I'm ploughing through my Pope Benedict book, which I mean to finish before Christmas, hence the profusion of Doctor posts. All these posts find their way into the Doctors page on this blog. We know Saint Anthony very well from his images in the churches, usually carrying several lilies (a symbol of his purity) and an open book with the Christ-child sitting on it (a reference to a documented sighting by his confreres). One thing about Saint Anthony that very few of us seem to know is that he was a high intellect and, I remember reading somewhere, had the rare gift of a photographic memory. He was known as a phenomenal preacher, which is the background behind those stories and legends where he is said to have preached to the fish when the people refused to listen. He was a well-known miracle-worker even in his own lifetime and I think its this, together with his wonderful memory, that gives us the idea that he is to be called upon over lost items. For, you see, if you can't remember where you left your keys, he probably does.
Anthony was born Fernando (Fernão, Ferdinand) to a noble family of Lisbon in about AD 1195 and early in life joined the Augustinian canons at Saint Vincent's monastery outside Lisbon city and later at the community of the Holy Cross in Coimbra, Portugal's university city. He devoted his time to the study of Holy Scripture and the work of the Fathers of the Church. While in Coimbra, in 1220, the relics of Franciscan missionaries who had travelled to Islamic Morocco and there been martyred were exposed for the veneration of the faithful. Fernando was released from the Augustinian community and joined Saint Francis' Friars Minor, desiring to imitate the martyrs in their zeal for the Faith, and taking the name Anthony. But illness forced him to change direction and, in 1221, he found himself in Assisi and before Saint Francis himself. He then lived a hidden life among the other friars, until a chance event (when a preacher was not available for an ordination and he was asked to step in) demonstrated his extraordinary ability as a preacher and teacher. The Franciscans immediately gave him the appropriate duties and he became famous throughout Italy and France, probably the first of the theology instructors of the Order of Friars Minor. With Francis' own blessing, Anthony laid the foundations for Franciscan theology, which reached great heights with Saint Bonaventure and Blessed Duns Scotus. Anthony eventually became provincial superior of the Order in northern Italy, retiring finally to the region of Padua, near Venice, where he died in AD 1231. For his prodigious ability with Scripture, the Holy Father Gregory IX called him the Ark of the Testament, and a stream of miracles made him officially a Saint only a year after his death.
Late in his life, Anthony had ordered two sets of sermons, one for Sundays and one on the Saints, for the use of the Franciscan preachers and teachers. In these, he interpreted Scripture so powerfully, bringing the Gospel to life so well, that the Holy Father Pius XII, in naming him a Doctor of the Church, called him the Doctor Evangelicus, the Evangelical Doctor. It is possible to purchase both these sets as single volumes; see here, for example. Anthony speaks of prayer as a relationship that engenders a conversation with God. Pope Benedict describes the sequence of prayer recommended by Anthony as opening up one's heart to God's presence, then making that conversation, then presenting our needs to Him, and finally praising and thanking Him. Knowledge of God and of Christ obtained through prayer rather than study, and better obtained through prayer, continues to feature in later Franciscan theology. Anthony also urged the people to charity, by which they could befriend the poor, who would later receive them well in their turn. Anthony's teaching was christocentric, and invites us to contemplate the mysteries of the life of Christ, in its humility and love, with a focus on the Nativity of Christ and His Sacrifice on the Cross. In Christ, we find the love and gratitude we owe to Almighty God and the love we owe to our fellow human beings.
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