Anthony Mary Claret

Anthony Claret learned the weaver's trade before entering the seminary, and kept from it a taste for things made in quantity: he founded a religious publishing house and distributed several million tracts, which makes him one of the first to have thought of evangelisation in terms of the press. Named archbishop of Santiago de Cuba in 1850, he reformed the clergy, regularised thousands of irregular unions and clashed with slave owners; fifteen attempts were made on his life. Recalled to Spain as confessor to Isabella II, he followed the queen into exile and died in France, at Fontfroide. Founder of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, he was canonised in 1950.