Saint Anthony of Padua

Saint Anthony of Padua, also called Anthony of Lisbon, was a Portuguese Franciscan, a priest, a preacher, and the first teacher of theology in the Order of Friars Minor. He is one of the most popular saints of the Church, and in Padua he is called simply “il Santo,” the Saint. The Church commemorates him on June 13.

He was born in Lisbon into a noble family around 1195; the exact date is not known. At baptism he received the name Fernando. As a young man he entered the Canons Regular of Saint Augustine, first at the monastery of Saint Vincent in Lisbon and then at the monastery of the Holy Cross in Coimbra. There he studied Sacred Scripture and the Fathers of the Church and was ordained a priest.

In 1220 the relics of the first five Franciscan missionaries, who had suffered martyrdom in Morocco, were brought to Coimbra. Their witness led Fernando to join the Friars Minor. He took the name Anthony and set out for Morocco, but a serious illness forced him to return, and a storm drove his ship to Sicily. In 1221 he took part in the chapter of the friars in Assisi, where he met Saint Francis, and afterward he lived hidden away at the hermitage of Montepaolo near Forlì.

In Forlì he was unexpectedly asked to preach at a priestly ordination. He showed such learning and such a gift for words that his superiors entrusted him with preaching. He preached in northern Italy and southern France, and many who had left the Church returned to the faith. In a letter Saint Francis asked him to teach the brothers theology, provided that study did not extinguish the spirit of prayer in them. Anthony taught in Bologna and, according to the papal letter of 1946, also in Toulouse and Montpellier. He was also provincial superior of the Friars Minor in northern Italy. Toward the end of his life he wrote two cycles of sermons: for Sundays and for the feasts of the saints.

He spent his last years in Padua, where he helped to bring peace to the city. During Lent of 1231 he preached there and spent long hours hearing confessions. Weakened by illness, after Easter he withdrew to Camposampiero, not far from the city. On June 13, 1231, he was taken gravely ill and asked to be brought to Padua. He died on the way, at Arcella at the gates of the city; according to tradition his last words were: “I see my Lord.”

Pope Gregory IX, who had known him personally and heard him preach, called him the “Ark of the Testament.” After miracles attributed to his intercession, he declared him a saint on May 30, 1232, less than a year after his death, and in a bull issued in Spoleto he set his feast on June 13. In 1946 Pius XII proclaimed him a Doctor of the Church and gave him the title “Evangelical Doctor.” His remains rest in the basilica that bears his name in Padua. He is depicted with a lily and with the Child Jesus in his arms, and in popular devotion he is invoked above all when looking for lost things.