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June 13: Feast Day of St. Anthony of Padua
St. Anthony of Padua
Born in 1195, the man we know today as St. Anthony carried the baptismal name of Ferdinand. He was a member of the illustrious Bouillon family in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. Anthony was the name Ferdinand chose when he entered the Franciscan Order.
The Bouillon family with their son Ferdinand lived not far from the Cathedral of Lisbon. Ferdinand was educated at the cathedral school. His strong faith brought him from the school into the Canons Regular at the age of 15. For the next decade, Ferdinand lived in two of the Canons' convents where he studied the Scriptures. His time at the second convent, the
Convent of Santa Croce, was one of reflection, prayer, and isolation from the outside world.
Cathedral of Lisbon
Ferdinand's journey towards becoming a Franciscan started at around 1220 when bodies of Franciscan martyrs from Morocco arrived at the
Church of Santa Croce. Inspired to evangelize, Ferdinand approached a group of begging friars at the Convent of Olivares and joined them. From this day on he was known as Anthony.
Anthony was on his way to be a missionary in Morocco when he became sick en route and turned back to Portugal. It was on this return journey that his ship was caught in a ferocious storm, which stranded him on the island of Sicily.
In Sicily, Anthony found the minister provincial of Cóimbra, Friar Graziano and asked him for a place where he could live in peace and penance. The Montepaolo hermitage, which was in need of a priest, fit Anthony's request.
Montepaolo, Sicily
Anthony found his true ministry some time later when he and a group of Franciscan and Dominican friars attended an ordination with no appointed preacher. Unlike his brothers, Anthony found himself up to the task of speaking. At first, his voice was subdued. Yet with every passing moment, it gained in strength and eloquence. Anthony spoke so beautifully, in fact, that Francis of Assisi himself asked him to become a teacher of theology.
Anthony took to this task eagerly. After a conference with Abbott Thomas Gallo, he taught theology iat universities in Bologna, Montpellier, and Toulouse. He also became famous as an orator and a performer of miracles.
Pope Gregory IX
In 1226, after serving as envoy to Pope Gregory IX from the Franciscans' General Chapter, Anthony was elected minister provincial of the Emilia-Romagna region. He died five years later at a Poor Clares convent in Arcella while on his way to Padua, the city of which he was later named patron saint. Besides Padua, St. Anthony is also the patron saint of lost things. Legend has it that St. Anthony was praying for a psalter that a novice had carried off when his apparition appeared in front of the novice. Frightened out of his wits, the novice quickly returned the psalter.
Today, St. Anthony is known as the Doctor of the Church. Pope Pius XII vested St. Anthony with the title on January 16, 1946.
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