Saint Anthony was canonized
(declared a saint) less than
one year after his death.
There is perhaps no more
loved and admired saint in the
Catholic Church than Saint
Anthony of Padua, a Doctor of
the Church. Though his work
was in Italy, he was born in
Portugal. He first joined the
Augustinian Order and then
left it and joined the
Franciscan Order in 1221, when
he was 26 years old. The
reason he became a Franciscan
was because of the death of
the five Franciscan
protomartyrs -- St. Bernard,
St. Peter, St. Otho, St.
Accursius, and St. Adjutus --
who shed their blood for the
Catholic Faith in the year
1220, in Morocco, in North
Africa, and whose headless and
mutilated bodies had been
brought to St. Anthony’s
monastery on their way back
for burial. St. Anthony became
a Franciscan in the hope of
shedding his own blood and
becoming a martyr. He lived
only ten years after joining
the Franciscan Order.
So simple and resounding
was his teaching of the
Catholic Faith, so that the
most unlettered and innocent
might understand it, that he
was made a Doctor of the
Church by Pope Pius XII in
1946. Saint Anthony was only
36 years old when he died. He
is called the “hammer of the
Heretics” His great protection
against their lies and deceits
in the matter of Christian
doctrine was to utter, simply
and innocently, the Holy Name
of Mary. When St. Anthony of
Padua found he was preaching
the true Gospel of the
Catholic Church to heretics
who would not listen to him,
he then went out and preached
it to the fishes. This was
not, as liberals and
naturalists are trying to say,
for the instruction of the
fishes, but rather for the
glory of God, the delight of
the angels, and the easing of
his own heart. St. Anthony
wanted to profess the Catholic
Faith with his mind and his
heart, at every moment.
He is typically depicted
with a book and the Infant
Child Jesus, to whom He
miraculously appeared, and is
commonly referred to today as
the "finder of lost articles
." Upon exhumation, some 336
years after his death, his
body was found to be
corrupted, yet his tongue was
totally incorrupt, so perfect
were the teachings that had
been formed upon it.
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