13th June: St Anthony of Padua

Today is the feast day of St Anthony of Padua. Here's all you need to know:

1. This saint's name at birth was Fernando Martins de Bulhões. He is also known as Anthony of Lisbon, since he was born in that city.
2. He left his wealthy and noble family at the age of fifteen to become a monk with the community of Canons Regular at the Augustinian Abbey of Saint Vincent on the outskirts of Lisbon. His family and friends used to visit him a lot which distracted him from devoting his life to God, so he asked to be moved to the Abbey of Santa Cruz in Coimbra.
3. Inspired by tales of Franciscan monks being beheaded in Morocco, he left the Canons Regular and joined the Franciscan Order. It was at this point that he took the name of Anthony after Saint Anthony the Great. He set sail for Morocco (sounds like a death wish to me!) on a mission but rather than getting his head cut off he became ill and had to sail back to Portugal. He looked so ill that the convent he'd been assigned to rejected him. He ended up living in a hermit's cell.
4. Anthony was known for his preaching. Most of the time, he attracted huge crowds to listen to his sermons but on one occasion he had a tough crowd of heretics who refused to listen to him, so he famously went to the water and preached to the fish. The fish listened to him to glorify God. It was claimed when Anthony's body was dug up thirty years after his death, that his tongue was the one part of him that hadn't rotted away and looked as if it was still alive - a sign he'd been a gifted preacher.
5. He is best known as the patron saint of lost things. “St. Anthony, please look around; something is lost and must be found,” is the prayer to say when you've lost something. This patronage started in Bologna when one of Anthony's students stole his annotated book of psalms. When Anthony prayed for the book's return, the thief was moved by God to give it back. The book in question is said to be preserved in the Franciscan friary in Bologna.
6. Other things he is patron of include: lost people, lost souls, American Indians; amputees; animals; barrenness; Brazil; elderly people; fishermen; harvests; horses; mail; mariners; oppressed people; poor people; Portugal; shipwrecks; starvation; travel hosts (because he was placed in charge of his abbey's hospitality); travellers; Watermen and Cemetery workers.
7. One of Saint Anthony's miracles was to get a Horse, which hadn't eaten for three days, to bow down before the sacrament before eating the food placed nearby.
8. In 1231, he went down with a disease called Ergotism, which is basically food poisoning from eating fungus infested grains. This disease is also known as St Anthony's Fire. He went on a retreat to get well, but died on the journey back to Padua aged just 35. According to legend, when he died, children cried in the streets and the bells of the churches rang of their own accord.
9. Anthony was canonized by Pope Gregory IX on 30 May 1232, less than a year after his death.
10. His attributes in art include fish, a white lily stalk representing purity and a flaming heart representing his fervour.

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