St. Anthony of Padua is a Confessor and Doctor of the Church. He was the greatest specialist of Holy Scripture in his time, an extraordinary preacher, and a great preacher who defeated heretics.
Newsroom (14/06/2022 08:57, Gaudium Press) We will never be able to understand the spirituality of Saint Anthony of Padua without analyzing in him that essential and omnipresent aspect of our existence in this vale of tears: struggle, combat, suffering.
Struggle? Perhaps someone will be surprised to hear about it in the life of a saint whose smiling images lead us to imagine him always full of joy, sweetness and consolation. However, the fight against one’s own defects and against evil is an inseparable companion of the human being as a consequence of original sin.
Humility
Friar Anthony went to Assisi, where a General Chapter of the Order was to take place on the eve of Pentecost 1221, presided over by Saint Francis himself.
When the Assembly ended, still unknown among that multitude of friars, he asked the Provincial of Romandiola to accept him as a subordinate, and he went to live in the hermitage of St. Paul.
Ignoring his lineage and formation, he was given the job of assistant cook, which he assumed without hesitation. In this way, he spent long months in complete anonymity, his cell being in a cave and accepting everything without the slightest complaint. Who would dare to claim that this victory over himself was inferior to that achieved by the martyrs of Morocco?
Hammer of Heretics
Once in a maritime town – which was full of heretics – St. Anthony preached about the divine omnipotence. Since no one came to listen to him, he turned to the sea and said: “Since there is no one here who wants to hear the word of God, you pure creatures, come listen to me so that the indocility of these wicked people may be confounded. Soon, thousands of fish appeared, which, sticking their heads out of the water, seemed to pay great attention to St. Anthony’s preaching. At the end of his exhortation, he gave them his blessing and dismissed them. Before such a miracle, all the people were converted.
What a wonderful soul St. Anthony has, so humble and full of faith: in the villager’s contempt of him, he sees deep down a contempt for the word of God; and to make up for the offense done to God, in all simplicity, he works an extraordinary miracle.
Ark of the Testament
Friar Anthony attracted crowds to his sermons. Fearless, he was not afraid to reprove the errors of his listeners, even if they were civil or ecclesiastical authorities.
He once publicly questioned a bishop who was vainly adorning himself: “I have something to say to you who wear the mitre!” And he rebuked him for his faults. The culprit shed abundant tears and changed his conduct. He also did not hesitate to confront the cruel governor Ezzelino, going in search of him in Verona.
The other friars, realizing the theological depth of Brother Anthony’s sermons and the sanctity of his conduct, asked Saint Francis for permission for this brother to teach them sacred doctrine.
His teaching among his brothers was short-lived, for in 1224, the holy religious was sent to preach in the south of France, where the Cathar or Albigensian heresy was spreading. For three years he traveled through the cities of Montpellier, Toulouse, Le Puy, and Limoges, bringing them the light of the true Faith. From many of his listeners he received expressions of sincere repentance; from others, contempt and derision, although his preaching was accompanied by numerous miracles.
In Toulouse, for example, a Cathar who persisted in denying the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist proposed a challenge: for three days, he would leave a mule without any food, and then take it to the public square, where Friar Anthony would present him with the custody of the Blessed Sacrament, while the heretic offered him a pile of hay. This was done and the animal, although hungry, did not taste the food without first bowing deeply to the Eucharistic Jesus. Many were converted at the sight of such a miracle.
There was no church capable of holding the crowds – sometimes 20 thousand faithful – that came to hear him. And Pope Gregory IX himself, after hearing one of his Lenten sermons, called it the “Ark of the Testament” and the “Scripture of the Holy Scriptures.”
Patron of the Armed Forces
St. Anthony, besides being the “Hammer of heretics” and the “Ark of the Testament”, is venerated as the Patron Saint of the Armed Forces. The reason for this, among others, lies in the fact that St. Anthony was once the object of an act of special devotion on the part of a Spanish admiral.
A Spanish squadron was besieging the city of Oran, in Algeria, and there was no way to achieve an effective result. So the admiral went to an image of St. Anthony, placed his admiral’s hat on it, gave him the insignia of command, and asked him to attack Oran. The Moors fled unexpectedly, and when questioned, they said that a friar dressed in the admiral’s hat had been among them and had threatened Oran with fire from Heaven, and because of this, they had thought it more prudent to leave.
This aspect of the “Hammer of Heretics,” which at the same time instills terror in the Moors and presents itself to an infidel city by threatening it with the fire of Heaven, has all been abolished. These aspects are not known and are not emphasized in this sort of miraculous devotion to him. We see, then, the lamentable deterioration of devotion to the saints in our days. That is, how they no longer represent, in the popular legend created around them, true sanctity.
Who, for example, will comment on the life of Saint Anthony, the following fact that occurred in Colonnial Rio de Janeiro a former Capital of Brazil?
Rio de Janeiro was surrounded by French Calvinists and was almost completely surrendered, since the city no longer had the means to resist. The friars, then, took the image of Saint Anthony, went down the hill with it, put it on a pillar that was there, and the simple exhibition of the image, in a wonderful way, communicated such ardor in the city that a great number of young men enlisted. It was possible to reorganize the resistance to the French who, after a short time, left.
In this way, Rio de Janeiro did not become Calvinist, and perhaps with repercussions in all Latin American History, and consequently in all Church History, because of this symbolic action of the marvelous presence of Saint Anthony.
Friar Anthony realized that his end was near and prepared his soul for the final battle, full of confidence in Mary Most Holy, to whom he devoted great devotion and who had made him so enthusiastic during his earthly pilgrimage. After confessing and receiving the Holy Oils, his spirit flew to the Most High to receive the crown of glory reserved for him. It was June 13, 1231, and Brother Anthony was only 36 years old.
A little less than a year after his death, on May 30 of the following year, he was canonized by Pope Gregory IX, thus allowing the first anniversary of his death to be solemnly celebrated by the Church. And in 1263, when his relics were transferred to the Basilica built in his honor in Padua, St. Bonaventure, then General of the Order, found the saint’s tongue intact. Time had not dared to corrupt that victorious instrument of struggle that had freed so many souls from the clutches of sin!
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Text extracted, with adaptations, from the magazine Heralds of the Gospel, June 2012, and from conferences by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira.
Compiled by Camille Mittermeier