Devotion to Saint Anthony: prayer for family thanks

O dear Saint Anthony, we turn to you to ask for your protection over our whole family.

You, called by God, left your home to consecrate your life for the good of your neighbor, and to many families who came to your aid, even with prodigious interventions, to restore serenity and peace everywhere.

O our Patron, intervene in our favor: obtain from God the health of the body and the spirit, give us an authentic communion that knows how to open itself to love for others; let our family be, following the example of the holy Family of Nazareth, a small domestic church, and that every family in the world becomes a sanctuary of life and love. Amen.

SANT'ANTONIO DA PADOVA - HISTORY AND HOLINESS
Little is known about the childhood of Saint Anthony of Padua and from Lisbon. The same date of birth, which a later tradition places on August 15, 1195 - the day of the Assumption into Heaven of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is not certain. What is certain is that Fernando, this is his first name, was born in Lisbon, capital of the kingdom of Portugal, of noble parents: Martino de 'Buglioni and Donna Maria Taveira.

Already around the age of fifteen he enters the Augustinian monastery of San Vicente di Fora, just outside Lisbon, and so he himself comments on the event:

“Whoever ascribes to a religious order to do penance there is similar to the pious women who, on Easter morning, went to the tomb of Christ. Considering the mass of stone that closed the mouth, they said: who will roll the stone? Great is the stone, that is, the harshness of convent life: the difficult entry, the long vigils, the frequency of fasting, the thriftiness of food, the rough clothing, the harsh discipline, the voluntary poverty, the ready obedience ... Who will roll this stone for us at the entrance to the tomb? An angel who came down from heaven, the evangelist tells us, rolled the stone and sat on it. Here: the angel is the grace of the Holy Spirit, who strengthens fragility, every roughness softens, every bitterness makes sweet with his love. "

The monastery of San Vicente was too close to his birthplace and Fernando, who sought detachment from the world to devote himself to prayer, study and contemplation, was regularly visited and disturbed by relatives and friends. After a couple of years he decides to move to the Augustinian monastery of Santa Croce in Coimbra, where he remains for eight years of intense studies of the Holy Scriptures, at the end of which he is ordained a priest in 1220.

In those years in Italy, in Assisi, another young man from a rich family embraced a new ideal of life: he was St. Francis, some followers of whom in 1219, after having crossed all of southern France, also came to Coimbra to continue towards the chosen mission land: Morocco.

Shortly thereafter, Fernando learned of the martyrdom of these Franciscan proto-martyr saints whose mortal remains were exposed for the veneration of the faithful in Coimbra. Faced with that shining example of the sacrifice of his own life for Christ, Fernando, now twenty-five, decides to leave the Augustinian habit to put on the rough Franciscan habit and, to make the abandonment of his previous life more radical, he decides to assume the Antonio's name, in memory of the great oriental monk. Thus he moved from the rich Augustinian monastery to the very poor Franciscan hermitage of Monte Olivais.

The desire of the new Franciscan friar Antonio was to emulate the first Franciscan martyrs in Morocco and he left for that land but was immediately seized by malarial fevers, which forced him to re-ship to return home. God's will was different and a storm forces the ship that transported him to dock in Milazzo near Messina in Sicily, where he joins the local Franciscans.

Here he learns that St. Francis had convened a General Chapter of the friars in Assisi for the following Pentecost and in the spring of 1221 he set out for Umbria where he met Francis in the famous "Chapter of Mats".

From the General Chapter Antonio moved to Romagna sent to the hermitage of Montepaolo as a priest for his brothers, hiding with great humility his noble origins and above all his extraordinary preparation.

In 1222, however, by certainly supernatural will, he was forced to hold an impromptu spiritual conference during a priestly ordination in Rimini. The amazement for so much intelligence and science was general and the admiration even greater so that the confreres unanimously elect him Preacher.

From that moment his public ministry began, which saw him preach incessantly and work miracles in Italy and in France (1224 - 1227), where the Cathar heresy, missionary of the Gospel and of the Franciscan message of Peace and Good, swarmed then.

From 1227 to 1230 as Provincial Minister of Northern Italy he traveled the length and breadth of the territory of the vast province preaching to the population, visiting convents and founding new ones. During these years he wrote and published the Sunday Sermons.

In his wanderings he also arrives in Padua for the first time in 1228, a year in which, however, he does not stop but goes to Rome, called there by the general minister, Fra Giovanni Parenti, who wanted to consult him on matters relating to the government of the Order.

In that same year he was held in Rome by Pope Gregory IX for the preaching of the spiritual exercises of the papal curia, an extraordinary occasion that led the Pope to define it as a treasure chest of the Sacred Scriptures.

After preaching he goes to Assisi for the solemn canonization of Francis and finally returns to Padua where he makes a base to continue his preaching in the province of Emilia. These are the years of the preaching against usury and of the extraordinary episode of the miracle of the usurer's heart.

In 1230, on the occasion of a new General Chapter in Assisi, Antonio resigned from the office of provincial minister to be appointed General Preacher and was again sent to Rome for a mission to Pope Gregory IX.

Antonio alternated his preaching with teaching theology to priests and to those who aspired to become one. He was the first teacher of theology of the Franciscan Order and also the first great writer. For this educational work, Antonio also obtained the approval of the Seraphic Father Francesco who wrote to him thus: “To Brother Antonio, my bishop, Brother Francis wishes health. I like that you teach theology to the friars, as long as the spirit of godly devotion is not extinguished in this study, as the rule requires. "

Antonio returned to Padua at the end of 1230 and never left it until his blessed transit.

In the Paduan years, very few, but of extraordinary intensity, he concluded the drafting of the Sunday sermons and began the drafting of those for the Feasts of the Saints.

In the spring of 1231 he decided to preach every day of Lent in an extraordinary Lent, which represented the beginning of the Christian rebirth of the city of Padua. Strong, once again, was the preaching against usury and in defense of the weakest and the poorest.

In that period, the meeting with Ezzelino III da Romano, a ferocious Veronese tyrant, took place to plead for the liberation of the Count of the S. Bonifacio family.

At the end of Lent in the months of May and June 1231 he retires to Camposampiero, in the countryside, about 30 km from the city of Padua, where during the day he spends his time in a small hut built on a walnut tree. In the cell of the convent, where he lived when he was not retiring on the walnut tree, the Child Jesus appears to him.

From here Antonio, weakened by illness, leaves dying for Padua on June 13 and gives his soul back to God in the small convent of the Clarisse all'Arcella, at the gates of the city and before his most holy soul, freed from the prison of the flesh, was absorbed in the abyss of light pronounces the words "I see my Lord".

On the death of the Saint a dangerous dispute broke out over the possession of his mortal remains. A canonical trial was required before the Bishop of Padua, in the presence of the provincial minister of the friars, so that he would recognize that he respected the will of the Holy Friar, who wished to be buried in the Church of Sancta Maria Mater Domini, his community of belonging, which happened, after the solemn funeral, on the Tuesday following the pious transit, on 17 June 1231, the day in which the first miracle after death occurs.

Less than a year after May 30, 1232 Pope Gregory IX raised Antonio to the honors of the altars, fixing the feast on the day of his birth in heaven: June 13.