St. Anthony of Padua - June 13th

 

Today is the feast of St. Anthony of Padua. St. Anthony was born in Lisbon, Portugal in 1195 and given the name Ferdinand de Bulloen. The clergy in the Cathedral of Lisbon educated him. At the age of 15, he became an Augustinian religious brother.

For 8 years, he devoted himself to study and prayer. Due to his remarkable memory, he acquired a thorough knowledge of scripture.

In 1220, some Franciscans were martyred in Morocco and their relics were brought back to Portugal. St. Anthony longed to be martyred like the Franciscans. So he joined the Franciscan order, with the hope that he would be martyred. He changed his name to Anthony due to his devotion to the Anthony of the desert. With great zeal he received permission to set out to Morocco to preach to the Moors, but had to return to Europe due to a severe illness.

As a sickly young brother, no one suspected he had intellectual gifts. If he wasn’t praying in the chapel, he was either serving the brothers washing their dishes and pots. At an ordination service, none of the Franciscans or Dominicans were prepared to deliver the sermon. His superior told him to go and speak whatever the Holy Spirit put into his mouth. All who heard his address were astonished, with his eloquence, fervor and learning. Due to this event, he was sent to preach in the province. He was an immediate success as a preacher and particularly effective in converting heretics. Due to his teaching at the university against Albigensians, he developed the title “hammer of heretics”.

The mere sight of him, brought sinners to their knees, for he appeared to radiate a spiritual force. Crowds flocked to hear him, hardened criminals, careless Catholics, heretics—all were converted and brought to confession. Men locked up their offices and shops in order to go and hear his sermons and women rose early in the morning or stayed overnight in the church to secure their places. Because the churches weren’t large enough to accommodate the crowds, he preached in public squares and marketplaces.

Once Anthony had traveled to the city of Rimini because it was a hotbed of heresy. The city leaders had ordered everyone to ignore him, so no one turned up for his homilies. Wherever Anthony went, he was greeted by silence. As he walked outside of the town, he came to the mouth a river. There he began to address the not the crowds, but fish.

He called out, “You, fish of the river and sea, listen to the Word of God because the heretics do not wish to hear it.” Suddenly there were thousands of fish neatly arranged in rows, all pushing their heads through the surface of the water as if they were straining to listen to every one of Anthony’s words. The people of Rimini, seeing this miracle, gathered to listen to Anthony. They were so moved by Anthony’s words, by his call to conversion, that they abandoned their hardened positions and returned to the Church.

On another occasion, a heretic said he did not believe in the true presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. St. Anthony challenged the farmer to not feed his mule for three days and then come and bring the mule’s favorite grain. The man did as St. Anthony told him. With St. Anthony holding the Eucharist in one hand and the farmer holding a bucket with the mule’s favorite grain, the mule walked up to Saint Anthony and fell on its knees before the Blessed Sacrament. The mule’s owner was immediately converted and believed in the true presence.

St. Anthony is also invoked to help find lost articles. In our own diocese the bodies of two people were found due to the intercession of St. Anthony of Padua. In 2016, Brian Bergkamp, a seminarian from the Diocese of Wichita drowned by saving the life of a young lady. He threw his life jacket to her, sacrificing his life for her. His body could not be found, and consequently, a novena was prayed to St. Anthony and it was on the 9^th day of the novena Brian was found.

In 2020, Savanna Schneider, a blind young lady, and a new Catholic convert, went missing. It’s believed she got lost in a field near a city and could not find her way back. Her body was found on the feast of St. Anthony, June 13th after her friends prayed to find her body and a Mass was offered that morning asking St. Anthony to locate her body. The coroner said she died the same day she was found.

St. Anthony is also an intercessor for the poor, infertile and pregnant women, and of travelers. People sometimes give bread to the poor, for the purpose of obtaining his intercession, which is often called “St. Anthony bread”.

One night, when St. Antony was staying with a friend in the city of Padua, his host saw brilliant rays streaming under the door of the Saint's room, and on looking through the keyhole he beheld a little Child of marvelous beauty standing upon a book which lay open upon the table, and clinging with both arms round Antony's neck. With an ineffable sweetness he watched the tender caresses of the Saint and his wondrous Visitor. At last the Child vanished, and when St. Antony, opened the door, he charged his friend, by the love of Him Whom he had seen, to "tell the vision to no man as long as I am alive."

In the spring of 1231, after preaching a powerful course of sermons, St. Anthony’s strength gave out and died at the age of 36 after receiving the last rites. He was canonized within one year after his death and at the moment he was canonized the church-bells of Lisbon rang without ringers.

Due to the many miracles worked at his tomb, he became known as the “wonder-working saint.”

Due to his sermons, St. Anthony was declared a doctor of the church in 1947. In a sermon composed for his fellow Franciscans, he wrote: “Christ who is your life hanging before you, so that you may look at the cross as in a mirror. There you will be able to know how mortal were your wounds, that no medicine other than the Blood of the Son of God could heal…. Nowhere other than looking at himself in the mirror of the cross man better understand how much he is worth.”

If we do not have a devotion to St. Anthony, now is the time for us to begin praying to him. Though it is good to pray to him for lost articles, it is better to pray to him for lost souls and to ask him help for help in growing in virtue and holiness. St. Anthony, pray for us!