St. Anthony of Padua

St. Anthony of Padua was born Fernando Martins in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1195. As a young man he entered the Canons Regular of St. Augustine, studying Scripture and the Fathers at the great priory of Coimbra. His life changed course in 1220, when the relics of the first Franciscan martyrs, killed in Morocco, were brought to Coimbra. Stirred by their witness, Fernando joined the new Order of Friars Minor, took the name Anthony, and set sail for Morocco hoping for martyrdom himself. God had other plans. Illness forced his return, and a storm drove his ship to Sicily. He made his way to the great chapter of the order at Assisi in 1221 and was assigned to a quiet hermitage, his gifts unknown. They were revealed by accident: called upon to preach without preparation at an ordination in Forlì, he astonished his hearers with learning and eloquence. From then on Anthony's life belonged to the pulpit. St. Francis himself, in a brief letter, entrusted him with teaching theology to the friars—the order's first theology teacher—'provided that... you do not extinguish the spirit of prayer.' Anthony preached throughout northern Italy and southern France, confronting the Cathar and other heresies of the day with such effect that later generations called him the 'Hammer of Heretics.' Crowds overflowed the churches, and marketplaces became his cathedral. Hagiographical tradition surrounds his preaching with famous wonders—the fish rising to hear him at Rimini among them—which the Church relates as expressions of his sanctity rather than verified history. His surviving Sermons for feast days and Sundays reveal a master of Scripture with a deeply pastoral heart. Worn out at thirty-five, Anthony died at Arcella, on the outskirts of Padua, on June 13, 1231. Devotion was immediate and immense: Pope Gregory IX canonized him within a year, in 1232, and Pope Pius XII declared him a Doctor of the Church—the Evangelical Doctor—in 1946. His tomb in the Basilica of St. Anthony in Padua, which Italians call simply 'il Santo,' remains one of the most visited pilgrimage shrines in the world. His feast is June 13, and he is beloved worldwide as the patron of lost items, as well as of the poor and of travelers.