Saint Anthony of Padua

“ Again the men's voices! The white was mostly men, not women. The priest in his robes, his boys near him, was leading the chanting. Immediately behind him came a small cluster of bare-headed, tall, sunburnt men, all in golden-velveteen corduroy, mountain-peasants, bowing beneath a great life-size seated image of Saint Anthony of Padua. After these a number of men in the costume, but with the white linen breeches hanging wide and loose almost to the ankles, instead of being tucked into the black gaiters. So they seemed very white beneath the back kilt frill. ”

“ The children of this holy Patriarch, being thus spread in all parts, preached the Gospel to the infidels, repressed heresies, attacked vice, inspired virtue, and gave admirable examples of poverty, humility, penance, and all perfection.
Anthony, of Padua, preached in Italy and France with so much lustre, that he has ever been considered as one of the most marvellous preachers whom Italy ever saw. The strength and the unction of his discourses, the eminent sanctity of his life, the evidence of his miracles, changed the face of the towns in which he announced the word of God. ”

“ He died at Padua, in north Italy, whence the name by which he is universally known.
In 1231, on June 13th, when the saint was thirty-six years of age, his brief but brilliant apostolate came to a sudden close. After his death, beginning on the day of his burial at Padua, which happened on Tuesday, June 17th, so many miracles were wrought through the intercession of St. Anthony, that already in the following year, on May 30, 1232, he was publicly and solemnly declared a saint by Pope Gregory IX.
Devotions in Honor of St. ”

“ S. Antony's arrangement, although it be called by his editor " most excellent, and disposed in a most learned order," is rather confusing ; and one does not see any possible connection between succeeding sections in the same chapter. The account which is prefixed to the work, and which explains the contents of its five books, is as follows : " The first book treats of those things which pertain to the fall and their opposites, divided into four parts. The first, of sin in general, and its effects. ”

“ Anthony of Padua visited by the infant Saviour." The saint is kneeling with outstretched arms, looking above to the child, who descends through a flood of glory filled with cherubs, drawn down by the prayers of the saint. On the table beside him is a vase of white lilies, which many persons averred were so natural that the birds flew down the cathedral aisles to peck at the flowers. For this picture the cathedral clergy paid ten thousand reals. Mrs. Jameson declares this the finest work ever executed in honor of St. Anthony, a subject chosen by Titian and scores of other artists. ”

“ Her tongue ran so fast that the children had no chance to ask questions. A crowd now gathered about them, and when Teresina had explained the cause of the excitement and joy, sympathetic bystanders rushed to send word to the villa, seven miles away, and to spread the good news that the children of the Marchese Grifoni, for whom the police had been searching every town in Italy for two months, had now appeared in Padua.
“It is not for nothing that Saint Anthony is the patron saint of all who suffer loss,” said the pious ones, and many a candle was gratefully offered on his shrine that day. ”

“ Anthony of Padua, a Franciscan Friar, anxious to demonstrate to a heretic, who asked him to perform a miracle, the truth of the Holy Sacrament of the Altar, commands a mule to adore the Eucharist. The mule, though ravenously hungry, refuses the oats that his master is sifting, and kneels down at the bidding of the saint.—Miniature from the “Heures” of Anne of Brittany (Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century) , National Library, Paris. ”

“ The Paduans he hated even more venomously than he hated the rest of mankind, because of their long resistance to him; for Padua, the City of Saint Anthony, had all along been a stronghold of the Guelph party; that is to say, of the Church, in her struggle for civilisation and humanity, against the Emperor and his barons who were opposed to any lessening of their power by the erection of popular institutions. The wars between the Guelphs and their opponents, the Ghibellines, began in the Eleventh Century and lasted for some four hundred years ”

“ But thou, Bethlehem-Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out thee shall He come forth unto me That is to be ruler in Israel ; Whose goings forth have been from of old, from ever- lasting. ”

“ O thou man of GOD, there is death in the pot. But he said, Then bring meal, and he cast it into the pot .... and there was no harm in the pot. [That is, the wild gourds are a type of sin; the vessel, of the human heart; the meal, of the Holy Eucharist, and its effect in preserving against the dangers of temptation.]
Ps. xxv. 20. Let perfectness and righteous dealing wait upon me. [That is, the perfect righteousness of our LORD : wait upon me, in the sense of that verse, "The SON of MAN came not to be ministered unto but to minister."] ”

“ Schaus, a picture-dealer of New York, for two hundred and fifty dollars. He turned his purchase over to the Spanish consul, who restored it to the cathedral.
St. Anthony was a Portuguese by birth, and taught divinity in the universities of Bologna, Toulouse, Paris, and Padua. Finally he became an eloquent preacher among the people. It is said that when they refused to listen he preached to the dwellers in the sea, "and an infinite number of fishes, great and little, lifted their heads above water, and listened attentively to the sermon of the saint!" ”

“ Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt ; and the form of the fourth is like the SON of GOD.
vii. 13. I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the SON of MAN came with the clouds of heaven,
ix. 24. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression . . . and to anoint the Most Holy.
Hos. i. 11. Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves One Head. ”

“ On the morning of Sant' Antonio's Day we strolled through the streets of Padua, side by side with the country-folk who had come from miles around to offer up their prayers at the shrine of the saint. Some rode jaded mules or were packed close in great market-wagons. Others trudged on foot, with their dinners tied up in blue cotton handkerchiefs. There were bronzed men in homespun, who pushed steadily on, aiding themselves with mighty umbrellas; dark-eyed girls, with bright kerchiefs knotted about their heads or carnations in their glossy braids ”

“ Corn shall make the young men cheerful, and new mine the maids. (7.) In several instances, and more especially at the beginning of the work, S. Antony has summed up the effects of a particular vice or virtue in a series of verses, not remarkable, generally speaking, either for their point or their terseness. In some cases, where the characteristics of one sin are nearly identical with those of another, they have been omitted ; and in others, that which is verse in the original, has been put into prose. ”

“ My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.
Is. i. 23. Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves.
viii. 12. Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy ; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.
Jer. xi. 9. And the LORD said unto me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Jer. xxxviii. 5. Behold he is in your hand; for the king is not he that can do anything against you. ”

“ O the hope of Israel, the Saviour thereof in time of trouble, why shouldest Thou be as a stranger in the land ? Jer.xv. 10. Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth !
xxiii. 5. Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch, and a King shall reign and prosper,
xxxi. 22. The LORD hath created a new thing in the earth : a woman shall compass a Man. ”

“ The Fourth Book treats of those things which pertain to a perfect man : and has four parts. The first is of the cardinal virtues. The second is of the theological virtues. The third of the active, the fourth of the contemplative, life. The Fifth Book treats of relative duties, and certain other matters ; and contains eight parts. The first is of prelates and priests, and their flocks. The second, of preachers, and those whose duty it is to rebuke. ”

“ It is clear that such a distribution of texts would now be of no practical use in the pulpit. (3.) When two sections, which is often the case, are occupied with subjects so nearly allied as to be almost identical, and when the references given, are, for the most part, the same, then the second is very frequently omitted. (4.) In like manner, and also for the sake of brevity, references are very often omitted which have occurred in previous sections, in allusion to the same subject. ”

“ Now, whatever judgments may be formed in other respects of medieval preachers, in this one thing it cannot be denied that they excel their successors. It is not merely that they quote ten texts for one in modern discourses ”

“ Anthony of Padua, the universal patron of fishermen.
This St. Anthony was a native of Lusitania, having been born at Lisbon in 1195, and christened Ferdinand, which name he laid aside for that of Anthony, in honour of the Egyptian hermit, on his entering into the order of St. Francis. His long residence at Padua is said to have procured for him the cognomen of that place, but the addition of Padua is much more likely to have derived its origin from the locality of his legendary miracle. Actuated by the spirit of fanaticism common in those times, St. ”

“ And with his rod he smote the rock twice, and the water came out abundantly,
xxi. 8. Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole : and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten when he looketh upon it, shall live. ”

“ Iv. 4. Behold, 1 have given Him for a witness to the people ; a leader and commander to the people.
lx. 1. Arise, shine ; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD hath risen upon thee.
lxi. 1. The Spirit of the LORD GOD is upon me, &c.
lxii. 1. For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. ”

“ As the righteousness of the righteous is well pleasing to GOD, so is the penitence of sinners; and that as much as we have given up ourselves to sin, so much we ought to return to GOD.
Leviticus 6:25 | 7:2 || Isaiah 31:6 || Baruch 4:28 || S. Luke 7:38 | 15:7 || Romans 5:20 f | 6:19
192. ”

“ Who maketh the grass to grow upon the mountains ;" the mountains being the emblem of preachers, and grass of their means of support. Of the Resurrection : Eccles. xii. 4 " He shall rise up at the voice of the bird " that is, of the Archangel. For the Festival of S. Andrew : 2 Kings iv. 32 " Behold, the child was dead, and laid upon his bed ;" an allusion to S. Andrew's having suffered by being laid upon our LORD'S bed namely the cross. For the Conversion of S. Paul : Ecclus. viii. 1 " Strive not with a mighty man, lest thou fall into his hands ;" ”

“ Isaiah 13:17 | 28:1 | 40:4 | 43:6 || Jeremiah 17:5 | 48:1 || Hosea 12:7 || Joel 1:5 || Wisdom of Solomon 5:8 | 6:6 l || Ecclesiasticus 31:8 || S. Luke 6:24 | 8:14 || S. John 14:30 || S. James 4:4 | 5:1 .
29. That it is difficult for a rich man to be saved.
Psalms 49:12 || S. Matthew 19:23 || S. Mark 10:23 | S. Luke 18:24 || 1 Timothy 6:9 .
30. That it is lawful to possess riches.
Genesis 13:2 | 31:9 || Job 1:3 || Proverbs 22:2 1 Timothy 2:2 | 6:17 31. Against the hope of the wicked. ”

“ That the revenues of the Church are not to be given to relations, but to the poor ; and that he who does otherwise is a robber.
Genesis 50:21 || Leviticus 22:12 || Deuteronomy 12:17 | 23:24 | 26:14 || 1 Samuel 2:13 || 2 Kings 5:16 | 22:17 || 2 Chron. 24 5,7 || Proverbs 28:24 || Jeremiah 7:11 || S. Matthew 21:13 || S. John 10:10 12:5 .
351. Against those who will not be subject to others, and thus imitate the devil.
1 Samuel 15:22 f || Proverbs 1:24 || Psalms 14:13 | 16:6 || Hosea 4:4 || Ephesians 5:21 || Philippians 2:3 . ”

“ That our righteousness, compared with the righteousness of God is nothing.
Genesis 18:27 | 19:23 || Exodus 3:6 | 4:10 || Job 9:2 ,20 | 22:2 | 25:4 | 42:5 || Proverbs 20:9 || Song of Solomon 4:14 || Isaiah 6:5 | 88:14 | 43:26 | 64:6 || Jeremiah 2:22 | 7:4 || Lamentations 4:30 || Romans 7:28 || Hebrews 12:3 || 1S. John 1:10 . ”

“ The superior of his convent forbade him to perform miracles; but, one day, seeing a man falling from a high tower, he ordered him to remain suspended in the air until the superior should give the saint permission to let him fall without injury. The devotees of Saint Anthony treat him with great familiarity, and even punish him when he does not satisfy their desires. When they wish to obtain some favour from his protection,—for example, to draw a prize in a lottery, to find a lost cow, or to find a husband for a damsel,—they burn tapers before his image, and adorn it with flowers. ”

“ Job 4:8 | 5:3 | 8:22 | 18:19 | 20:15 | 21:17 | 22:16 | 24:18 | 24:24 | 27:14 | 27:19 || Psalms 109:11 || Ecclesiastes 5:13 || Isaiah 5:8 || Ezekiel 15:7 | 16:39 | 21:31 | 23:25 | 28:20 | 33:25 | 34:10 || Hosea 2:9 | 2:12 || Amos 3:11 | 6:7 || Micah 1:15 || Wisdom of Solomon 3:8 | 4:3 || Ecclesiasticus 23:25 | 40:13 | 40:15 | 41:9 .
28. Against the rich and mighty men of this world. ”