13 June, Antonio, Cardinal Bacci: Meditations for Every Day

St. Anthony of Lisbon/Padua

1. St. Anthony was not born a saint, but he became one as the result of prayer, self-denial and penance, which attracted to him God’s many graces.

On a summer evening in the year 1219 five mendicant friars arrived at the gate of the ancient Abbey of Coimbra, asking for hospitality from the Canons Regular of St. Augustine. They received a whole-hearted welcome. When they had refreshed themselves, they revealed that they belonged to the new Religious Family founded by St. Francis of Assisi. They said that they hoped to reach Morocco in order to convert the Saracens and, if it was God’s pleasure, to receive the palm of martyrdom. Amongst the Canons Regular who were listening to them was the youthful Anthony, who had already consecrated his life to God.

Not long afterwards this little band of Franciscan missionaries was cut down by the scimitars of the infidels and became a glorious band of martyrs. Their bodies were brought back in triumph to the Abbey which they had visited and there they were buried with great honour. When they were going away, Anthony had listened enthusiastically to all that they had said and felt a noble envy. Now that he was in the presence of their hallowed remains, he experienced an urge to follow in their footsteps.

St. Anthony joined the Franciscan Order and joyfully set off for the coast of Morocco in search of missionary labour and of martyrdom. But when he landed on African soil he was struck down by a serious attack of malaria which compelled him to return to his native land.

There is no foreseeing the designs of Divine Providence. The boat in which Anthony was travelling was battered by a tempest and had to go ashore in Italy. Henceforward Italy was Anthony’s second fatherland. It was here that he conducted his remarkable and fruitful apostolate and slowly accomplished his martyrdom by the daily struggle for perfection.

This is a headline for us. We may not have been called to go and spread the faith amongst the infidels at the risk of martyrdom. But we have all been called to a state of holiness. Perfection, moreover, is a gradual martyrdom. The heroic daily effort which is required to abstain from sin and to overcome the wayward tendencies of our nature can fairly be said to be no less difficult than a bloody martyrdom. This is the kind of martyrdom which we must all endure. St. Anthony will obtain for us the grace to undergo it with the same generosity and constancy which he displayed.

2. On the 13th of June in the year 1231 a crowd of children set out from the nearby convent of Arcella and entered Padua crying out: "The Saint is dead!" The entire city was plunged into mourning because its Saint was dead. Anthony had traversed Italy, converting heretics, recalling innumerable sinners to repentance, working miracles, giving peace to souls and to strife-torn cities. Soon he had felt that his young life was already running out as the result of labours and austerity, and he had determined to hide himself in a little Franciscan monastery at Camposampiero near Padua. In order to shelter himself from the world as far as possible, he built a little cell in the bifurcation of the branches of a giant walnut tree. Here he spent his last days in prayer and contemplation, joining with the birds in the songs of praise to God. He was no longer a man, but an angel in human form. Crowds of the faithful flocked round this tree to hear once again the voice of the Saint calling on them to practise virtue and to follow the road to Heaven. It was in this little nest, at thirty-six years of age, that his life slowly flickered out, consumed not so much by disease as by a burning love for God and for his fellowman.

Let us pray that we may obtain a spark of this love which will detach us from the world, cause us to belong entirely to God, and make us generous apostles in our work for the salvations of souls.

3. Jesus, my God, I love You above all things.