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Saint Anthony of
Padua, the patron saint of our Parish
Kraineem (19 May 2005)
By
Fr. Philip Sandstrom
SAINT ANTHONY OF PADUA (1193-1231). Feast Day: 13 June.
 The holy patron of our Parish is this Franciscan who knew and lived and worked with St. Francis of Assisi himself. Despite having an Italian city as part of his name, he was born at Lisbon in Portugal. He is however buried in
Padua, and he was canonized the year after his death.
Anthony’s formal education was accomplished at Coimbra in Portugal, where the principal subject was the Bible. (This was before the beginning of what we would recognize today as Universities.) His preaching of the Word of God was famously called ‘the jewel case of the Bible,’ and he did prepare for himself and others a series of “Sermons for Sundays.” And then he added “Sermons for Feast Days,” these last commissioned by the papal court itself. He was recognized as a forceful and dynamic preacher, attracting both great admiration and great dislike from the crowds in the churches and market places to whom he spoke. Because of his effective preaching he was also called “the hammer of heretics”.
Saint Francis asked him to teach theology to his fellow friars at Bologna and
Padua, as well as in France at Montpellier, Toulouse and Arles.
Shortly before his death, St. Anthony retired to Padua where he spent his time preaching, hearing confessions and serving the poor.
Since the 17th Century, he has been invoked as the finder of things lost or misplaced. The legend recounts that this is because once a novice borrowed Anthony’s prayer book without permission, and he was forced to remember to return it to its proper place by a fearsome apparition. And since the 19th Century there has been the custom of baking ‘St. Anthony’s Bread’ for his feast day. This charitable work, devoted to helping people who have no bread and are starving or otherwise needy, involves blessing the bread at Church and then distributing it after the ceremony. In Sicily huge crown shaped loafs are made up for this purpose.
Usual images of St. Anthony show him with a book (of his sermons) and a lily (for the purity of his preaching and life), and then with the Infant Jesus in his arms (the main subject of his preaching).
May he bless this year our Parish Fayre as he has in past years!
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