The Brief of Saint Anthony of Padua. A DEVOTION AGAINST DEMON DISORDERS
This devotion consists in carrying on him, printed on paper or on canvas, an image of the Holy Cross with the words that recall an expression of Revelation 5,5: "Here is the Cross of the Lord: flee enemy powers: Leo wins of the tribe of Judah, of the lineage of David. Alleluia".
The "Brief of Saint Anthony" is the formula of prayer that the Saint used to bless the faithful and remove from them, by virtue of the Sign of the Cross, all sorts of evils and temptations. The Friars Minor propagated it in the world. He has always been in great veneration among the Faithful who wear him and place him in their homes to obtain the protection of the Saint in spiritual and temporal dangers.
The Brief of Sant'Antonio di Padova, according to the testimony of Giovanni Rigaude (XNUMXth century), would have originated from the following prodigy:
“In Portugal lived a poor woman very often molested by the devil; one day her husband, taken by anger, rebelled him by insulting her, and the woman left the house to go and drown herself in a river. It was the day of the feast of Blessed Antonio, June 13, and passing in front of the Church, he entered it to give you a prayer to the Saint.
While praying, heartbroken for the struggle she was fighting inside, she fell asleep and in a dream she saw Blessed Antonio who said to her: "Get up or woman and take this policy with which you will be free from the harassment of the devil". He awoke and with great wonder he found a parchment in his hands with the inscription: “Ecce Crucem Domini; fugite partes adversae! Vicit Leo de Tribu Juda, radix David, Alleluja! " - “Here is the Cross of the Lord! Flee enemy powers: the Lion of Judah, Jesus Christ, the lineage of David wins. Hallelujah! " At that sight the woman felt the soul of Hope fill for her own liberation, clutched the prodigious note to her heart and, as long as she brought it, the devil no longer brought her any harassment.
The Franciscans took care to spread this devotion by urging the Faithful to wear the Brief, and many wonders are said to have been done for reasons of this. Here is another one, among many. A ship of the French Navy, Africaine, in the winter of 1708 in the North Sea was surprised by the storm, and the violence of the hurricane was such that the shipwreck seemed certain. Lost all human hope of salvation, the chaplain in the name of the whole crew resorted to the thaumaturge of Padua: he took a piece of paper, wrote the words of the short and threw them into the sea shouting with confidence: "O great Saint Anthony answer our prayers! ".
The wind calmed down, the sky cleared and the ship happily reached the port, and sailors immediately went to the first church to thank the saint.
