Feast Day: October 24
Canonized: February 24, 1934
Beatified: May 7, 1950
 

Anthony Mary Claret was born Antoni Maria Claret i Clarà in Salient in Catalonia, Spain, in 1807. His father was a weaver, and as a young man he also worked as a weaver before leaving home to study for the priesthood. He was sent as a missionary around Catalonia, where he traveled by foot and attracted crowds from miles around with his eloquent preaching. In 1849, he established the Congregation of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, also know as the Claretians. 

In 1850, he left Spain to become the Archbishop of Santiago in Cuba. While in Cuba, he established trade schools for disadvantaged children and wrote books about rural spirituality and agricultural methods, which he himself tested first. He was recalled to Spain in 1857 to become confessor to Queen Isabella II. He used his position at court to continue founding institutions, writing, and preaching, including the establishment of a religious congregation for women, the Religious of Mary Immaculate. 

In 1868, the queen was forced into exile after a revolution, and Anthony went with her to France. He spent his final years at the  Cistercian monastery of Fontfroide in southern France, where he died in 1870.

Anthony Mary Claret was beatified in Rome by Pope Pius XI on February 24, 1934. He was canonized 16 years later by Pope Pius XII on May 7, 1950. He is the patron saint of weavers. 

Connecting to Blest Are We^® Parish and School, second edition
Grade Two, Chapter 16