Father Claude Bernard (December 23, 1588 – March 23, 1641) was a French Roman Catholic priest who was active in ministry to prisoners and criminals, especially those condemned to death.
Known as "le pauvre prêtre" ("the poor priest"), he is primarily remembered as the popularizer of the Memorare, over 200,000 copies of which he distributed by leaflets printed in various languages.
[1] He was ordained by the above-mentioned Bishop Le Camus and invited to his first Mass the poor of the city, distributing to them all his possessions, and, later on, an inheritance of 400,000 livres, or about eighty thousand dollars.
[2] He contributed much to popularize the beautiful prayer to the Blessed Virgin known as the Memorare, and claimed in a letter to Queen Anne of Austria, wife of King Louis XIII of France, that he had himself been miraculously cured of illness through intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary as a result of his reciting the prayer.
He was the subject of a 1913 biography in French, Claude Bernard dit le pauvre prêtre by Commandeur de Broqua, who was the postulator for the cause of Fr.