Jun 13 - Homily for Today

+ After St. Francis himself, St. Anthony of Padua is one of the most famous Franciscans in Church history. Born in 1195 in Lisbon, Portugal, Anthony’s wealthy family wanted him to be a great nobleman, but for the sake of Christ he became a poor Franciscan priest.

 At first being a canon regular, when the remains of Saint Bernard and his companions, the first Franciscan martyrs, were brought to be buried in his church, Anthony was moved to leave his order, and enter the Friars Minor, and go to Morocco to evangelize. But, shipwrecked at Sicily, he joined some other brothers who were going to the church in Portiuncula. There he lived in a cave at San Paolo, leaving only to attend Mass and sweep the nearby monastery.

One day when a scheduled speaker failed to appear, the brothers pressed him into speaking. He impressed them so much that he was thereafter constantly travelling, evangelizing, preaching and teaching theology through Italy and France. In refuting heresy Anthony was called “the hammer of heretics;” at the papal court his preaching was described as a “jewel case of the Bible;” he was commissioned to write several sermon series.

Anthony was a gifted speaker and attracted crowds everywhere he went, speaking in multiple tongues; legend has it that even the fish loved to listen. He was a miracle worker. One source of the well-known patronage for the recovery of lost objects comes from a legend that, long after Anthony’s death, his old prayer book that was kept as a treasured relic, one day disappeared; people prayed to him for help to find the book, and suddenly a novice found it and returned it: he later admitted that he has “borrowed” the book and returned it after receiving a vision of an angry Anthony!

Anthony died in 1231 of natural causes and was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1946 receiving the title: Evangelical Doctor.

St. Anthony delivered the gospel in all its force to any who would listen, men and animals alike! He is loved to this day by all who hear him!

Amen! Amen!

In his sermon notes, St Anthony writes: ‘The saints are like the stars. In his providence Christ conceals them in a hidden place that they may not shine before others when they might wish to do so. Yet they are always ready to exchange the quiet of contemplation for the works of mercy as soon as they perceive in their heart the invitation of Christ.”