The parish was founded and is still staffed by the Claretian Missionaries - officially known as the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. We are a religious community of priests and brothers founded in 1849 near Barcelona, Spain by St. Anthony Mary Claret, who was canonised by Pope Pius XII on 7th May 1950.

We, the Claretians, have a particular love for the Immaculate Heart of Mary and in the words of our Founder we are to be "people aflame with the love of God who spread this fire wherever we go". The whole world is to be our mission field and we are to make ourselves "the helping hands of the bishops of the world".

Today we number some 3,000 and continue the work of our saintly Founder in over sixty countries of the world. We are to be found in many of the poorest and most under-developed parts of the globe. We run parishes, schools and colleges; we serve as university chaplains; we work in radio, television and journalism . . . our work is unlimited.

Here in England, while our numbers are few, we continue our ministry working in Hayes (Middlesex); Gorseinon and Pontarddulais (South Wales); Leyton (East London) and Buckden (Cambridgeshire), where we also run a Retreat House and Conference Centre. We also have a Missionary outreach in Belize (Central America) where we have been ministering for the last 3 years.

In 1969 we undertook the responsibility, together with American Claretians, for a large territory in Guatemala, Central America. British Claretians continued with this work until 1996. Now there are Guatemalan Claretians to carry on and the Mission is thriving, a tribute to the priests and people from here who worked there, and to the spiritual and temporal support they received from parishioners and friends in Claretian parishes in England.

We pray, and encourage you to do likewise - that more young men will answer the call and follow in the footsteps of St. Anthony Mary Claret to "spread the fire of Divine Love wherever they go".

You can find more about us on: www.claret.org.uk