St Anthony of Padua

If you could see the state of my house you would understand why I have a devotion to this lovely Saint. I am forever calling upon him to find all those lost articles that never seem to be in the right place. And I don't know why but I'm often surprised when he comes up trumps. My daughter has a beautiful simple story of when this lovely humble Saint returned a diamond from her new  engagement ring which she had lost at work. She had searched and searched everywhere and couldn't find it anywhere she cried out to St. Anthony and low and behold she found the gem sitting on the desk right beside her. So he definitely gets the thumbs up in our house.
 Born Fernando, in Lisbon, Portugal on August 15th 1195 into a wealthy family. At the age of fifteen he asked to be sent to the Abbey of Santa Cruz in Coimbra, the then capital of Portugal.  It was here that he learnt theology and Latin.

Shortly after his ordination to the priesthood a small group of Fransican friars settled just outside Coimbra,  News reached his ears about the martyrdom of five  Fransician friars in Morocco. This inspired Fernado and he felt a longing to join the Fransicans. He asked to be released from the Abbey. Eventually permission was granted and he left to go and join this new community whereupon he took on the name Anthony in honour of St. Anthony of Egypt.

After traveling to Morocco to spread The Good News , Anthony became extremely sick and was forced to  returned to Portugal to recover. The return voyage was blown off-course and his party arrived in Sicily, from which they traveled to Tuscany. Anthony was sent to the hermitage of San Paolo where the  local friars considered this would be best suited to his health problems.

During this period of convalescence Anthony spent a great deal of time praying and studying.

Time passed and some Dominican friars came to visit the Franciscans.  There was some confusion over who would present the homily that day. The Franciscans thought, because the Dominicans, who were known for their preaching, would want to preach. However the Dominicans thought the Fransicians would preach, probably because they were on their turf  so neither group had prepared anything. It was then the head of the Franciscan hermitage asked Anthony to speak on whatever the Holy Spirit told him to speak of.

Not accustomed  to speaking publicly Anthony tried to decline, but he was refused. He delivered an eloquent and moving homily that impressed both groups. It was not long before news of his ability to speak well reached the ears of St. Francis of Assisi. They became great friends and Francis entrusted The Friars continued education to Anthony.

Anthony continued to teach and preach. In fact he was renowned for his very simple way of explaining the faith so that even the simple and uneducated could understand his message.

He was never afraid to take on those who disputed his message and became known as the "Hammer of the Heretics" because he won so many conversions. It is for this reason that he was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius XII in 1946.

After the death of St. Francis in 1226 Anthony was named Provincial Superior of Emilia. He resigned the office in 1230 so that he could spend more time preaching. He retired to the Convent of Padua which he himself had founded.

 The last Lent he preached was that of 1231; the crowd of people which came from all parts to hear him, frequently numbered 30,000 and more. His last sermons were principally directed against hatred and lack of love for ones neighbour. His efforts were crowned with wonderful success. Permanent reconciliations were effected, peace and concord re-established, freedom given to prisoners, restitutions made, and enormous scandals repaired; in fact, the priests of Padua were no longer sufficient for the number of penitents.( Oh that we would have the same problem today!)

After a short illness Anthony died on the 13th of June 1231. The name of this good Saint has continued down the ages as people continue to ask for his prayers and intercession. Interestingly when they exhumed St. Anthony's body in 1263 it was found that his body had turned to dust but his tongue remained in perfect condition. So in honor of this, today it is a good day to have pasta linguine ( which means tongue or little tongues in Latin.)covered in your favorite sauce!