Mª ANTONIA PARÍS, foundress with Claret of the Claretian Missionary Sisters

In the city of Reus, Spain, 126 years ago today, Maria Antonia Paris, foundress with St. Anthony Mary Claret of the Claretian Missionary Sisters...entered into eternity. She was born in Vallmoll (Tarragona, Spain), in 1813. She heard about Claret and his apostolic jouneys while she was in the convent of the Company of Mary, which she left to found "a new order, not new in doctrine, but in practice." They met and talked about the foundation, but he was soon sent to Cuba to become the new Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba.
It is there, in Cuba where the Claretian Missionary Sisters are founded in the hands of Claret and Antonia: she as the first Claretian and he as Archbishop, assumes responsibility for it in spite of some hesitancy. She expresses it when she says: "This is how it has happened in the foundation, without wanting the Archbishop to be involved in this or that, by divine impulse, he has been involved in everything ." (Aut. M. Paris, 218)
They worked closely in Cuna and later on, as Claret became confessor to the Queen of Spain, he promoted the congregation in Spain. Among her writings "The Plan for the Renewal of the Church" stands out. She wrote them in Cuba and on the way back to Spain, Claret brought a copy with him on the ship, and wrote his own version: "A Plan to renew the beauty of the Church." The love and the apostolic commitment to renew the Church which characterized both founders is indeed a key element of the carism that we share in the Claretian Family. In a letter to Claret, D. Dionision Gonzalez expressed it best: it seems that the same spirit has moved both pens.

If you want to know more about this 125th anniversary that we are celebrating and culminating, click www.claretianasrmi.org