February 19, 2023 - "Saint of Anthony of Padua"

Although he is popularly known as Anthony of Padua, he only lived there during the last few years of his life.  Furthermore, he isn’t even Italian.  He is Portuguese! Anthony (whose given name was Ferdinand) was the son of a Portuguese knight.  As a teenager he entered a house of the Canons Regular (who follow the Rule of St. Augustine) not far from Lisbon. After a time to transferred to their house in Coimbra, a renowned cultural center in Portugal. His studies for the priesthood were conducted by teachers who were familiar with the writings of the theologians from the famous School of St. Victor in Paris.  His theological education initiated a contact with Victorine thought that later became evident in other Franciscan theologians, notably St. Bonaventure.
 
In 1220 Ferdinand encountered the first five Franciscan missionaries who had gone to Morocco where they encountered their martyrdom.  Their story inspired the young Canon Regular to imitate them and advance in the way of Christian perfection.  Ferdinand asked permission to leave the Canons Regular to become a Friar Minor.  His requested was granted and, having received the name Anthony, he also set off for Morocco. Divine Providence, however, had other designs.
 
After an illness, he was obliged to return to Italy and in 1221 participated in the famous “Chapter of the Mats” in Assisi where he actually got to meet St. Francis.  Accepted into the Romagna Province of the order, he lived for a time in complete concealment in a convent at Forli in northern Italy when the Lord called him into another mission.  Invited , in somewhat casual circumstances, to preach on the occasion of a priestly ordination, he showed himself to be gifted with such knowledge and eloquence that his superiors immediately assigned him to preaching.  He preached in Italy and in France.  Many people who had left the Church were moved to return to the practice of the faith after hearing him preach.  Anthony was one of the first if not the first teachers of theology in the Franciscan order.  St. Francis himself sent him a short letter that began with these words, “I would like you to teach the brethren theology.”  Anthony laid the foundations of Franciscan theology which, cultivated by other outstanding thinkers, would reach its apex with St. Bonaventure of Bagnoregio and Blessed John Duns Scotus.
 
Anthony became the Provincial Superior of the Friars in Northern Italy.  He continued his ministry of preaching and alternated it with his office of governance.  When his term as Provincial came to an end, he withdrew to a place near Padua where he had stayed on various other occasions.  Barely a year later, he died on June 13, 1231 at the young age of thirty-six.  Pope Gregory IX himself, having heard him preach, described him as the “Ark of the Testament” and subsequent to miracles brought about though Anthony’s intercession, canonized Anthony in 1232.  Anthony’s process of canonization occurred even more speedily than that of St. Francis, which took almost two years!  Pope Pius XII named St. Anthony of Padua a Doctor of the Church in 1946.
 
Franciscan Media’s Saint of the Day offers this reflection on St. Anthony of Padua which will serve as a fitting closing for this column:
 
Anthony should be the patron of those who find their lives completely uprooted and set in a new and unexpected direction.  Like all saints, he is a perfect example of turning one’s life completely over to Christ.  God did with Anthony as God pleased—and what God pleased was a life of spiritual power and brilliance that will attracts admiration today.  He whom popular devotion has nominated as finder of lost objects found himself by losing himself totally to the providence of God.
 
Until next week,
Fr. John