Saint Anthony Full Story

Anthony of Padua, when he was in the century called Fernando Martin de Bulhoes and Taveira Azvedo, was born in Lisbon on August 15, 1195 to a noble Portuguese family, descendants of Gofredo of Buglione (who had participated in the crusades for the liberation of the Holy Land). At the age of 15, he was a novice in the monastery of Saint Vincent in Lisbon, later he transferred to the monastery of the Holy Cross in Coimbra, the largest cultural center in Portugal that belonged to the order of the Canons of Saint Augustine, where he studied science and theology with excellent grades. good, preparing to receive priestly ordination in 1219 at the age of 24.

Then when it seemed that he would follow the path of Theology and Philosophy, he decided to leave the order of the Augustinians. Fernandi, in fact, does not tolerate the many political connections between the Augustinian canons and King Alfonso II. A stricter regular life was boiling in his heart. His wish came true when, in 1220, in Coimbra, the bodies of the five Franciscan friars killed in Morocco, where they had gone to preach to the audience of Saint Francis of Assisi, arrived. When the friars of the assembly of Mount Olivares went to receive the bodies of the martyrs, Fernando confided to them his aspiration to live in the spirit of the Gospel. After receiving the permission of the Franciscan Provincial of Spain, Fernando enters the order of friars minor, immediately making the regular conditions and changing his name from Fernando to Antonio, in honor of the Egyptian hermit abbot.

Following the martyr's wish, he immediately asked for and was granted permission to go as a missionary to Morocco. And around the end of 1220 he left with a ship that was headed to Africa. But during the trip he caught malaria accompanied by high fever, which forced him to stay in bed. The illness lasted a long time and in the spring his friends convinced him to return to his homeland to be cured. According to some other versions, Antony never stopped in Morocco: he fell ill as soon as he left Lisbon. The ship, from the great storm, stopped at Messina, in Sicily. After the Franciscan friars of the city took care of him, after two months he managed to recover. For the feast of Pentecost of that year, he was invited to participate in the General Chapter at Saint Mary of the Angels, where he had the opportunity to hear Saint Francis but not to know him personally.

The provincial minister of the order of friars of northern Italy proposes that he move to Montepaolo, near the city of Forli, where, in the absence of a priest, he would celebrate mass for the seven friars who lived there. A hermitage consisting of a small church, some hatcheries and a garden. Antony agrees. For five and a half years he lived in opposition and penance, exercising, from his personal desire, the most menial duties, until one day he went to the city with his fellow brothers to participate in the ordination of new priests of the order, in the presence of many persons, consisting of prominent noble people. Since then, Anthony is entrusted with the task of being a preacher and teacher by Saint Francis himself, who writes him a letter instructing him not to lose the spirit of holy prayer and devotion. He begins to preach in Romagna, continues with northern Italy, uses his word to attack the Cathar heresies (it is also called the "hammer of heretics") in Italy and the Albigensian ones in France, where he will go in 1225. Between 1223 and that In 1225, he founded the Franciscan theological school, teaching in the Bolognese assembly of St. Mary of Puljola.

When he was in France, between 1225 and 1227, he was entrusted with the task of custodian of Limoges. While visiting Arles, it is said that Saint Francis, who had just received the stigmata, appeared to him. As a custodian, he will participate in the year 1227 in the General Chapter of Assisi where the new minister of the Seraphic Order is elected the Provincial of Spain, John Parenti, who had welcomed him a few years ago when Saint Anthony decided to enter the minor friars. This Minister appoints him Provincial of Northern Italy.

Anthony opens new houses, visits the assemblies of the friars' houses of the province. He does this to get to know all the friars personally. He also has an eye for the Poor Clares as well as the Third Order. He goes to Florence, until finally he chooses his residence in Padua. For two months, he will write Sermons for Sundays as well as for the feasts of saints, where he elaborates more on the topics that are close to his heart: the orders of religion, morality and virtue, God's love and spirituality towards the poor, prayer, austerity and sacrifice, and is opposed, as a merciless enemy, to pride, lust, greed and usury.

He is also a Mariologist, a staunch supporter of the Ascension of the Virgin Mary to Heaven and, at the request of Pope Gregory IX, in 1228, he holds weekly Lenten sermons, and this same Pope will call the Blessed Virgin Mary the "Ark of the Covenant". It is said that Saint Anthony's sermons were delivered to a large cosmopolitan crowd where everyone listened to him speak in his own language.

For three years Antoni travels without saving, he is tired, he suffers from asthma and he is bloated from dropsy. He returns to Padua and his sermons for Lent in 1231 are numerous.

To rest in peace he goes to Camposampiero, near Padua, where Count Tiso, who had given the friars a monastery, built him a room among the branches of a walnut tree. From here Anton preaches, but also goes down to confess and in the evening returns to his nest in the tree. One night Count Tiso, who had gone to see how Anthony was doing, saw a great light coming out of Anthony's shelter and witnessed the visit that the Child Jesus made to Saint Anthony.

At noon on Friday, June 13, Antony was released by the forces and begged his brothers to take him to Padua, where he wanted to die. After they put him in a cart pulled by oxen, on the outskirts of the city, his health worsens to the point that they put him in the nearby assembly of Arcela, where he dies in the evening. It is said that in the last moments of his life he had a vision of God. After his death, there were not a few problems between the two assemblies, regarding the burial of the body, between the assembly where he died and that of St. Mary Mother of God (his assembly) where he wanted to die. During this debate/conflict, popular riots were also observed. In the end, the provincial decided that his body should be buried at the Saint Mary Mother of God congregation. As soon as his body reached the appointed place, miracles immediately began, some of which were documented by witnesses. Even while he was alive, Antony had performed miracles, such as exorcisms, prophecies, healings, even reattaching a severed leg, or finding the heart of a miser in a coffin, or turning poisoned foods harmless, or even the sermon to the fishes, or when he forced a mule to kneel before the Consecrated Host. His miracles have inspired many artists including Ticiano and Donatello.

Thanks to the many miracles of Saint Anthony, he was canonized a year after his death by Pope Gregory IX.

Thirty-two years after his death, during the relocation of his remains, Bonaventura from Banjorexha found his tongue intact, which is still preserved in the Treasury Chapel near the basilica of the city that shares him.

Pope Pius XII (1939-1958), who in 1946 appointed Saint Anthony among the Doctors of the Catholic Church, also gave him the title of "Doctor Evangelicus", because in his writings and sermons, he usually supported his assertions with quotations taken from the Gospel.