“St. Anthony, St. Anthony, please come around. Something is lost and cannot be found.”
He helps us find things! But there is more to St. Anthony of Padua….
Tuesday, June 13
th, is the feast day of St. Anthony of Padua. He was born in 1195 in Lisbon, Portugal and began his religious life in Coimbra, Portugal, so the Portuguese claim him as their own and call him St. Anthony of Portugal! He was born Fernando Martins and joined an Abbey and began his studies and religious life there. When a Franciscan hermitage opened up near the abbey, he was struck by the Franciscan way of life and left the Abbey to join St. Francis and the Franciscan Order. Upon joining the Franciscans, his name was changed to Anthony.
He was a scholar and St. Francis, being skeptical of intellectuals, called him to Assisi to meet him and they became fast friends. Francis entrusted the education of all the brothers to Anthony. He taught in universities in Southern France and in Italy, but became famous for his preaching.
One particular mission he embarked upon was to preach to some heretics and non-believers. They wouldn’t listen to him, so he told them that if they wouldn’t listen, he would go preach to the fish in the lake. He walked to the shore of the lake and began preaching and explaining the gospel. As he was preaching, the fish began to congregate near the shore in rows with the smallest at the front and the larger at the back. The people, when they saw this, began to listen to what he had to say.
You can visit his tomb at the Basilica of St. Anthony in Padua. There you will see his incorrupt tongue and vocal cords. He died in 1231 at the age of 36. His body was exhumed 366 years later and those parts of his body had not corrupted. He had spent his short life preaching and teaching the Gospel so beautifully and eloquently.
He is the patron of lost articles and we ask for his help often. Perhaps we should ask him for his intercession more – perhaps to find lost souls and bring them back to the Lord, perhaps to help us find the Lord Jesus when he seems distant from us, perhaps to help us discover the beauty, truth, and goodness of God.