Vicente Sanz, cmf.

The truth is that my encounter with Claret was not an early one. It is true that with a mother from Aranda and living in contact with the Claretians of Buen Suceso, near my house, one might think otherwise, but it was not so. When I entered the Claretian seminary at the age of 10, I was studying at a school of the Brothers of the Christian Schools and I knew more about Saint John Baptist de la Salle than about Claret. And things went no better during my formation years, not even during the 5 years I spent in Rome as a student and where I am now. To be honest, I began to discover Claret in Segovia, while we were working with the postulants in a simple project called Claret’s Footprints.

But it was during my long stay in Madrid that I really realized that I was simply participating in the general ignorance when I saw that no one had seriously worried about discovering the traces that Claret had left in Madrid during the 11 years of his hazardous life in that city. There, indeed, is where a true friendship with the Founder was born. He was no longer an altar saint, but a travelling companion, who felt like us, spoke like us, suffered like us, prayed like us. Following on his footsteps in Madrid, I discovered the quality of his sanctity as I had not discovered it by reading his almost legendary life in Catalonia, the Canary Islands and Cuba. I discovered that it had been forged, above all, in the suffering, in the martyrdom to which life had pushed towards and which was more painful than the attack of Holguín. And I discovered as well how he clung to friendship with Jesus Christ and his imitation in everything, which he wanted to leave as a testament to his sons, the Claretian missionaries, in his Autobiography and in his Definition of the Missionary, both written in Madrid.

A coincidence led me to immerse myself in the deep well of the slander to which he was subjected during his life and which I had heard so many times but could not verify until I discovered the paper strips of the Bécquer brothers in the National Library and which would later be made public in various media under the name of “Los Borbones en Pelota”. The truth is that I was already prepared because during the free mornings of my holidays, living near the Municipal Newspaper Library of Madrid, I was able to immerse myself in the publications of that time and what it meant for Claret in those chiaroscuro years. I felt closer to Claret than ever and I wanted to visit the places where he developed his activity in Madrid and show them to others. I did not want to lose such beautiful and fascinating memories, sometimes very painful. And it was not difficult to follow him through the streets of Madrid. At 56, Claret was already old man and walked slowly.

I had another opportunity to approach another more intimate aspect of Claret when, by chance of life, I was commissioned, along with my colleagues in government, to recover in their dignity the chapel of the Christ del Perdón in the church of El Rosario in La Granja de San Ildefonso. To be able to approach that Christ whom in a mysterious way Claret listened to, who praised and encouraged him in his difficult task of writer and confessor, in the silence and darkness of that warm church with crunchy wooden floor. What a marvel of Christ figure, the work of Luis Salvador Carmona, which has given so many moments of recollection to the Claretians who have come to visit him!

But it was not the only opportunity I had to approach in a special way our multifaceted Founder. Providence also allowed me to choose the form of his presence in the cathedral of Madrid. I did not resign myself to spending so much money for him to be locked in a chapel of the cathedral, he who always walked in search of those who were lost in the streets and dark neighborhoods of Madrid. It was a great joy to have him placed on the street, along with Ignacio de Loyola and Juan de Ávila. So he could continue accompanying the people of Madrid and become a meeting point for the Claretians sisters and Claretians brothers.

I also remember, with particular joy, the day when, with a small group, we were able to place a memory plate in his room at the Monastery of El Escorial, next to the golden Christ whom he worshiped with the passion of a son and who accompanied him in a task of titans, not very much acknowledged by his followers.

I have always liked to return to the Provincial Curia of Madrid, where they treat me wonderfully, but now more than ever for having the opportunity to behold at sunset and in silence that beautiful painting by Luis de Madrazo that presides over the main hall and that takes me back to a time of Claret that I have come to know and admire.

And now I am in Rome, trying to make those who live or pass through here continue to enjoy the bittersweet memories of our Founder Father, such as his time in the novitiate of the Jesuits or his visit to Pius IX after the recognition of the Kingdom of Italy or his exhausting and suffered participation in the Vatican Council I.

This is a testimony, I would say, of closeness. I have become Claret’s way companion. At my age, having already far overtaken his when he died, I want him to remain close to me. Not an altar saint but a road companion Saint WITH WHOM I CAME ACROSS WITHOUT KNOWING HOW.

Fr. Vicente Sanz Tobes, Son of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Claretian Missionary)

He was born in Madrid (Spain) on October 13, 1945. He entered the Claretian seminary at the age of 10. He made his first profession in Ciudad Real (Spain) on August 15, 1962. He studied Philosophy in the Claretian Seminary of Segovia (Spain) and Theology in Rome, first in the Theological Study “Claretianum” and, once closed, completed the Degree in Theology at the Pontifical Lateran University in 1970. On May 17, 1970, he was ordained a priest by His Holiness Paul VI in the Vatican. He began his studies in Political and Social Sciences at the Gregorian University before returning to Spain in July 1971. There he began his work in Segovia as a formator of the Claretian minor seminarians. He subsequently carried out pastoral work in the Claretian Colleges of Madrid, where he completed his baccalaureate in Political and Social Sciences, and Aranda de Duero. In 1986 he was part of the Provincial Government of the Claretian Province of Castilla. In 1995 he was elected Provincial Superior until 2003 when he became General Consultor of the Apostolate of the Congregation, with residence in Rome. After completing this position in 2009 and after a year of studies at Comillas University (Spain), he returned to Rome in September 2010 as Superior of the Community-Parish of the Immaculate Sacred Heart of Mary in Parioli. In 2015 he was appointed General Curator of the Missions and in 2016 Superior of the General Curia.