En este espacio se almacenan las noticias relacionadas con el CESC.
Presentation of volume XXXVIII of Studia Claretiana
This year we are celebrating the 175 years of the founding of our Congregation of Claretian Missionaries (July 16, 1849 – July 16, 2024). For this reason, various commemorative activities will take place, including a “Congress of Claretian Spirituality”, in Vic (Spain), the founding place, from July 7 to 15. Various documents and videos have also begun to be published. Hence the reason why this volume XXXVIII of “Studia Claretiana” offers some works, among other, that refer to this anniversary; specifically, the first two.
Indeed, in the “Studies” section, there are six contributions. In the first, our frequent collaborator, the Claretian Severiano Blanco, offers a historical synthesis of how Claret was developing, after several attempts, the idea of founding a group of missionaries that would dedicate themselves to popular preaching, in a historical period of its absence and even prohibition by the government of the nation. In 1849, Claret definitively founded the first community in Vic, which was later followed by others. (more…)
The apostolic prayer
This is a prayer widely used by Saint Anthony Mary Claret and that he himself includes in his Autobiography. With some slight variations from the original, it sounds like this:
“My Lord and Father,
may I know you and make you known
may I love you and make you loved
may I serve you and make you served
may I praise you and make you praised
by all creatures. Amen”.
Claret adds more elements, but the essence is reduced to the set of the four verbs applied to God: know, love, serve and praise. With the initials of each of them, in Spanish, the word “casa” (house) is formed (conocer, amar, servir y alabar) It is a simple way to remember that Claret – like Jesus – dreamed of being in the Father’s house to devout himself to His affairs and not to his own interests or tastes. (more…)
2nd Meeting of archivists
During the morning of Friday, March 15, the archivists of Osona had the opportunity to meet for the second time. The attendants were: Rafel Ginebra (ABEV), Angelina Verdaguer (Arxiu Comarcal Osona), Empar Costa (Arxiu Municipal de Vic), Gisela Rial (Arxiu Municipal de Manlleu), Gemma Carretero (Arxiu Municipal de Torelló), Albert Aragay, Núria Pou and Melody Miranda (SGDAiR Universitat de Vic-UCC), Carme Baqué (GDiA Consorci Hospitalari de Vic-SAS), Núria Matute (Arxiu de Justicia de Vic), Dolors Bernal (Arxiu Municipal de Centelles), Luciana Farfalla (Arxiu del P. Coll de Vic) and Ricard Oliva and Juan Carlos Martos (Arxiu Claret-CESC of Vic)
The meeting began at 10 in the morning at the CESC premises in Vic. And we went through the agenda set in advance. After the greetings and introduction of the attendees, especially the new archivists; we went on to presentation of recent and important works by the respective Archives. A good amount of time was spent providing detailed information about the work and the peculiar characteristics of the CESC in its three dimensions of research, animation and dissemination of the personality, works and writings of Saint Anthony Mary Claret and the Claretian Family. We stopped in particular to show the website of the Centre. (more…)
Furniture used by Father Claret in the Canary Islands
The apostolic missionary D. Antonio María Claret arrived in Gran Canaria on March 12, 1848, accompanied by D. Buenaventura Codina, who entered as the new bishop of this diocese of the Canary Islands. Bishop Codina wanted to begin his pontificate with general missions to the entire diocese. He began them in the cathedral on the 18th of this same month of March, with the bishop choosing the city of Telde as the second missionary centre, immediately continuing the missions here, in Agüimes, with his entry on foot, on March 31 of this year, and closing them the following June 27.
It was here in Agüimes, where the people called him S. Antonio María Claret for the first time, and where he celebrated the only festivity of Corpus Christi, during his stay in the Canary Islands. His time in the Canary Islands was so important that our compatriot Mr. Joaquín Artiles divided the history of the Canary Islands into two stages: before Father Claret’s time and after his stay among us.
The apostolic missionary D. Antonio Claret, shortly after his departure to the peninsula, founded the congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. A few months later he was appointed archbishop of Santiago de Cuba, where he suffered an attack when he came down from the pulpit. Queen Elizabeth II appointed him as her confessor; He attended the First Vatican Council and, upon being exiled, accompanied her into exile. He died in Fontfroide (France), on October 15, 1870, days before the death of the former parish priest of Agüimes, during the mission, D. Juan Pedro Saavedra. His body lies incorrupt in the temple of his name, in the city of Vich (Gerona). He was beatified by Pope Pius XI on February 25, 1934 and canonized by Pius on April 13, 1951.
Banished, but not lonely
The room – or perhaps better, the cell – was six meters long and almost five meters wide. It was outside the monastic cloister. It had a single window covered by a screen so that the light would not bother the sick person who lay there. Inside there were few things: a cot, a few chairs, a table with a crucifix and two candles and little else. It was located in the north wing of the Cistercian abbey of Fontfroide, the most beautiful in the south of France. Since 1901 there have been no monks there. The Fayet family, who bought the property in 1908, has turned it into a tourist spot. Only a discreet plaque in a side chapel of the beautiful Gothic church, now deconsecrated, reminds us that 30 years before the monks left, on October 24, 1870, at a quarter to nine in the morning, in a cell in the north wing, Saint Anthony Mary Claret died there. It’s been 154 years now.