Saint Anthony's Day!

 

Lisbon, Portugal (Photo Credit: Ron McGuire)

Do you see the building on the left? That is the home of St. Anthony of Padua, today's saint. In the center of the picture, you can see his parish church, where he was baptized. How convenient it must have been for his family to live so close to the church!

When we visited Portugal in 2017, I learned that the Portuguese call him St. Anthony of Lisbon because that's where he was born, and the Italians call him St. Anthony of Padua because that's where he's buried. Both the Portuguese and Italians claim him as their own.

St. Anthony is best known as the intercessor before the Throne of God for lost items. Once, on an airplane, I sat next to a Jewish lady from New Jersey, who mentioned that she prays to St. Anthony when she loses something. She told me proudly, "I bet I'm the only Jewish woman with a devotion to St. Anthony!"

Prayer: "St. Anthony, since God has given you the power of recovering objects gone astray, I come to you with confidence to aid me in the search for all that I may have lost. Above all, let me find sanctifying grace and the friendship of God if I've had the misfortune of losing them; give back to me my former fervor in the Divine service and in the practice of Christian virtues; obtain for me, finally, what I am most wanting in: lively faith, perfect docility to the inspirations of grace, distaste for the vain pleasure of the world and an ardent desire for the ineffable joys of a blessed eternity. Amen."