CLARA, JERÓNIMO EMILIANO

Pastor, Argentine defender of the rights of the Church; b. Villa del Rosario, province of Córdoba, Nov. 12, 1827; d. Córdoba, Dec. 29, 1892. He was ordained in 1850 and was a parish priest, chaplain, canon, archdeacon of the cathedral of Córdoba; vice rector at the Colegio of Monserrat; rector of the seminary in that same city; and capitular vicar in sede vacante in 1883 and 1884. In 1877 he founded the Institute of Daughters of Mary Immaculate, which still exists. In 1883 and 1884 he was the most intrepid and determined opponent of the anti-religious laws promulgated in Buenos Aires to destroy the influence of the Church, expressing his position in pastoral letters against secular education and civil matrimony. Córdoba society supported Clara wholeheartedly and followed his example. Some professors of the University of Córdoba supported their pastor so forcefully that they were dismissed from their posts. Among them were Rafael García Montaña, Nicéforo Castellano, and Nicolás Berrotarán. The government urged the ecclesiastical cabildo of Córdoba to oust Clara from the post of capitular vicar, but the request was denied. He was then taken prisoner by order of the national government and was kept imprisoned until Juan C. Tissera took possession of the See of Córdoba in December 1884. In Salta, Bp. Buenaventura Rizo Patron emulated Clara's example, and other vicars did the same.

Bibliography: f. company, El Vicario Clara: Sus ideales, sus trabajos, su lucha (Buenos Aires 1955).

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