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Padua
Photo: Wikimedia Commons · Basilica of Saint Anthony of Padua

Padua

Anthony, finder of lost things · Italy

Anthony was born in Lisbon and became a Franciscan after seeing the bodies of the first Franciscan martyrs brought home from Morocco. He turned out to be a gifted preacher, and huge crowds came to hear him in Padua, where he stood up for the poor and spoke out against usury. He died in 1231, aged about 36, and was made a saint within a year. Today pilgrims lay their hands on his tomb in the great basilica that the people of Padua simply call 'Il Santo'.

Did you know?

People still pray to him when they have lost something. His tongue is kept in a reliquary in the basilica.

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An inspiring story

The kitchen help who could preach

What if your gift is hidden until someone asks?

Anthony was a highly educated priest from Lisbon, but in the friars' house in Italy nobody knew. He washed dishes and helped in the kitchen. In 1222, at an ordination in Forlì, it turned out that no one had prepared a sermon. Everyone refused, and finally they asked the quiet brother from the kitchen just to say something simple. Anthony began, and the room fell silent: he spoke with such depth and fire that everyone was amazed. Why had he never shown it? Because he had not been looking for a stage, only for a place to serve.

From then on he preached all over Italy. Faithful in small things, ready when the moment came.

Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much.Luke 16:10

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