Today June 13

Today is the major feast of St. Anthony of Padua (1195-1231). He is called "the Wonder Worker" for miracles supposedly worked through his intercession either during or after his lifetime. A Portuguese of Portuguese nobility, he was educated in the cathedral school at Lisbon, where it was noted that he had a gift for learning Scripture and for a phenomenal memory, what we today would call "total recall." It came in handy when he was preaching throughout Italy and "read[ing] sacred theology to the friars" - St. Francis of Assisi. He believed that like the dogs with Lazarus, he and other preachers lick with "the milk and honey of kindness and gentleness" the wounds of society. Isn't that clever? But this sickly young man, unprepossessing in appearance, had the brain of a theologian and the soul of a poet. Though the "doctor optime" - (Gregory IX) of the Franciscans, he started religious life as an Augustinian. On his own initiative at age 15 he joined the canons regular in Coimbra. One day two Franciscans came by to get donations and Anthony (at the time named Ferdinand) was fired up to join them. He did and volunteered for the equivalent of a suicide mission to North Africa to evangelize the Moors. The minute he got there, he got sick and had to go home.

His ship got blown off course -- instead of Portugal, they landed in Sicily and there he became a simple Franciscan friar. He attended the last general chapter of the Franciscans (general meaning attended by all members of the order) where he met Saint Francis himself. He later attended a joint ordination of Dominicans and Franciscans at Forli in Italy and when no Dominicans were prepared to give the homily, Anthony was tapped to do so. His learned, inspired and intense homily blew them all away. He was allowed to devote himself to preaching "provided that such study does not quench the spirit of holy prayer and devotion according to our rule" - St. Francis. He was released from the duties of his office to preach . . . but I take that as not being released from "the saying of the office" because one of the incidents that led to the tradition of him being invoked to find lost objects was when he lost his psalter (another word for office -- or a type of office, or brieviary) he prayed to find it and voila, the thief (a novice in the monastery) had a sudden change of heart and returned it. Wow. Amazing he invokes God to let things be found. Here's how I learned it:
Tony, Tony,
Turn around
Something's lost
And can't be found.
(It really works.)

Tony was a giant among men even though he was short and stout. He amazed people by having prisoners confess and repent, lukewarm souls get fired up, heretics convert (he was known as the "Hammer of Heretics"), thieves return stolen goods -- or their equivalent -- at his feet, and feuders reconcile . . . right in front of him. He started dying after preaching a grueling course of sermons and was taken back on a litter to Padua where he died. He was 36 years old. His remains are buried there and are considered that town's most precious possession.