Calle Padre Xifré

This street in Prosperidad pays tribute to José Xifré i Mussach (Vic, 1817 – Cervera, 1899), a priest who helped found the congregation of the Claretians in 1849. Anthony Mary Claret was the famous face of the order; Xifré, its organizer for half a century. Elected superior general in 1858, he inherited a congregation of twelve members in a single house and left it at his death with nearly 1,800 members spread across more than sixty houses in Spain, Europe, Africa and the Americas. As Claret’s spiritual director, it was Xifré who ordered him, out of obedience, to set down his autobiography in writing, one of the great spiritual texts of nineteenth-century Spain. The street is surrounded by Claretian street-names: a few steps away are the parish of San Antonio María Claret, the Colegio Claret and the nearby calle del Corazón de María.