Some have called him a remarkable apostle - to be compared only with the work of St. Francis Xavier.
Others have named him a miracle worker - who would rival the cures of St. Anthony of Padua.
And there are still more that know he was a mystic - like the Dominican St. Vincent Ferrer.
He certainly spread devotion to the Holy Rosary like Saint Dominic did in his time.
Yet, he was all these and much, much more.
St. Anthony Mary Claret was one of the great modern saints. But while he was one of the greatest of modern times, he was probably the least known.
He was a Spanish Roman Catholic archbishop and missionary, and was confessor of Isabella II of Spain.
He founded the congregation of Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, commonly called the Claretians.
In his Autobiography he writes: "On the 26th of August, 1861, at seven o'clock in the evening, Our Lord granted me the great grace of retaining the sacramental species. Day and night I have the Most Holy Sacrament in my breast. For this reason, I must always be recollected and devoted to Him Who abides so intimately within me."
