St Antony of Padua (13th June)

St Antony was born in Lisbon in about 1195 and became an Augustinian Canon Regular, first in Lisbon and then at the monastery of Santa Cruz at Coimbra.  During his novitiate at Coimbra, he received the thorough grounding in theology and biblical exegesis that was to sustain him for the rest of his life. 

His transfer to the Franciscan Order was probably a matter of chance.  He became acquainted with a small band of friars that had come to Portugal in 1217 and settled in the little chapel of St Antony of Egypt at Olivais near his monastery of Santa Cruz.   He must have been impressed by the austerity of their lives, which must have offered a stark contrast to the lax lives led by many of his superiors at Santa Cruz.

He was particularly impressed by the example of the Franciscan proto-martyrs, whose relics were brought from Morocco, the place of their martyrdom, to Santa Cruz in 1220.  He therefore transferred to the Franciscans on condition that he too would be sent as a missionary to Morocco, where he hoped to die for Christ.  (He had been christened Ferdinand, but he took the name of Antony in honour of the dedication of the friars' chapel at Olivais). 

He duly set out for Morocco but was forced to return due to ill health.  His ship was driven by a storm to Sicily, and he made his way from there to Assisi to attend the so-called Chapter of Mats in 1221. 

St Antony in Italy

The Chapter of Mats at the Portiuncula, outside Assisi was St Antony's first experience of the mainstream of his new Order, and it must have been a difficult one since St Francis, its charismatic founder, was severely incapacitated by ill-health, and since the contentious matter of the formulation of the Franciscan Rule was the central topic at the meeting. 

It was by no means clear what St Antony would do next.  However, he seems to have been an ordained priest by this time and the friars at the hermitage of Monte Paolo near Forli, who were all lat brothers, needed a priest who could celebrate Mass for them.  He duly joined their community.  Some 15 months later he was asked to preach and his talent for preaching suddenly became manifest. 

He was first asked to use his talents by preaching against the heretics of Romagna.  Then, in 1223, St Francis gave him permission to teach theology to the friars at Bologna.  (This marked a change of direction for St Francis, who had railed against the studium at Bologna when he visited the city in 1221).  In 1224, he was assigned to Southern France, the centre of the mission against the Cathars.  St Antony returned to Italy in 1227 to attend the General Chapter following St Francis' death and duringthis meeting he was elected Provincial Minister of Lombardy. 

St Antony resigned at the General Chapter that was held in Assisi in 1230, just before leaving for Rome as part of the delegation that asked Pope Gregory IX for his elucidation of the Franciscan Rule.  (This elucidation that consolidated the "conventual" character of the order).  He then retired to Padua, where his preaching and teaching brought great renown to the city. 

The last few months of his life were perhaps his most productive.  During Lent 1231, his daily outdoor preaching led to a religious revival in the city, and the friars were overwhelmed by people streaming to their tiny church of Santa Maria Mater Domini to make confession. 

It was during this busy period that St Antony also  prepared a number of his sermons for publication as the Sermones Dominicales (i.e. for the Sundays of the liturgical year) and the Sermones Festivi (for the feasts of the saints).  These sermons were published in a form that could be used to inspire the preaching of the friars.  They illustrated St Antony's own brand of Franciscan theology, which was rooted in a profound love of Christ, reverence for and deep knowledge of the Gospels, adherence to poverty and to the joy of abandoning oneself totally to God.  Perhaps surprisingly, the sermons make no mention of the recently canonised St Francis. 

Unlike St Francis, St Antony was a cleric, and he had joined the Order at a time when it was becoming clericalised.  Thus, although he was a contemporary of St Francis, he belongs to the second generation of Franciscans, to the new learned and clerical element.

Exhausted by so much activity, Antony began a retreat just outside Padua but became ill.  Returning to Padua, he stopped to rest at a convent of the Poor Clares at Arcella, where he died.  The nuns and local residents pressed to keep his body but, despite an armed insurrection that lasted several days, the bishop and the civic authorities ensured that it was buried at Santa Maria Mater Domini. 

Cult of St Antony

In the wake of the recent religious revival, there were copious reports of miracles took place beside the tomb.  The Paduan authorities, with the support of the University of Padua, fanned this wave of popular devotion to St Antony and formally promoted his canonisation. This was duly achieved only a year after his death.  Pope Gregory IX, who was in Spoleto when the canonisation process was successfully concluded, conducted the service of canonisation in the Duomo there in 1232. 

Work on what was to become the huge basilica of St Antony which would incorporate Santa Maria Mater Domini as its left transept, began in 1238.  It was interrupted in 1237-56 when the fiercely anti-papal Ezzelino da Romana occupied the city.  The city's liberation in 1256 and Ezzolino's death in 1259 were  ascribed to the intercession of St Antony, and his cult was revived.  His relics were translated with great ceremony from the left transept to a site in front of the high altar in 1263.  His tongue, which was found to be incorrupt at this time, was enclosed in a separate reliquary.

Cult in Spoleto

The cult of St Antony in Spoleto revolved around an image that was believed to be an authentic portrait of the saint: according to tradition, the people of Padua had presented it to Pope Gregory IX when he was in Spoleto for the canonisation.  This image is recorded in a chapel in SS Simone e Giuda that was dedicated to the saint from  the 15th century.  When the church was suppressed in 1860, the heavily repainted image passed into private ownership.

In 1602, St Antony was designated as one of the patron saints of Spoleto at the behest of the friars of SS Simone e Giuda.  The cult was reinforced in 1698 when the Princess Olimpia Giustiani Barberini (the wife of Maffeo Barberini, Prince of Palestrina and son of Taddeo, the nephew of Pope Urban VIII) gave a relic of the cranium of St Antony in a precious reliquary to the friars and it was translated with great ceremony to SS Simone e Giuda.  The friars took the reliquary with them when they moved to Sant' Ansano in 1896, and they duly changed the dedication of their new church to SS Ansano e Antonio.  Unfortunately, the venerated relic of St Antony was proved to be false in 1981, when the body of the saint at Padua was investigated and found to be complete.