Saint Anthony Mary Claret - Catholic Apologetics Information

my bare subsistence), while I cared for the spiritual needs of the people. Nevertheless, since he was an
assistant pastor, he was responsible for their spiritual needs as well, in my absence. This was very
convenient because it allowed me to start out on missions from there.
169. How admirable God's Providence is! He freed me from going to Berga, where my mere
presence would have put me in danger because the royalists were in power there. Blessed be God, who
made everything work together for his greater glory and the salvation of souls.
Chapter VIII
BEGINNING OF THE MISSIONS AND HEALING THE SICK
170. After I had settled in the parish of Viladrau as regent, I did my best to care for the spiritual
welfare of the people. On Sundays and feast days I explained the Gospel in the morning at the main
Mass, and in the evening I taught catechism to children and adults of both sexes. I visited the sick daily.
As Viladrau was not a fortified town, the opposing political factions seized control of it from time to
time. Because doctors are usually public figures of some note, they were so harassed by both factions
that they were eventually forced to move, and so the town was left without a single doctor.
171. Thus I had to become not only the spiritual but also the bodily physician of the people, on the
basis of my general knowledge and consultation of the medical books I procured. 110 When some doubtful
case arose, I would look it up in my books, and the Lord so blessed my remedies that none of those I
visited died. And so the word got around that I was healing people, and the sick came in from various
places around.
172. I started giving missions in the parish of Viladrau on August 15, 1840, while I was conducting
a novena in honor of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Next I gave another in the parish of
Espinelvas, an hour away from Viladrau. Then I went to the parish of Seva. The mission here was more
sensational than the others. A large number of people underwent conversion and made general
confessions. This was the start of my fame as a missionary.
173. During November I held an All Souls' novena in Igualada and Santa Colona de Queralt, and it
was enthusiastically received. Thus I remained in Viladrau for eight months, going out on missions and
returning. But I couldn't continue in this way any longer. As I have said, when I was in town, I visited
the sick daily and they all got better. The only time any sick person died was while I was away. When I
returned from a mission, the relatives of the deceased would come up to me saying, as Martha and Mary
did to our Savior, "Domine, si fuisses hic, frater meus non fuisset mortuus,'' 111 and because, unlike Jesus,
I couldn't raise them from the dead, they stayed dead. I was terribly upset at seeing the tears of the
people and listening to all the reasons they gave why I shouldn't leave the parish to go preaching.
174. This forced me to ask my superior to relieve me of my duty as regent and free me from any
parish obligations. I asked him to let me know his decision soon so that I could go and preach missions
wherever he chose. This he did, and I left Viladrau with deep feelings on the part of the people for the
cures our Lord had worked through me, which I know were more than merely natural. I didn't offer to
heal people for money or any other kind of gain, for I never accepted anything for what I did; I did it
only because of the people’s need, out of charity.
175. During the summer several children became sick, and after I had given them only one
application of a certain remedy they all got well. At one o'clock one morning, I visited a young man
twenty-five years old who was unconscious and on the point of dying. I applied a simple remedy, and he
recovered his senses and in two days was completely cured.
176. ........... 112
110 Jaime Bofill, a noted herbalist in Barcelona, initiated St. Anthony Mary Claret into the knowledge of medicinal herbs.
111 John 11:21: "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."
112 (Translator's note) In this chapter and in chapters 12 and 14 of the Continuation, some rather quaint and involved accounts, as
well as certain other reserved cases that the Saint included for the indoctrination of priests, have been suppressed, both in this edition
and in that of the B.A.C. Their omission is indicated by a series of dots. (Cf. Writings, p. 178.) The omitted material may be found in
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