Claretians
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The Claretians, a group of Roman Catholic priests and brothers, were founded by Saint Anthony Claret in 1849. They strive to follow their founder's “on fire” example and help wherever they are needed. Their ministries are highly diverse and vary depending on the needs of the area. They focus on seeing life through the poor’s eyes and respond to the biggest need at the time. They have a special devotion to the Blessed Mother Mary. Their formal title is the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, but they are popularly knows as the Claretians.
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[edit] History of the Order
With the words “Today a great work is beginning”, spoken by Antonio María Claret y Clará (Anthony Claret) to five young priests in a cell in the Seminary in Vic on July 16, 1849 the existence of the Congregation of Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary began.
He had been thinking for a long time about preparing priests to proclaim the Gospel and bring together a group of priests who shared his vision to accomplish work he could not do alone. Through his evangelizing missionary work in Catalonia and the Canary Islands he was convinced that people needed to be evangelized and there were not enough priests who were sufficiently prepared or zealous enough for this mission. He was a humble man who knew that this vision came from God and not through his own means. “How great can it be since we are so young and so few?” asked Fr. Manuel Vilaró, one of the priests gathered at the Seminary in Vic.
Had it not been for the Divine Providence of God, the order would have surely failed. Only 20 days after its founding, Claret received news of his appointment as Archbishop of Cuba, which he accepted despite his reluctance. The Congregation was left in God’s hands and under the guidance of one of the co-founders, Esteban Sala, who died in 1858.
Another co-founder, José Xifré, took over the directorship. Archbishop Claret, called back from Cuba to Madrid to be Confessor to Queen Isabella II, contrived to remain very close to the new Superior General and to all the missionaries. He attended the General Chapters. He played a major role editing the Constitutions, which the Holy See approved on February 11, 1870, only a few months before his death. He gave spiritual and financial guidance to his order. He also wrote his autobiography for the good of the Congregation and at the order of the Superior General, who had previously been his spiritual director.
However the problems of the Congregation did not end there. With the coming of the Revolution of 1868, the Congregation was suppressed by the state and all the Missionaries had to seek refuge in France. Archbishop Claret also had to go into exile there, where he died a holy death in 1870.[citation needed] At this time the order had its first holy martyr, Francisco Crusats. But the founder had the great satisfaction of seeing new foundations spring up throughout Spain, as well as in Africa (Argel) and Latin America (Chile).
[edit] Work
The Claretian’s work is as diverse as its priests. They work in parishes, foreign missions, periodical publishing, outreaches to young people, summer camps and inner city college outreaches. They attend to the needs of immigrants, youth and families. They also lead trips for the future leaders of tomorrow with leadership training and spiritual renewal.
[edit] National Shrine of St. Jude
The national shirne of St. Jude was founded by Father James Tort, C.M.F., pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. Many of Tort’s parishioners were laborers in the nearby steel mills, which were drastically cutting back their work forces early in 1929. This cutback was the precursor of the Stock Market crash.
Tort was saddened to see that about 90% of his parishioners were without jobs and in difficult financial situations. To make the situation worse unemployment compensation and Social Security benefits did not yet exist.
The Claretian pastor saw breadlines being formed in the community. He saw evidence of children being undernourished, and his heart went out to his neighbors—Catholic and non-Catholic alike. Tort prayed for and with his people. He had started construction of a church; but with money extremely scarce, he felt the building project would have to be abandoned.
Tort was devoted to Saint Jude Thaddeus, who was relatively obscure to the general Catholic population at that time. During the Middle Ages St. Jude was venerated by many people, but (due in part of to the mistake of his name with the traitor Judas Iscariot) devotions to him were minimal.
Night after night, however, Tort persevered in his prayers to Saint Jude, asking his intercession and promising to erect a shrine in the saint's honor if the church could be finished. In an effort to lift the spirits of his parishioners, Tort began regular devotions to Saint Jude. The first novena honoring the saint was held on Feb. 17, 1929.
During the Lenten season of 1929, Tort noticed many of his parishioners praying before the statue of Saint Jude. When the statues in the church were covered with purple drape during Passion Week, the devotions were so great that he moved the statue to a prestigious stop above an altar on the right side of the church.
The congregation at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church showed such great response to the devotion to Saint Jude that an overflow crowd attended services on the final night of a solemn novena that ended on the saint's feast day, Oct. 28, 1929—one day before the stock market crashed. More than 1000 people stood outside the church to hear the service.
Money came to the church form many place all around the US. They never had a surplus of money, but they had enough to get by and the modest shrine to Saint Jude was finally established. Word of the devotions to Saint Jude gradually spread from that tiny corner of Chicago to other parts of the country. During the Depression of the 1930s and during World War II, thousands of men, women, and children attended novenas at the shrine; and devotion to the patron saint of desperate causes spread throughout the country.
Because the majority of Saint Jude patrons cannot personally attend novena services (which begin on a Saturday afternoon and end nine days later on a Sunday night), the office of the National Shrine in Chicago distributes novena literature throughout the country to devotees who want to pray the novena by reading the prayers at home or elsewhere.
To this day, the letters that pour into the National Shrine provide inspiring testimony to the desire of the faithful to unite themselves with God through prayers to Saint Jude.
