Saint Anthony was canonized (declared a
saint) less than one year after his death.
There is perhaps no more loved and admired
saint in the Catholic Church than Saint
Anthony of Padua, a Doctor of the Church.
Though his work was in Italy, he was born in
Portugal. He first joined the Augustinian
Order and then left it and joined the
Franciscan Order in 1221, when he was 26
years old. The reason he became a
Franciscan was because of the death of the
five Franciscan protomartyrs -- St. Bernard,
St. Peter, St. Otho, St. Accursius, and St.
Adjutus -- who shed their blood for the
Catholic Faith in the year 1220, in Morocco,
in North Africa, and whose headless and
mutilated bodies had been brought to St.
Anthony's monastery on their way back for
burial. St. Anthony became a Franciscan in
the hope of shedding his own blood and
becoming a martyr. He lived only ten years
after joining the Franciscan Order.
So simple and resounding was his teaching
of the Catholic Faith, so that the most
unlettered and innocent might understand
it, that he was made a Doctor of the Church
by Pope Pius XII in 1946. Saint Anthony was
only 36 years old when he died. He is called
the "hammer of the Heretics" His great
protection against their lies and deceits in
the matter of Christian doctrine was to
utter, simply and innocently, the Holy Name
of Mary. When St. Anthony of Padua found
he was preaching the true Gospel of the
Catholic Church to heretics who would not
listen to him, he then went out and
preached it to the fishes. This was not, as
liberals and naturalists are trying to say, for
the instruction of the fishes, but rather for
the glory of God, the delight of the angels,
and the easing of his own heart. St. Anthony
wanted to profess the Catholic Faith with his
mind and his heart, at every moment.
He is typically depicted with a book and the
Infant Child Jesus, to whom He miraculously
appeared, and is commonly referred to
today as the "finder of lost articles." Upon
exhumation, some 336 years after his death,
his body was found to be corrupted, yet his
tongue was totally incorrupt, so perfect
were the teachings that had been formed
upon it.
St. Anthony of padua, pray for us. Say Amen