St. Anthony of Padua
Patron of lost items, lost people, and travellers
- Feast day
- June 13
- Origin
- Portugal and Italy
- Era
- 13th century
- Order
- Franciscan (Friars Minor)
- Canonised
- 1232
About the saint
Born Fernando Martins de Bulhões in Lisbon in 1195, Anthony first joined the Augustinian canons before the relics of the Franciscan protomartyrs stirred him to take the Franciscan habit and the name Anthony. Sent quietly to a hermitage in Italy, his gift for preaching was discovered by accident at an ordination where no one else was prepared to speak.
He spent the rest of his short life preaching across Italy and southern France, drawing crowds too large for churches to hold, and teaching theology to his brothers with the blessing of Francis of Assisi himself. He died near Padua in 1231 at thirty-five and was canonized within a year — one of the fastest canonizations in Church history. In 1946 he was declared a Doctor of the Church.
He is invoked for lost things because of an incident with a stolen psalter, and countless people still whisper the old couplet: "Tony, Tony, turn around, something's lost and must be found."
Works
Documented miracles
The returned psalter
A novice who had taken Anthony's psalter was reportedly stopped by a terrifying vision and returned the book, the origin of Anthony's patronage of lost items.
Bologna, c. 1220s
The sermon to the fish
When the people of Rimini refused to listen, Anthony is said to have preached at the shore and the fish gathered at the surface to hear him.
Rimini, c. 1227
The mule and the Eucharist
A hungry mule is said to have knelt before the Blessed Sacrament rather than eat, convincing a doubting man of the Real Presence.
Rimini/Toulouse tradition