Claude Bernard

Who was Claude Bernard?

Father Claude Bernard was a French Roman Catholic priest who was primarily active in ministry to prisoners and criminals, especially those condemned to death. He is primarily remembered as the popularizer of the Memorare, of which he distributed more than 200,000 leaflets printed in various languages. He 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. Bernard's canonization.