Saint Anthony of Padua

Anthony was born in Lisbon around 1195 and baptized Fernando. At fifteen he joined the Augustinian canons, and at Coimbra he gave himself to years of study, above all of Scripture, which he came to know almost by heart.

In 1220 the bodies of five Franciscan friars martyred in Morocco were brought to Coimbra. Fernando was deeply moved and wanted to give his life in the same way. He joined the Franciscans, took the name Anthony, and sailed for Morocco. There he fell gravely ill and had to turn back, and a storm drove his ship to Sicily. He made his way to a general gathering of the friars at Assisi and was sent to a small hermitage in Italy, where no one knew of his learning.

In 1222, at an ordination at Forlì, the preacher failed to appear, and Anthony was told to say something. His sermon astonished everyone. From then on he preached across northern Italy and southern France, drawing huge crowds and bringing back many who had fallen into heresy. Saint Francis himself wrote to him, allowing him to teach theology to the brothers “provided that you do not extinguish the spirit of prayer.”

He settled at last in Padua. Worn out, he died on 13 June 1231, at thirty-six, and the children of the city ran through the streets crying, “The saint is dead!” He was canonized less than a year later, and in 1946 Pius XII declared him a Doctor of the Church. A novice once took his book of psalms and returned it after Anthony prayed, and so he is invoked for lost things.