10/24/2025
The Feast Day of Saint Claret on October 24
Dear Beloved in Christ,
Saint Anthony Mary Claret reveals to us what happens when a human heart becomes utterly consumed by divine love. Born in 1807 as a simple weaver's son in Spain, Anthony responded to God's call by becoming one of history's most prolific evangelizers, preaching more than 10,000 sermons and publishing 200 books—sometimes delivering eight homilies in a day and hearing confessions for ten consecutive hours!
What moves us most about Saint Anthony is his tender devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which animated everything he accomplished. When appointed Archbishop of Cuba, despite having just founded the Claretian Missionaries, he added "Mary" to his name and consecrated his entire diocese to Our Lady's Immaculate Heart. His six years in Cuba brought remarkable renewal—reforming clergy, establishing parishes, courageously opposing slavery, and founding schools and hospitals for the poor. He survived multiple assassination attempts, once being seriously wounded, yet he never wavered in his mission.
God blessed Anthony with extraordinary mystical gifts—ecstasies, prophecy, and miraculous healings—all fruits of his profound union with Christ. Even as confessor to the Queen of Spain, he refused the comforts of court life, using his influence instead to preach missions and establish institutions of learning. At the First Vatican Council, this holy bishop championed papal infallibility before dying peacefully in a French monastery in 1870.
This humble weaver's son became a giant of faith precisely because he understood that devotion to Mary's Immaculate Heart leads us ever closer to her Divine Son. As we honor his memory today, may we ask Saint Anthony to intercede for us, that we too might burn with that same holy fire, spending ourselves completely in service to the Church and courageously proclaiming Christ's love to a world that so desperately needs to hear it. In his life we see the truth that when we surrender everything to God, He works wonders beyond our imagining.
May peace be with you...