The Claretians, officially named the Congregation of Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Latin: Congregatio Missionariorum Filiorum Immaculati Cordis Beatae Mariae Virginis; abbreviated CMF), is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of Pontifical Right for men headquartered in Rome.

[year needed][1] The Congregation has a particular devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary[1] and members have published extensively in Mariology.

Through his missionary work in Catalonia and the Canary Islands he was convinced that people needed to be evangelized and there were not enough priests who were sufficiently prepared or zealous enough for this mission.

Archbishop Claret, the founder, had the great satisfaction of seeing new foundations established throughout Spain, as well as in Africa (Argel), and in Latin America in México, Chile, and also, in the Philippines.

During the Mexican Revolution, Andres Sola died a martyr; and in the Spanish Civil War, 270 missionary priests, brothers and students were killed.

[5] The Congregation has an academic publishing company, Editiones Institutum Iuridicum Claretianum (Ediurcla), based in Rome.

[13] The community established the parish of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Hayes in 1912 to offer services to Spanish speaking immigrants in the London area.

Then in 1969 the diocese of Northampton asked the Claretians to make Buckden Towers a parish under the title of St Hugh of Lincoln.

[16] One noted member of the Claretian community in the Los Angeles area was Aloysius Ellacuria, CMF, born in Spain, who arrived there in 1930.

The cause for his canonization is under consideration by the congregation, after hundreds of requests prompted the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to refer the matter to them.

The national shrine of St. Jude was founded by James Tort, CMF, pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Chicago, Illinois, United States.

Many of Tort's parishioners were laborers in the nearby steel mills, which were drastically cutting back their work forces early in 1929.

[19] During the Depression of the 1930s and during World War II, thousands of men, women, and children attended novenas at the shrine and devotion to the patron saint of desperate causes spread throughout the country.