St. Anthony (also known as Antony) is a Doctor
of the Church, a Franciscan priest called the "Hammer of the Heretics", the
"Wonder Worker", and the "Living Ark of the Covenant."
He was born Fernando Martin de Bulhom in 1195 in Lisbon, Portugal, t...
he
son of a knight of the court of King Alfonso II. His parents sent him
to be educated by the clergy at the Cathedral of Lisbon. At the age of
15 he joined the Canons Regular of St. Augustine and at 17, in order to
have more seclusion, asked for and obtained leave to transfer to the
priory of St. Cross, of the same order, at Coimbra, then the capital of
Portugal. There, for a period of eight years, he devoted himself to
study and prayer. With the help of a remarkable memory, he acquired a
thorough knowledge of the Scriptures.
The arrival of the relics
of St. Bernard and companions, the first martyrs of the Franciscan
Order, led Anthony to join the Franciscan Order at the age of 25. At
this time, he changed his name to Antony in honor of St. Antony of
Eygpt, which was the name of the chapel where he received the Franciscan
habit. He was deeply inspired by the Franciscan martyrs and tried to
emulate them. He received a friendly reception at the peaceful little
Franciscan convent at Coimbra and in the same year his earnest wish to
be sent to the missions in Africa was fulfilled.
But God had
decreed otherwise. And so, Antony scarcely set foot on African soil when
he gravely ill. Even after he had recovered, he was so weak that he
boarded a boat back to Portugal. Unexpectedly, a storm came upon them
and drove the ship to the east where it found refuge on coast of Sicily.
There Antony was greeted and given shelter by the Franciscans of that
island, and shortly thereafter was sent to Assisi, where the general
chapter of the Order was held in May, 1221 A. D. Antony remained there
nine months as chaplain to the hermits, occupied in the lowliest duties
of the kitchen and convent, and to his heart's content he practiced
interior as well as exterior mortification.
But the hidden
jewel was soon to appear in all its brilliance. For the occasion of a
ceremony of ordination some of the hermits along with Antony were sent
to the town of Forli. Before the ceremony was to begin, however, it was
announced that the priest who was to give the sermon had fallen sick.
The local superior, to avoid the embarrassment of the moment, quickly
asked the friars in attendance to volunteer. Each excused himself,
saying that he was not prepared, until finally, Antony was asked to give
it. When he too, excused himself in a most humble manner, his superior
ordered him by virtue of the vow of obedience to give the sermon. Antony
began to speak in a very quiet and reserved manner; but soon the power
of the Holy Spirit seized him, and he spoke with such eloquence that
everyone was amazed.
When St. Francis was informed of the
event, he gave Anthony the mission to preach throughout Italy. At the
request of the brethren, Antony was later commissioned also to teach
theology, "but in such a manner," St. Francis distinctly wrote, " that
the spirit of prayer be not extinguished either in yourself or in the
other brethren." Antony himself placed greater value in the salvation of
souls than on learning. For that reason he never ceased to exercise his
office as preacher despite his work of teaching.
Antony was
called the "Wonder Worker for his many reported miracles. He preached to
crowds in the rain, but his audiences remained dry despite the
downpour.
The number of those who came to hear him was
sometimes so great that no church was large enough to accommodate and so
he had to preach in the open air. He was so energetic in defending the
truths of the Catholic Faith that many heretics returned to the Church.
This occasioned the epitaph given him by Pope Gregory IX "the ark of the
covenant."
In all his labors he never forgot the admonition of
his spiritual father, St. Francis, that the spirit of prayer must not
be extinguished. If he spent the day in teaching and heard the
confession of sinners till late in the evening, then many hours of the
night were spent in intimate union with God.
Once a man, at
whose home Antony was spending the night, came upon the saint and found
him holding in his arms the Child Jesus, unspeakably beautiful and
surrounded with heavenly light. For this reason St. Anthony is often
depicted holding the Child Jesus.
In 1227 A. D., Antony was
elected Minister Provincial of the friars living in northern Italy. Due
to his taxing labors and his austere penance, he soon felt his strength
so spent that he prepared himself for death. After receiving the last
sacraments he kept looking upward with a smile. When he was asked what
he saw there, he answered: "I see my Lord." He breathed forth his soul
on June 13, 1231 A. D., at the age of 36. Soon the children in the
streets of the city of Padua were crying: "The saint is dead, Antony is
dead."
Antony was canonized in 1232 and named a Doctor of the
Church in 1946. At Padua, a magnificent basilica was built in his honor,
his holy relics were entombed there in 1263 A. D. From the time of his
death up to the present day, countless miracles have occurred through
St. Anthony's intercession.
Patron of: Poor, barren and
pregnant women, also against shipwrecks, starvation and of American
Indians, animals, boatmen, elderly people, fishermen, harvests, lost
articles, mail, Portugal, travelers, travel hostesses, and watermen.
Alms given to obtain his intercession are called "St. Antony's Bread."
How he came to be invoked, as he now is, of the finder of lost articles
has never been satisfactorily explained. The only story that relates to
this is contained in the so-called Chronicles of the Twenty-Four
Generals, number 21. A novice ran away from his monastery carrying with
him a valuable psalter which Antony had been using. he prayed for its
recovery and the novice was frightened by a startling apparition into
returning it.
Symbol: book, bread, Infant Jesus, lily
He is occasionally accompanied by a mule which, legend said, fell on its
knees when the Blessed Sacrament was upheld by St. Anthony, thus
converting its heretical owner to believe in the Real Presence.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A great movie on St. Anthony's life (fairly accurate) is "Saint Anthony" - an Italian movie with English subtitles. Available at: Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Saint-Anthony-Daniele-Liotti/dp/B000MTEKGE/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1346288061&sr=1-1&keywords=st.+anthony
