Saint of lost items preached well

By Tony Staley
Compass Editor

	St. Anthony of Padua When: 1195-1231 Where: Italy What: Preacher and Doctor of the Church Feast: June 13 Canonized: 1232

Anthony of Padua ranks as one of Catholicism's most loved saints - particularly among those who turn to him for help in finding lost items. His reputation for finding what's lost is said to have started when a Franciscan novice took his book of Psalms. Anthony prayed for its return and the novice - after seeing a horrible vision - rushed it back.

Anthony himself never seems to have been lost. He was born in Lisbon, Portugal, to a noble family and baptized Fernando Bulhon. He joined the Augustinians when he was 15 or 16 and studied the Bible and other subjects at Coïmbra.

Soon after ordination, he met a group of Franciscans bound for Morocco to work with the Moors. After their martyrdom there, Anthony saw their relics and decided to become a Franciscan so he could continue their work.

He set out for Morocco, but was forced to return due to ill health. His ship was blown off course to Sicily where he learned of a general chapter of Franciscans scheduled in Assisi. He was among 3,000 friars - including Francis - who attended. At its end, Anthony was assigned to a hermitage at Forli, where he studied, prayed and did menial tasks unnoticed.

Then he was asked on short notice to preach at an ordination - because of oversight no one else was prepared. His sermon electrified the room and he was sent to preach in Lombardy where he attracted huge crowds.

Soon Francis made Anthony the first Franciscan to teach the friars at Bologna and Padua. He and Francis became close friends.

Eventually, Anthony was sent to southern France to preach against the Albigensians (a heresy that rejected both church and civil authorities and denied the goodness of the flesh). He proved so effective that he was called "the hammer of the heretics."

After Francis died in 1226, Anthony was summoned back to Italy, where he was elected to head the province of northern Italy. He spent much of his time visiting the friaries he supervised.

At the general chapter of 1226, Anthony was chosen as a special envoy to Pope Gregory IX, to discuss the Franciscan Rule and the legacy of Francis.

Eventually, Anthony received permission to return to Padua where he preached tirelessly - often in markets and town squares rather than churches because of the crowds he attracted - to convert heretics, as well as help the poor. He worked to end debtors' prisons by getting a law passed that allowed debtors to sell possessions and give the money to creditors rather than go to jail.

In 1231, an exhausted Anthony went to Camposanpiero for a rest, but became sick and died at a Poor Clare convent just outside Padua on his return. He was 36.