General of the Carmelite Sisters of Charity, in a letter to the Ven. James Clotet, dated November 15, 1879: “During the convalescence from the attempt on his life at Holguín, St. Michael the Archangel visited him, spreading out before the eyes of his spirit the world of souls, both those who were being saved and those who were being lost.”

2410 “While he was preaching a mission at Bayamo, some 30 leagues distant from Santiago, Cuba, he suddenly interrupted his sermon and exclaimed: ‘Let us pray for our brethren in Santiago, for they are in great tribulation.’ At that very moment, the great earthquakes had begun” (IPV ses. 34). On August 27, 1865, during a talk to his Missionaries at Vic, he said: “A great revolution will come, and in it the Congregation will be sealed with the blood of a martyr, and after his martyrdom, it will spread throughout the world.” He predicted that Spain would lose the Island of Cuba (IPV ses. 35). He foretold the 1868 Revolution, the dethronement of Isabella II, the fall of Napoleon III (ibid.), and the entry of the Italians into Rome (IPM ses. 17). He predicted that despite a century of liberalism the faith would be kept in Spain, thanks to the protection of the Blessed Virgin (IPV ses. 106). He also prophesied concerning the vocation, work and tribulations of various individuals (IPV ses. 126, 130, etc.).

2411 He began to be able to read consciences in 1842, while he was stationed in the parish of San Juan de Oló. This gift was habitual with him throughout his life, as one of his spiritual directors, Fr. Joseph Xifré testified (APV ses. 87). The people said that he could tell their sins (IPV ses. 92). A large number of witnesses stated that he had disclosed to them the state of their conscience (APT ses. 33; IPB ses. 13). Servant of God, Mother Ana Soler, third Superior General of the Carmelite Sisters of Charity, experienced this in Madrid (cf. Pons, Jaime,