St Anthony Mary Claret was born in 1807 in the Catalonia region of Spain. We celebrate his feast day today. After spending five years as a priest giving retreats and missions in Spain, he founded a religious order named the Congregation of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1849, commonly known as the Claretians. That same year, he was named as Bishop of Santiago in Cuba. Arriving in Cuba as the Bishop, he found his Diocese to be in very bad spiritual condition, so he initiated reform measures, including the establishment of a teaching order of sisters in the Diocese. In 1857, he was named as chaplain to Queen Isabella II of Spain, so he returned to his home country. As Isabella’s advisor, he helped revive the Catalonian language and spread the devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Blessed Sacrament. After a revolution in Spain in 1868, he died in exile with Queen Isabella in 1870. His missionary spirit lives on in the ministry of the Claretians, which number more than 3,000 priests and brothers and who serve in more than 70 countries throughout the world.
In the Gospel today, Jesus states that he came to set the world on fire, meaning that the radical nature of the Gospel message will stir up a lot of opposition in the world. Having been a missionary overseas myself, I can tell you that our Catholic missionary work can cause a lot of controversy and can be seen as too radical even by some devout Catholics. Yet, the missionary saints like St Anthony Mary Claret stirred up the faith in many people throughout the world through their passion and their tireless work. May we continue to do our part to advance the Gospel message.
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