Saint Antony of Padua : the miracle worker (1195-1231)

LIBRARY

OF THE

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.

Class

THE FRIAR SAINTS SERIES

Editors for the Franciscan Lives
The Very Rev. Fr. OSMUND, O.F.M., Provincial, and C. M. ANTONY

Editors for the Dominican Lives
The Rev. Fr. BEDE JARRETT, O.P., and C. M. ANTONY

ST. ANTONY OF PADUA

THE MIRACLE-WORKER
1195-1231

Tives of tb<t Triar Saints

Editors for the Franciscan Lives :—
The Very Rev. Fr. PROVINCIAL, O.F.M., and C. M. ANTONY.

Editors for the Dominican Lives:—
The Rev. Fr. BEDE JARRETT, O.P., and C. M. ANTONY.

Dominican. Franciscan.

St. Thomas Aquinas. By St. Bonaventure. By Fr.
Fr. PLACID CONWAY, O.P. LAURENCE COSTELLOE,
O.F.M.

St. Vincent Ferrer. By St. Antony of Padua. By

Fr. STANISLAUS HOGAN, C. M. ANTONY.
O.P.

The four volumes as above are issued in cloth, price is, 6d.
each, also in leather, price zs. 6d. net each.

St. Pius V. By C. M. St. John Capistran. By

ANTONY. Fr. VINCENT FITZ-

[In the Press. GERALD, O.F.M.

[In preparation.

The following volumes have also been proposed : —

St. Antoninus of Florence. St. Bernardine of Siena.

By Fr. BEDE JARRETT, By Miss M. WARD.
O.P.

St. Raymond of Penna- St. Leonard of Port-
fort. By Fr. THOMAS Maurice. By Fr. ALEX-

SCHWERTNER, O.P. ANDER MURPHY, O.F.M.

St. Louis Bertrand. By St. Peter of Alcantara. By

the Rev. Mother MARY Fr. EGBERT CARROL,

REGINALD, O.S.D. O.F.M.

LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.,

39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON,
NEW YORK, BOMBAY AND CALCUTTA.

Photo : A linari.

ST. ANTONY OF PADUA. (EARLIEST KNOWN
EXISTING PORTRAIT.) FROM THE FRESCO
(SCUOLA DI GIOTTO) IN CHOIR OF BASILICA,
PADUA.

SAINT
ANTONY OF PADUA

THE MIRACLE-WORKER

(1195-1231)

BY

C M. ANTONY WooAt*tl(

, Antoni, gratiae Christi Patrocinium"

WITH FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS

LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.

FOURTH AVENUE AND 30TH STREET, NEW YORK

LONDON, BOMBAY AND CALCUTTA

1911

JKhil ®b*tat:

INNOCENTIUS APAP, O.P.,

Censor deputatus

Imprimatur :

F. OSMUNDUS COONEY, O.F.M.,
Provincialis.

Imprimatur :

V : :•*: :..:Vic. Gen.

WESTMOKASTERII,
die 8 Junii, 1911.

PREFATORY NOTICE.

FOUR volumes of the " Friar Saints " Series
are now published, and two more will be
issued shortly, one Dominican dealing with
"St. Pius V.," by C. M. Antony; and one
Franciscan dealing with " St. John Capistran,"
by Fr. Vincent Fitzgerald, O.F.M.

The Series, which has received the warm
approval of the authorities of both Orders in
England, Ireland, and America, is earnestly
recommended to Tertiaries, and to the
Catholic public generally.

The Master-General of the Dominicans at
Rome, sending his blessing to the writers and
readers of the " Friar Saints" Series, says:
" The Lives should teach their readers not
only to know the Saints, but also to imitate
them ".

The Minister-General of the Franciscans,
Fr. Denis Schuler, sends his blessing and best
wishes for the success of the " Lives of the
Friar Saints ".

FR. OSMUND, O.F.M., PROVINCIAL,
FR. BEDE JARRETT, O.P.,
C. M. ANTONY,

Editors.

223998

TO

FR. RAYMOND GISCARD, O.F.M.

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTORY.

CHAP. PAGE

I. (1195-1220) *« O SIDUS HISPANLB" . . i

II. (1220-1222) "GEMMA PAUPERTATIS" . . 9

III. (1222-1224) " NOVA Lux ITALLE " 22

IV. (1224-1226) " MALLEUS H^ERETICORUM " . 32
V. (1226-1230) " FCEDERIS ARCA "... 52

VI. (1230-1231) *• PR^DICATOR EGREQIE" . . 69

VII. (1231-1232) " ANTONI BEATISSIME" . . 85

vii

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

ST. ANTONY OF PADUA. (Earliest known
existing Portrait.) From the Fresco
(Scuola di Giotto) in Choir of Basilica,

Padua Frontispiece

From a Photograph by Alinari.

CHAPEL AND SHRINE OF ST. ANTONY, in

the Basilica del Santo, Padua . . To face p. 58
From a Photograph by Alinari.

FROM A THIRTEENTH CENTURY MS. OF ST.
ANTONY'S SERMONS, preserved in the
Antonian Library, Basilica del Santo,
Padua ....... ,, 76

DEATH AND BURIAL OF ST. ANTONY. (From
a Fresco by Girolamo del Santo), in the
Scuola del Santo, Padua ... ,, 98

From a Photograph by Alinari.

INTRODUCTORY.

11 Sancti Antonii de Padua Vitae Duae, quarum altera
hncusque inedita.r Edidit notis et commentario
illustravit, Le"on de Kerval. (Paris: Librairie Fisch-
bacher, 1904.) l

11 V evolution et le developpement du merveilleux dans les
legendes de St. Antoine de Padoue" par Le"on de Kerval.
(Paris : Librairie Fischbacher, 1906.)

" St. Antoine de Padoue, 1195-1231," par M. 1'Abbe" Albert
Lepitre. (4me Edition. Paris: Librairie Victor Le-
coffre, 1905. Collection : " Les Saints ".)

" St. Antoine de Padoue, Thaumaturge Franciscain," par
P. Nicolas Dal Gal, O.F.M. ; traduit de 1'italien par le
P. Theobald Aumasson, O.F.M. , de la province Saint-
Louis en Aquitaine. (Rome : 12 Via Giusti, 1907.)

" St. Antoine de Padoue, d'aprcs Its documents primitifs,"
par P. Leopold de Che*rance", O.S.F.C. (Paris :
Poussielgue, 1906.)

" The Life of St. Antony of Padua" by Jean Rigauld,
Friar Minor and Bishop of Treguier ; translated into
English by an English Franciscan. (London : Catholic
Truth Society, 1904.)

THE Life of St. Antony of Padua is extraordinarily
difficult to write for two reasons ; the first of
which is that it has so long been shrouded in
the mists of legend that without critical study and
a remorseless process of exclusion it is impossible
to arrive at the real facts of his history. It is

i Critical edition of original documents,
ix

x INTRODUCTORY.

obvious at the outset that this process, involving as
it does the testing of all known facts, especially
miraculous facts, by the original thirteenth century
documents, will be to many extremely painful, as
by this means many of the more familiar stories
of our Saint are relegated to the realm of legend.
At the same time all true lovers of the Saint of
Miracles must rejoice to see the tinsel of tradition,
as unnecessary as useless, stripped from the golden
reality of his noble life.

So far we have but one critical life of St. Antony
in English,1 though of " pious " lives we have a large
number. The first thing required of a biography
which cannot for lack of material contain the
whole truth is that it shall at least contain nothing
but the truth. In studying history we need facts ;
in hagiography we need to study both history and
tradition, for we cannot completely understand
the character of a Saint, his psychology, his cult,
his popularity, if we neglect at least to glance at
legend, however apocryphal. Legends have their
own beauty and their own use, but they are mani-
festly dangerous, for not only do they prevent us
from forming a clear image of the personality of
the Saint by shrouding his figure in a hazy mist of
unreality, but there is no doubt that this same
deceptive mist of legend is very often mistaken for
actual miraculous fact, even by well-instructed
Catholics. And St. Antony's glorious reputation

1 The translation of Canon Lepitre's "St. Antoine" in
Joly's Series. That of P. Che"rance"'s admirable biography,
valuable as it is, cannot claim in the final sense of the word
to be called "critical".

INTRODUCTORY. xi

as the greatest of the Thaumaturgi does not depend
upon tradition !

It is only recently that this truth has been real-
ized. But between the mediaeval hagiographers
who, in the look-out for that which should edify,
scarcely seem to have thought anything worth
chronicling but miracles, and those modern critics
who, seeking above all to understand the psychol-
ogy of the man, to study his history and his his-
torical environment, his personal character and his
individuality, rightly consider miracles merely as
signs by which Almighty God is pleased to reveal
Himself through His servant, a great gulf is fixed.
M. Henri Joly's unique series, " Les Saints" — a
translation of which is being gradually made for
the benefit of English readers — exactly exemplifies
this process.1 One of these books, the masterly
monograph by Canon Albert Lepitre, is, so far, the
final word on St. Antony.

There is another side to the question. As the
greatest living Catholic critic of Franciscan history,
M. Leon de Kerval tells us, many of the Antonian
legends are not only obviously improbable, but
historically impossible. In the extremely interest-
ing pamphlet mentioned above (" The Evolution
and Development," etc.) he points out with what
seems at first remorseless cruelty how legends are
not only developed but actually invented, and being
repeated from century to century gain fresh detail

1 See " La Psychologic des Saints " (Henri Joly) in that
series.

xii INTRODUCTORY.

with every telling. He instances (a) love of the
marvellous, making a miracle out of a plain story :
e.g. the interview with Ezzelino ; (b) accentuation
of the miraculous, with addition of details : e.g. the
Apparition of St. Francis at Aries, and the Limoges
novice, the legends as to which it has been impos-
sible to quote ; (c) the doubling and even trebling
a miracle : e.g. the bilocation at Limoges, later
declared also to have taken place at Montpellier ;
(d) the attributing to a Saint miracles which are
known to have been wrought by another : e.g. the
legend of the woman who heard the sermon at
a great distance, related by Salimbene of Brother
Berthold of Germany, a celebrated preacher, in the
thirteenth century, but which is first connected with
St. Antony by the legend " Bemgnitas? written in
the fourteenth century. The task of separating
legend from miracle is as important as that of
dividing tares from wheat.1

It may be asked how this is to be done ? M. de
Kerval, to whose kind and courteous advice the
writer of this book is greatly indebted, says —
voicing the recognized body of Franciscan critics :
only by adhering to thirteenth century documents,
and rejecting as mere tradition, possibly true but still
unproven, all MSS., Legenda, and biographies of
the fourteenth and succeeding centuries. Some of
the best known pious stories about St. Antony date

1 In referring to <( Legenda Prima," the legend " Benig-
nitas" etc., it must be remembered that the word in this
sense simply means a history, which may or may not
contain both miracle and tradition, Historia legenda.

INTRODUCTORY. xiii

from the eighteenth century ! After the thirteenth
century legend begins to creep in, and each succeed-
ing age makes the case more hopeless ! This is not
history. Between the great German Protestant
critic (Dr. Edward Lempp), who attempts to prove
out of St. Antony's own mouth, l that the Miracle-
worker wrought no miracles at all, and those who
would accept blindly the most extravagant tradi-
tions, there is a middle way of reasoned criticism in
which lies safety, and this, walking in the footsteps
of Canon Lepitre and M. de Kerval, we have en-
deavoured to follow.

But it must be remembered that at any time by
the fresh discovery of a thirteenth century MS. ;
such as that by P. Ferdinand d'Araules, O.F.M., at
Bordeaux, of the priceless legend of Jean Rigauld,
many fresh details may be added to the compara-
tively little we certainly know as to St. Antony's
life ; and much which we are at present perforce
obliged to consider as legend may be duly authenti-
cated. It is sincerely to be desired that such dis-
coveries may be made, as it is quite possible they
may. But for the present, as far as the material
goes which we already possess, Antonian studies
are at a standstill.

The thirteenth century documents relating to St.
Antony are after all very few. The principal are :

i. The Legenda Prima, written by an unknown
Friar Minor, shortly after the canonization (30 May,
1232) cf. " Duae Vitae," pp. 5, 8.

1 Quoting from a Sermon.

xiv INTRODUCTORY.

2. The Legenda Secunda, written by Julien de
Spire before 1264. From this the Office of the
Saint is chiefly taken. It is practically the same
as the Legenda Prima, with the addition of the
Story of the Chapter at Aries.

3. The Legenda altera, sometimes called Legenda
Raymondina, on account of its probable author,
written shortly after 1293. It is very incomplete,
but affirms strongly the fact of St. Antony's priest-
hood before he entered the Franciscan Order.

4. The Legend of Jean Rigauld, a most important
MS. by the Franciscan Bishop of Treguier, dis-
covered, translated into French, and published in
1899 by P. Ferdinand d'Araules, and translated
into English by an English Franciscan Father.
(C.T.S., 3d.) This legend should be known by all
lovers of St. Antony. It is by far the most interest-
ing document on the Saint we possess, and was
written towards the close of the thirteenth century.1

5. The Legenda Fiorentina, a resume of the
Legenda Secunda, and possibly fourteenth century.

There is also passing mention of the Saint in the
histories of Vincent de Beauvais (1264), Rolandino
(1260), and Bartholomew of Trent, who died
during the first half of the thirteenth century.

He is also mentioned once or twice by Eccleston
and Salimbene, and once by Thomas of Celano
and St. Bonaventure. 2

1 It is from the admirable English translation that the
many quotations made throughout this book are taken.

2We have also the Bull of Canonization, and the Office
of the Saint.

INTRODUCTORY. xv

It will be seen that the material is not extensive,
but we have at least enough to sketch the outline
of our Saint's life, to fill in a good many details,
and to authenticate a large number of miracles.
And here the second difficulty comes in. For this
material has been used to such excellent purpose
by one or two French and Italian critical writers, of
whom the first is undoubtedly Canon Lepitre, that
all that can possibly be said about St. Antony has
already been said by them ! Any biography on the
lines already indicated must of necessity follow them
so closely as to run some risk of incurring the
charge of plagiarism !

The present volume, however, has been written
after close study of these monographs by experts,
of contemporary history, and of critical editions of
the original documents, for it is on these last, after
all, that we must chiefly rely. For this reason they
are quoted whenever possible, especially when it is
a case of the ipsissima verba of the Saint.

It has been found impossible, within the limits of
this volume, to give any account of the cult of St.
Antony throughout the centuries ; to mention any
miracles later than those attested at his canoniza-
tion ; or to insert a large number of legends, among
them that of the Apparition of Our Lady to St.
Antony on the Vigil of the Assumption.

The writer's sincerest thanks are due to six
Franciscan Fathers in France, Italy, and England,
whose practical help has been as invaluable as
their kindness and sympathy have been unfailing.

xvi INTRODUCTORY.

Among these must be specially named Father
Raymond Giscard of Brive, and Father Michael Bihl,
O.F.M., of St. Bonaventure's College, Quaracchi,
Florence, who has kindly revised the historical
chapters, and who translated that sermon of St.
Antony, which, slightly adapted, will be found in
the Appendix.

In these days of unrest and political upheaval,
when country after country, in the name of freedom,
is steadily, if stealthily, persecuting the Catholic
Church, it is surely the intercession of St. Antony,
the sweet Saint who comes down to us through
the ages with the Babe of Bethlehem in his arms,
which we may most confidently invoke. For as the
Saints are not mere spectators of the great combat
going on below, but are fighting with us and for us
still, and seeing, as we cannot see, the end of the
struggle, so it is not likely that he who was so
closely connected with the three countries now
passing, or about to pass, through a great crisis
should be insensible to their needs.

It is the Miracle-worker, then, who is pre-emi-
nently the Saint of to-day. It is to him that we
may cry, with fullest confidence in his will and in
his power to help : " St. Antony, save Portugal, —
save Italy, — above all, save France ! "

C. M. ANTONY.

FlRENZE,

Quinquagesima Sunday, 191 1.

THE Holy Father has expressed his great pleasure
and satisfaction that the " Friar Saints " Series has
been undertaken ; and wishes it every success.
He bestows "most affectionately" His Apostolic
Blessing upon the Editors, Writers, and Readers
of the whole Series.

CHAPTER I.

(i 195-1220.)

"O SIDUS HISPANIC."*

ANTONY the Miracle-worker was born in 1195 at
Lisbon, a town situated, says the " Legenda Prima,"
" at the uttermost end of the earth ". He was the
eldest son of parents young, noble, and wealthy,
" just before the Lord and scrupulous observers of
His commandments," but whose name and lineage
are unknown. They dwelt in a palace near the
great Cathedral dedicated to Our Lady, which con-
tained a shrine venerated throughout Portugal —
that of St. Vincent, Martyr. Here the Saint was
baptized when eight days old (according to na-
tional custom), receiving the name of Fernando.
Here, tradition tells us, his mother, yet in the flower
of her youth, offered her little son to the Mother
of God, who " watched over his first steps in holi-
ness, and throughout his life stretched her hand over
him in blessing ". " From his earliest years he had

1 '• Hispania" would include the whole Iberian Peninsula,
i.e. Spain and Portugal. The invocation is from the anti-
phon composed by Cardinal Guy de Montfort, 1350. Liter-
ally, of course, the true " Star of Spain " was St, Dominic.
I

2 s r,, M'NTO A' /. OF PADUA.

[EferJ; foi his mistress an.J instructress, and as we
shall' see, for his powerful protectress during his life
and at the hour of his death." l Devotion to Our
Lady was from the beginning the mainspring of
Fernando's holy life.

Of his earliest years not a single detail remains
to us, but when he was 7, Fernando was sent to
the Cathedral School. It is interesting to note that
during the fifty years of the existence of Portugal as
a Christian kingdom it had made great progress in
educational matters, and its great ecclesiastical
schools were very much on the lines of those of
other European countries, especially England, for
after the conquest of Lisbon by Alfonso I in 1147,
the first bishop of that city was Gilbert, an English-
man.2

Here the little boy studied Holy Scripture, gram-
mar, the elements of rhetoric and logic, and probably
plain chant. He evidently went to school daily, for
we are told that until he was 15 "he lived in
simplicity at home ". Tradition tells us he had
several brothers and sisters, but of this we cannot
be certain.

Lisbon, like other great seaport towns, was full of
temptations for the clever, gifted boy. The Court
was at Coimbra, but the beautiful city on the Tagus
was the home of a wealthy and brilliant society
to which Fernando's parents evidently belonged.
During these fifteen years he had ample opportunity
of taking part in pleasures and gaieties of all sorts,
and there were not wanting those who would have

1 Jean Rigauld. 2 Lepitre, p. n.

"O SIDUS HISPANIM." 3

led him into such evil courses as were pursued, he
saw plainly, by many youths of his own standing.
He considered the matter carefully. Here on one
side were all the pleasures of the world, both
those which it was so natural that he should en-
joy and those that were forbidden ; and, on the
other, renunciation, — the listening to that still small
voice which speaks insistently to the hearts of
God's closest children, calling them to leave all,
to hate father and mother, wife, children, and the
whole world for Christ's sake, which we call Voca-
tion.

It was not by any means easy to decide. Fer-
nando was a highly strung, sensitive boy with hot
Southern blood in his veins. On no point in his
early career do the chroniclers insist with such force
as on the severity and intensity of the struggle.
One thing we are specially told : though, like St.
Bernard, cruelly and repeatedly tempted, Fernando
never for a moment shut his ears to that silent voice
which he had heard from his earliest childhood,
and which called him to something even higher
than a holy life in the world. And life was marvel-
lously attractive to the handsome, clever boy. He
meditated during that season of temptation upon
the joys it could give him, but found, as all
the Saints have found, that he could not count on
them for temporal, much less for eternal happiness.
In a word, he found he could not save his soul in
the world. And so Fernando, innocent, but not
ignorant of evil, with a career before him and the
world at his feet, offered his stainless life a voluntary
i *

4 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

sacrifice to God, " having the dew of his youth, and
the beauty thereof, as the Angels ".

An old legend tells us that once during this time
while he was praying -in the Cathedral choir, a prey
to great temptation, the devil appeared to him in
the shape of a hideous monster. Fernando traced
the sign of the cross on the marble step on which
he was kneeling, which received it as if it were soft
wax, and the devil fled precipitately. A cross deep-
cut in the step can be seen there at the present
day, but its connexion with the story is only tradi-
tional.

All through our Saint's life we shall see how each
one of its definite stages was a perfect preparation
for the next ; his early days of regular study with
the Canons of the Cathedral and the quiet sheltered
life at home was the best introduction possible
to the first great step in his career. For when
he was 15, Fernando "left his father and mother,
and gave up all right to inherit from them ". He
made the irrevocable decision, finally renounced
the world, and entered the Monastery of Canons-
Regular of St. Augustine at St. Vincent extra mures,
just outside Lisbon. Here he received the white
habit " with humble devotion," set himself " to
attain the highest degree of perfect wisdom," and
made his first vows.

We do not learn that any obstacle was placed by
his parents in the way of his fulfilling his vocation,
but we infer that it was a cause of great regret to
his family. His mother, we may be sure, renewed
the oblation of her eldest son to God, but his friends

"O SID US HISPANIM." 5

and relations evidently considered that he had
thrown his life away. They visited him continually,
— far too often for his peace. If they did not actu-
ally beg him to return to the world they broke into
his solitude, and the silence which he had learned
to love, with stories of the gay doings in Lisbon,
and of worldly affairs in which the young religious
neither had, nor desired to have, part. The Monas-
tery of St. Vincent was a house of strict observance.
It had been founded by the first King of Portugal,
some fifty years earlier, for the repose of the souls
of those crusaders slain at the siege of Lisbon, and
was a daughter-house of the great Monastery of
Holy Cross, at Coimbra.

It was to this monastery that Fernando's thoughts
now turned, for it was practically impossible for him
to escape from the pertinacity of his friends so long
as he remained near Lisbon. He had no desire to
risk his peace of heart, and perhaps his vocation,
and his one object now was to find God through
the silence of the cloister in the silence of the
soul. He petitioned his superiors to send him
to Coimbra, but "it was not without difficulty
that he obtained permission ... for he was be-
loved by all on account of his great sanctity
and amiability ". His Prior finally allowed him to
make the desired change, and after two years spent
at St. Vincent's Monastery, Fernando left it to join
the Mother House at Coimbra. "There truly,"
says Rigauld, "he advanced rapidly in religious
perfection and holiness ; there also, thanks to the
inspiration of Him who teaches independently of

6 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

time ... he armed himself with the most solid
teaching of the Fathers, so as to preach to heretics
later on, and to defend the Holy Truths of the
Faith against their attacks. This light, received
from God who had chosen him, and for whom he
had left all, was so great that henceforth his memory
served him in the place of books and he was pre-
sently filled with the Spirit of Wisdom." We shall
see later how this marvellous memory, richly stored
with Holy Scripture and with the writings of the
Fathers, was to help him to become " the first Fran-
ciscan orator," the greatest preacher of his day.

The eight peaceful years which the young monk
passed at Coimbra (1212-20) were a long retreat,
during which, unconscious of his true vocation, he
was laying, by ceaseless prayer and diligent study,
the foundation of his future marvellous career. It
is scarcely too much to say, given his character and
temperament, and his burning zeal for God, that
Antony the Friar- Minor and Miracle- worker was
the logical development of Fernando the cloistered
monk.

A few words may be said here as to the Order
which played so important a part in the training of
our Saint. " By the general term ' Canons/ " says
M. Lepitre, " seems to have been designed . . .
those clerics vowed to the service of a special Church,
while following a Rule. All had not at first the
same constitutions; but at the Second Lateran
Council (1139) Innocent II ordained that all should
follow the Rule of St. Augustine."

Holy Cross, founded in 1132, was an independent

"O SID US HISPANIM." 7

monastery which had charge of several parishes ;
" for ... the work of Canons Regular, to whatever
congregation they might belong, was not only the
Divine office in choir, but also the care of souls, in
the churches to which they were attached, and the
parishes submitted to their jurisdiction."1 A dis-
tinguishing mark of the Canons Regular was that
they were " vowed in a special manner to study
. . . with the particular aim of rendering them
more fit for the service of God and souls, and to
prepare them, if they had sufficient aptitude, to fulfil
pastoral functions in the Church ". Special care,
in this regard, was bestowed upon those who seemed
more highly gifted than their brethren.

The first Prior of Holy Cross, St. Theotonius, the
friend of St. Bernard, had left here ineffaceable
traces of his government of twenty years. The Rule
was followed in spirit as in letter ; the house was a
centre of literary culture and the abode of tranquil-
lity and peace. It was an ideal home for one whose
life was devoted to prayer and study. And we
must not forget that of the twenty-one years he
spent in religion our Saint passed ten under the
Rule and in the white habit of St. Augustine. It is
extremely probable that he was ordained priest at
Holy Cross — he must at least have been deacon —
for the monasteries of Canons Regular were in a

1 The question as to whether a Canon Regular was tech-
nically a religious was warmly debated in the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries ; St. Thomas Aquinas pronouncing fin-
ally that a Canon could lawfully enter a recognized Order be-
cause he would then tend to a higher degree of perfection.

8 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

sense schools for priests ; but in the absence of de-
finite evidence many biographers have supposed
that he received the priesthood after his entrance
into the Franciscan Order.

During these years two legends1 are recorded
of him.

One day, soon after his arrival at Coimbra, Fernando,
who was engaged in sweeping the cloister outside the church
during Mass, which he had been anxious to hear, fell on his
knees at the bell for the Consecration. Suddenly the wall
between seemed to open before his eyes, and he saw the altar
and the priest standing with the Sacred Host elevated in his
hands. God chose thus to reward the obedience and humility
of His servant.

The second legend is as follows : —

Fernando, charged (probably as infirmarian) with the care
of a sick monk, laid his own amice upon his shoulders, where-
upon the patient immediately recovered.

Beautiful as these stories are we find them first
related in the seventeenth century. And it cannot
be said too often — the glory of the Miracle-worker
does not depend upon legends.

But while the young religious was growing daily in
holiness and learning — (he never forgot, we are told,
anything he read, and his life was a mirror of per-
fection)— the two great Friar Orders of St. Dominic
and St. Francis, which were to transform the thir-
teenth century, had taken root in the soil of Spain
and Italy, and were already beginning to spread and
flourish. In 1220 the Order of Friars Minor re-

1 To mark the difference between legend and miracle the
former, throughout this book, are as a rule printed in small
type.

"GEMMA PAUPERTATIS." g

ceived its baptism of blood in Morocco, and from
this glorious martyrdom was to spring the fairest of
all the Little Flowers of St. Francis, the Saint who
seems to belong to every country and to every age
— Antony of Padua.

CHAPTER II.

(1220-1222.)
"GEMMA PAUPERTATIS:'

THE first mission of the Friars Minor took place in
1209, when having only three companions, St.
Francis of Assisi sent Bernard of Quintavalle and
Peter of Cataneo to Emilia, going himself with
Brother Giles to the Marches of Ancona. The
second occurred at the close of the same year, when
St. Francis and his seven companions went two and
two into Umbria and the adjacent provinces. The
third mission, in 1210, when there were about twenty
Frati, included all the provinces of Italy, St. Francis
reserving for himself and Brother Silvestro that of
Tuscany. In 1216, after the First General Chapter,
a fourth mission was sent out to all the countries of
Europe, and thus, in 1217, the Friars Minor first
came to Spain and Portugal. Brothers Zachary
and Gauthier on their arrival in the latter country
immediately presented themselves to the Bishop
of Coimbra and to the Court. Queen Uraca,
and her sister-in-law Princess Sancia, both devout
Catholics, established the Friars, with the full con-
sent of King Alfonso II, in the hamlet of St. Antony-

io ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

of-the-Olives, three miles from Coimbra, in the
year 1218.

The fifth great mission of the new Order to all
quarters of the world took place after the Second
General Chapter in 1219, when St. Francis chose
for himself, as being attended with the greatest
danger, the mission to Syria and Egypt. Six friars,
Fathers Vitalis, Berard, Peter and Otho, with two
lay-brothers, Adjuto and Accursio, whose one de-
sire was to win for themselves the crown of martyr-
dom, were sent to Morocco, and to reach their
destination they travelled through Portugal and
Spain. Father Vitalis fell ill, and was most re-
luctantly obliged to remain behind, but the others
pressed on, spending a few days on their journey at
the little Franciscan house at St. Antony-of-the-
Olives towards the close of the year 1219.

Tradition tells us that at that time Fernando was
Procurator of the Monastery of Holy Cross, where
the friars were always welcomed when they came
to beg for food, and that he had been deeply im-
pressed by the holiness and angelic piety of one of
their members who was generally sent on this er-
rand. There is every reason to believe he actually
saw the five heroic missionaries on their way to
certain death, and it is therefore quite possible he
heard them speak "of obtaining for the love of
Christ who died for us the palm of martyrdom
which they so earnestly desired". One thing is
certain : from that time the desire to win the same
crown began to burn in the young Canon's heart.
The serene life in the quiet stately monastery, with

"GEMMA PAUPERTATIS." n

its peaceful ordered days, no longer fully satisfied
him, or quenched the Divine thirst for suffering
ever increasing within his soul. It was no ordinary
restlessness and love of change, but the Voice of
the Holy Ghost, which, though as yet he knew not
how, called him to do and suffer greater things than
these.

The five Franciscans nearly met their death at
Seville, where they preached as they passed through
the beautiful Moorish city, but the Saracen Prince,
instead of slaying them, sent them straight on to
the city of Morocco, the chief stronghold of Moham-
medanism in North Africa. Its ruler, Abu Jacob,
a sluggish, indolent man, was inclined to overlook
at first the deeds which made Morocco ring ! It
was not many weeks since Pope Honorius III had
written to him specially pleading for toleration for
Christians, and Abu Jacob had furthermore at the
head of his army Don Pedro, brother of the King
of Portugal, who having quitted his country on ac-
count of a political quarrel was now holding the
somewhat invidious position of commander-in-chief
in Morocco. But when, in spite of this Prince's
counsels, Berard, not content with preaching openly
in the streets, actually cried again and again to Abu
Jacob passing by in his state chariot : " Jesus Christ
is the True God, Mohammed is nothing but an im-
postor,"— that potentate was roused to fury. The
friars were seized and dragged before him. The
choice of abjuration or death was offered them,
and with one voice they chose death. Abu Jacob,
concluding that they were mad, and not wishing to

12 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

offend either the Pope or (through Don Pedro) the
King of Portugal, ordered them to leave the country
immediately. They were escorted to Ceuta, but
found means to escape, returned to Morocco, and
again began to preach. Abu Jacob ordered them
to be imprisoned twenty days without food or water,
but at the end of that time they were found to be
alive and well, and impatient to continue their
mission.

Once more the Emir sought to spare them, but
after some time, finding that even Don Pedro's ar-
guments had no influence with them, and that
nothing would stop them from preaching and
exciting tumults in the city, he ordered them to be
put to death. They were scourged with such
fearful cruelty that their bodies were almost cut to
pieces. Boiling oil and vinegar were then poured
over them, and they were rolled on the ground over
fragments of broken glass and pottery. Again they
were offered their lives if they would abjure Christ.
But at the very gates of Heaven it was not likely
that they should yield the crown which they had
given all to gain ! They were beheaded, the Emir
himself striking the fatal blow, and the people,
flinging themselves eagerly upon the torn and
broken bodies, dragged them out of the streets to a
piece of waste ground outside the city, covered
them with filth, and tried to burn them. But
before this could be done a fearful storm drove the
Moors away, the Christians crept out secretly and
took possession of the relics, which Don Pedro
placed in two splendid cMsses, and contrived with

" GEMMA PA UPERTATIS." 13

great difficulty and danger to convey out of the
country.

Thus died the first Franciscan martyrs, whose
glorious story is too little known. Their feast is
kept on the day of their triumph, 16 January (1220).
Don Pedro himself conveyed the relics back to Spain,
and openly declared that to his certain knowledge
many miracles had been wrought by them already.
From Galicia the chasses were brought to Coimbra,
with much pomp and splendour, and deposited in the
beautiful church of the monastery of Holy Cross.
The reason of this was partly to satisfy the devotion
of Queen Uraca to the first martyrs of the Order in
which she was so greatly interested, whose relics she
desired to have near her palace ; and partly because,
if indeed the Franciscans possessed a chapel, it
would not have been large enough to contain the
crowds which came to pray at the shrine.

What was the effect on Fernando at the sight of
these relics — the bodies of men with whom he had
probably spoken a few weeks earlier, and who were
already martyrs whose miracles were beginning to
be noised abroad ? At last he understood the final
development of his vocation. He was called, not to
the ordered life of a Canon Regular, but to the hard-
ships, and as he earnestly hoped to the martyrdom,
of a poor friar. " Oh, if Almighty God would grant
me to share the death of these holy martyrs ! " he
said to himself; " if He would grant me to die like
them for the Holy Name of Jesus ! Dare I think that
this day will come ? Dare I believe that this joy will
be granted to me ? " His very soul was on fire with

i4 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

the passionate desire to die for Christ, and he only
knew one way in which to attain it. From this
moment he knew no rest till he had exchanged the
fair white habit of St. Augustine and his quiet life
of study for the rough serge and cord of St. Francis
. . . and the prospect of a martyr's crown.

He lost no time. When the friars next came for
food he " saw them secretly," and said : " My
brothers, most willingly would I take the habit of
your Order if you would promise immediately to
send me to the Saracen country, for thus I may hope
to acquire the merits of your holy martyrs, and
share their crown ". All the generous enthusiasm
of his impetuous youth is behind the appeal ! And
filled with joy, the " simple illiterate friars " accepted
eagerly this wonderful new subject, no raw recruit, but
an educated experienced religious. They promised
to bring him the Franciscan habit the very next day,
and departed in delight.

By a decree of Pope Adrian IV no monk could
leave Holy Cross without the permission not only
of his Superior, but of the entire community. The
former Fernando gained with much difficulty ; of
the latter we know nothing. One of the bas-reliefs
surrounding his Chapel at Padua represents him
receiving the habit from the friars in the presence
of some of the Canons. If the latter had reluctantly
given their consent, most of them had apparently
done their best to dissuade him. As he left the
monastery, the home of so many happy years, the
school in which he had been trained for his marvel-
lous apostolate, one of them " who loved him

*>GEMME PAUPERTATIS." 15

much" called after him: "Go — go! you will
doubtless become a Saint ! " " When you hear
that I am a Saint, give glory to God ! " replied
Fernando gently. In little more than twelve years
he was indeed raised to the altars.

And so he passed for the second time from his
friends and went in the early spring sunshine down
the olive-clad slopes to the little convent, scarcely
more than a group of huts like the Portiuncula, for
which- he had exchanged the cloisters of Holy Cross.
It must have been for the scholar and student, born
in a palace and trained in a royal monastery, a more
tremendous renunciation than that which he made
on first entering religion. It is quite clear that the
friars, distinguished for nothing but holiness, and
like the Apostles, " unlearned and ignorant men,"
had not the faintest comprehension of the type of
man they had secured, nor of his varied learning.
The fact of a young Augustinian Canon joining
their new-born, scarcely constituted Order was in
itself a great event. They did not go beyond that.
And few things more plainly show the exquisite
humility of our Saint than the fact that he never
enlightened these, nor the far more important
authorities whom he was shortly to meet. He
must have missed the wonderful library, and his
quiet cell where he could pray and study in solitude.
But he was a Saint : he not only accepted but em-
braced this cross.

We learn that " during the time he dwelt with
the friars in this house he formed himself to the
practice of poverty, chastity and obedience accord-

16 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

ing to the Rule of the Friars Minor ". He saturated
himself with the Spirit of the Order. Perhaps he
even went with a companion to beg for food, at the
gates of his old monastery. He asked the friars
to change his name, " a great thing " says Rigauld,
" for Fernando is the name of Kings ".

Such a practice was as yet very unusual, and
various reasons have been advanced for his doing
so, none of which seem satisfactory. He took, how-
ever, the name of the patron Saint of the convent,
St. Antony, Abbot. The novitiate was then un-
known. It was not indeed imposed till September,
1220, by a Bull of Pope Honorius III. Antony
made his profession in the hands of his superiors
shortly after his admission.

He had not forgotten his great desire. Day and
night the thought of it haunted him. He believed
that if he could but once reach Morocco his martyr's
crown would be secured. He begged his Superior
to send him, as soon as possible ; and in the autumn
of 1220 Antony, probably with one companion,
sailed for Ceuta.

But no sooner had he reached the goal than,
worn out and wasted by the strain of the last few
months, and doubtless by the austerities he had lately
practised, he fell ill, and for a whole winter lay
between life and death. It must have been the
keenest disappointment of his life. He lay there
helpless, unable to move, so consumed with fever
that even his burning zeal was compelled to yield to
physical weakness. The cries of the people, the
noise of the Moslem city, was in his ears, and he

"GEMMA PAUPERTATIS." 17

could do nothing ! The martyr's crown hung be-
fore his eyes, and he could not grasp it !

After the fire, the still small voice. " Brought
down," says Rigauld, "by a long and painful illness
he understood that he was not to succeed in his
attempt. . . . Fastened as he was to the Cross of
Penance with Christ crucified, did he not suffer
continual martyrdom ? " He learnt that he was not
called to shed his blood in Morocco, for another,
and to one of his temperament, even greater sacri-
fice awaited him. A confessor, it has been well said,
is a martyr stopped half-way on the road to martyr-
dom. Antony had come to the parting of the
ways. He understood at last that God asked not
his death, but his life, and it became his duty to
save it at all costs. He determined to return to his
native country to recruit his shattered health.
Having left Portugal with the avowed hope and in-
tention of shedding his blood for Christ, he proposed
to return to his monastery to fulfil the Will of God
by apparent failure !

Perhaps nothing in the story of his beautiful life
is more pathetic than this exquisite and perfect re-
nunciation of his own will in that of Almighty God
— more wonderful than any miracle, a greater
triumph than his most eloquent sermon " Non mea
voluntas sed Tuafiat". And with the simplicity of
a child St. Antony embarked for Portugal as soon
as he could be moved. He had not struck a single
blow for Christ in Moslem Morocco — he had done
nothing — but obey !

But God had other designs for His servant. The
2

i8 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

ship was driven on the shores of Sicily by contrary
winds, and Antony landed near Messina, outside
which city was a small house of his Order. It was
while he was resting here that news arrived of the
General Chapter to be held in May (1221) at
Assisi. Antony at once asked leave to go. We
have no details as to his journey, but he reached
the Umbrian hills in time for the Chapter, which
opened on 30 May.

It is difficult to imagine Assisi as it was then, still
uncrowned by the beautiful Basilica of San Fran-
cesco, and when the dome of Our Lady of the
Angels, built by St. Pius V, did not cover the
humble huts clustered round the Portiuncula on the
plain below. Though not so largely attended as
the Chapter of 1219, at least 2000 friars were pre-
sent,1 and the country people brought them food
and wine in such quantities that after seven days
there still remained provision for two. Brother Elias,
the Vicar-General, presided, St. Francis himself sit-
ting at his feet, and telling him in his faint broken
voice all that he wished to say to his children.

It was a glorious sight to meet the eyes of the
young enthusiast. Here in this mighty crowd were
men as eager for martyrdom as himself ! St. Francis
called for volunteers for the mission to Germany —
one of peculiar danger — and eighty friars immedi-
ately responded. But Antony was not one of these.
He had learnt his lesson, and he waited to learn
God's will for him. Moreover he did not know

1This was the last Chapter which the general body of
friars was permitted to attend.

"GEMMA PAUPERTATIS." 19

German, and he stood by, silent, humble, while
volunteers pushed forward from all sides. His
heart must have burnt within him as he saw St.
Francis, with the wounds in hands and ..feet and
side, so near Heaven, blessing his children and
sending them forth into all parts of the world, — that
Seraphic Father who, like himself, had sought the
crown of martyrdom in vain ! Here too were Thomas
of Celano, the chronicler of the Order, and John of
Pian-Carpino who was to be one of the first pioneers
of the " Society of Christ's Wandering Friars " ;
that glorious band of missionaries, Franciscan and
Dominican, of whom the world to-day knows ,so
little, which yet invaded Asia, Christianized the
Khan of Tartary and thousands of his people, fought
victoriously the hideous Nestorian heresy in China
and India, giving countless martyrs to the Church,
watering the soil with their blood, and establishing
wherever they went churches, monasteries, and
bishoprics three centuries before the day of St.
Francis Xavier ! Here were the Saints and heroes
of the Order ; here was its cradle ! It was at the
Portiuncula that St. Antony met St. Francis of
Assisi !

The Chapter was over ; the friars were all dispers-
ing to their various labours and Antony stood alone.
" No minister sought for him because he was
known of none." It was perhaps the final test of
his humility. No one guessed that in the young
unknown Portuguese friar whom nobody wanted,
there stood, next to St. Francis himself, the glory

of the Order, the Miracle-worker who eleven years

» *

20 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

later would be invoked as a Saint. " Then Blessed
Antony humbly accosted Brother Gratian, Pro-
vincial of Romagna, earnestly entreating him . . .
to take him with him and " — not give him a diffi-
cult and dangerous mission, but — " form him in
the practice of religious discipline ".

According to one legend the Provincial inquired
if he were a priest, to which Antony replied simply,
" I am ". A priest was needed to say Mass for a
small convent of lay-brothers at Monte Paolo, near
Forli in Tuscany, and whether or not the legend be
true, it was to Monte Paolo the Saint went.

This hermitage, situated, like so many of the early
Franciscan houses, on a lonely and precipitous hill,
was Antony's dwelling for nearly a year.1 One of
the Brothers had hewn a little cell out of the rock,
and Antony begged his permission to use it. Here
he spent the greater part of his days, living on
bread and water, and inflicting on himself such
austerities that his trembling limbs would some-
times scarcely sustain him, and he was obliged to
accept the support of one of the brothers, when, ac-
cording to Rule, he appeared at the evening colla-
tion. Here tradition tells us he encountered and
routed the devil in person ; here he was a prey to
the fiercest temptations, for his public ministry was
about to begin, and the months of conflict at Monte
Paolo were the last stage of his preparation. He
"armed himself against every temptation by rigorous
austerity and sublime contemplation, and ground-

1 If, as is possible, he was then a priest, he would naturally
have been Superior of the little community.

"GEMMA PAUPERTATIS." 21

ing his spirit in Divine Love "-1 No one had the
least idea that the humble friar who begged permis-
sion " to wash the plates and kitchen utensils, and
also the feet of the friars which he then devoutly
kissed,* l and who gave way in everything to his
companions, was one of the most distinguished
scholars of the greatest monastery in Portugal. He
clung to humility, " the guardian and protector of
every virtue ". Except in " a few rare and very
short lectures " given by him, his brethren could
perceive no signs of his learning, for " Blessed
Antony, as the humblest of men, assiduously
sought out the humblest occupations ". l

" And as he had given proof of his humility,"
continues Rigauld, " in concealing his learning, in
working diligently in humble offices, in submitting
himself to his travelling companion, and in humbling
himself completely when in charge as Superior . . .
God would not permit so burning a light to be
hidden in such a manner, but that it should be
placed upon a candlestick."

An ordination of Dominicans and Franciscans to
the priesthood was to take place at Forli. Antony,
probably as companion to the Provincial, was
present. After the ceremony (and possibly in the
refectory) the Superior invited the Dominican
guests in turn to preach a short sermon, as was the
custom. But each excused himself, pleading lack
of preparation. Then the minister, turning to St.
Antony, desired him to preach. He had sometimes
heard him speak Latin, but was otherwise quite un-

1 Rigauld.

22 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

aware of his learning, thinking, as did his brethren,
that the occupation for which he was best fitted was
that of washing dishes. After attempting in vain
to excuse himself, the Saint mounted the pulpit.
He preached (says tradition) from the words :
" Christus factus est pro nobis obediens usque ad mor-
tem ; mortem autem crucis ".

" He began, in the fear of God, with simple words,
but enlightened by Heavenly grace, and assisted by
his memory, which served him in place of books,
his language as he went on became so sublime, he
explained so clearly the deep mysteries of Holy
Scripture, he captivated the minds of his hearers
with such overpowering eloquence " l that all were
astonished. Carried away by his oratory, Domini-
cans and Franciscans cried with one voice : " Never
man spake like this man ! "

It was thus that St. Antony preached his First
Sermon !

CHAPTER III.

(1222—1224.)
"NOVA LUX ITALIJE."

THE mediaeval history of the country which to-day
calls itself "United Italy " is as intricate and elabo-
rate as a web of its own Venetian lace. It is, how-
ever, impossible to realize the difficulties and even
dangers of such an apostolate as that of St. Antony

1 Rigauld.

"NOVA LUX ITALIM." 23

without possessing some slight idea of the state of
this collection of warring republics and restless cities,
with their deadly jealousies, their endless quarrels,
and their unceasing kaleidoscopic combinations —
one town against three, two against five ; Genoa at
deadly grips with Venice for the mastery of the sea ;
the great Tuscan cities, Florence, Siena, Pisa and
the rest, torn (besides their private jealousies) by
the long and bloody struggle of Guelf and Ghibel-
line. The whole country was a hotbed of treason,
plotting, and bribery. There was no idea of poli-
tical unity then, for with the fatal shortsightedness
which seems to have been from the beginning so
distinctive a characteristic of the peoples of Italy,
each city thought only of its own advantage.

Moreover, in each town there were at least two
parties, and it was invariably torn by internal dis-
sensions, refusing to look beyond its own walls and
see itself as part of a whole. Each State, each re-
public sought, not for the glory of the beautiful
country of which it was a member, still less that of
the Church and its visible Ruler at Rome, but its
own supremacy.

Consequently the unfortunate country was ever a
prey to the invader. French and Spaniards were
soon to contend for Naples ; Milan and Lombardy
were the seat of almost continual war. It was the
old fable of the bundle of sticks. So from the
twelfth to the sixteenth century the state of Italy
was indescribable. The thirteenth century, the age
of saints, of poets, of artists, was in a special sense
the century of contrasts.

24 ST, ANTONY OF PADUA.

" The reign of brute force," says an Italian writer,1
" rendered the nobility pitiless to the poor. Sen-
suality, coarse in proportion to the rarity of the
intellectual life, permitted the wildest excesses, and
ignorance allied to superstition and fanaticism was the
common patrimony of nobles and people. Mani-
cheism, in substituting superstition for religion, the
deliberate lowering of the moral standard for the lofty
teaching of Christianity, brute force i for the sanctity
of rightful possession, had ruined society, the family,
and even the sanctuary itself. ... To reform itself
Society needed Saints."

It was then to a country weakened by civil war
and poisoned by heresy that St. Antony was sent
on his first mission of healing.

The Manicheism of the fourth century, so bravely
opposed by St. Augustine but never utterly crushed,
was, under other names, and in a slightly different
form, now rampant in Central Europe, France, and
Italy. This peculiarly deadly heresy was " a simul-
taneous attack on the Catholic Church and the
existing State. The Church was directly assailed in
its doctrine and hierarchy ; the denial of the value of
oaths and the suppression of the right to punish under-
mined the State." 2 But the worst social danger
in the heretical principle was that its triumph meant
the ultimate extinction of the human race. For the
Catharist no salvation was possible without previous
renunciation of marriage, lawful or unlawful, and

1 Dal Gal, p. 76.

2 See articles : " Catharist," and " Albigenses," in " Cath-
olic Encyclopaedia ".

" NO VA LUX ITALIM." 25

suicide (the endura) by starvation was held not only
to be permissible, but highly commendable.

Known in France (where the heresy was secretly
introduced in 1015 and whence it spread to Italy)
as Albigenses, its followers were called in the
latter country Cathari, or Patareni. The North of
Italy, Lombardy, the Veneto, and particularly the
Adriatic coast, were saturated with the heresy, its
chief strongholds being Rimini and Milan.

Its creed was dualistic. It taught that there
were two principles, Good and Evil, of which the
former created the invisible and the latter the visible
universe. The Absolutist sect declared the Good
principle was eternally equal with the Bad ; those
less severe urged that the Evil principle was inferior
to, and a mere creation of the Good. In Italy,
where the Absolutists prevailed, John of Bergamo
(1230) declared there were two contending Gods;
each of whom limited the other's liberty. Infinite
perfection, he said, was no attribute even of the
Good principle, as owing to the Evil genius it could
only produce imperfect creatures. Another party
maintained that human souls had been created and
had sinned before the foundation of the world ;
while a third declared, unashamed, that Satan had
infused into the body of the first man (in the place
of a soul), an angel who had been guilty of a " slight
transgression," and that this was the origin of all
human souls.

All this, as is clearly evident, is a hideous travesty
and caricature of the Catholic doctrines of original
sin, freewill, and mortification. And on the face

26 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA

of it it is difficult to understand how a heresy which
enforced as its chief tenet an unnatural asceticism,
should have laid hold so rapidly, so completely, of
the hot-blooded races of the South. The explan-
ation is simple : (i) Whoever joined the sect was
assured from that moment of eternal happiness ;
(2) there were various grades among the Cathari.
The Perfect, or Absolutists, of whom there were
4000 in the world in the middle of the thirteenth
century (of which 2400 were in Lombardy), were
indeed bound to every Catharist doctrine ; but be-
yond them there was the great mass of " Believers,"
who were allowed to marry and live the common
life. These, however, " give themselves up to usury,
theft, murder, perjury, and all the sins of the flesh,
with all the more security because they have no
need either of confession or penitence. It suffices
that at the hour of death they recite the Paternoster
and receive the Spirit." l

Perhaps the most subtle danger of Catharism
from a religious standpoint was that, as in the days
of St. Augustine, its followers masqueraded as
Catholics. They were regular at Mass, and some
even frequented the Sacraments. It was in its very
nature a secret society, and the sacrilegious acts of
its members made it difficult outwardly to distinguish
them from the faithful. Popes and Emperors, had
striven again and again to crush Catharism, but in
vain. These were the men who murdered St. Peter
Parenti in 1199 ; St. Dominic's companion, Peter of
Castelnau, the Papal Legate, in 1208; St. Peter

1 Vaux Cernay, quoted by Ch£ranc6, p. 67.

"NOVA LUX ITALI2E." 27

Martyr in 1252. Their existence was the gravest
menace to Church and nation, for they were numer-
ous and well-organized, and by their caricature of
Catholic discipline and austerities had earned for
themselves among the ignorant a certain reputation
for sanctity. One thing only, they said, was neces-
sary to salvation : to receive the Consolamentum or
laying on of hands. No sin could be forgiven, after
this, to the Perfect ; but the mere Believers were
allowed to evade the difficulty by receiving the Con-
solamentum at death.

To meet such men as these well-tried weapons
and skilful swordsmen were needed. The Friars
Preachers were already in the field ; it was now the
hour of the Sons of St. Francis. Several of these
had entered the contest with but small success. St.
Francis, who wished to overcome the world by
love, whose friars were largely recruited from the
simple and unlearned, who disapproved of and even
forbade the possession of books of theology, doubt-
less saw that the elementary subjective teaching en-
forced by the most absolute poverty and angelic
holiness of life, which was the equipment he desired
for his sons, was insufficient when it came to dealing
with the subtle arguments of well-read and wily
heretics, who in their turn were able to pose as
apostles of mortification. But no sooner did the
Seraphic Father hear the account of the ordination
at Forli, and of St. Antony's sermon, than he seized
with joy upon the weapon which God Himself had
placed in his hand. Perhaps the story of the young

28 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

friar's early life in Portugal was told him, and he
learned of his sound theological training at Coimbra.
Forthwith he appointed Antony to the office of
preacher.1

The public career of our Saint was now to begin.
And here, just as we should have expected the most
interesting facts, the fullest details, from his earliest
biographers, we find confusion, or silence. True,
the gap is filled by later writers, who from the four-
teenth century onwards, copying and improving on
each other's chronicles, have left us accounts of St.
Antony which are, at the very best, doubtful, while
some are manifestly improbable, and even histori-
cally untrue. We must again remind ourselves that
the thirteenth century " Legends " are all that can
be relied on, that those we possess are more or less
fragmentary, practically dateless, and extremely un-
satisfactory in their chronology. From these, how-
ever, we learn that St. Antony preached in Italy
before his mission to France, from which country
he returned shortly after the death of St. Francis
(1226-27). The date of the Forli ordination was
1222, and as it is almost certain that St. Antony
was in France in 1224, his stay in Italy would not
have been a long one.

Armed with the commission of St. Francis to
preach against heresy, Antony chose to attack its
head-quarters, and went first to Rimini. " He took
nothing with him in travelling, but, delighting in

1 " The General forthwith obliged Antony to appear in
public by appointing him to the office of preacher " (Rigauld,

C.V.).

"NOVA LUX ITALIC." 29

poverty, he traversed countries and provinces in the
most complete destitution as a pilgrim and stranger
upon earth." l

At Rimini, Antony had a greater measure of suc-
cess with the heretics than any former preacher,
and though he did not succeed in crushing their
false doctrines, he made a large number of converts.
Amongst these was one of their leaders, Bonillo,
who had been for thirty years a Catharist, and who
remained a devout Catholic to his death.

But it is the miraculous Sermon to the Fishes
which has made St. Antony's mission at Rimini
famous.2 Finding one day that his arguments were
met by ridicule, and that scarcely anyone cared to
listen to him, " Antony approached the river [Ma-
recchia] which was near, and said to the heretics in
the hearing of all the people : * Since you shew
yourselves unworthy to hear the Word of God,
behold, I turn to the fishes, that your unbelief may
be put to shame '. He then began to preach to the
fishes with great fervour," reminding them of God's
benefits to them in creating them, in giving them
freedom, and clear water to live in, " and how He
fed them without any labour on their part. At
these words the fish began to assemble in crowds ;
they approached the Saint, raised their heads out of

1 Rigauld.

2 There is much discussion as to the locality of this
miracle. Rigauld places it near Padua. But the weight of
evidence goes to Rimini, and following M. Lepitre, we
relate it here. Moreover, there is no great river near
Padua.

30 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

the water, looking attentively at him, and even
opened their mouths. As long as it pleased him to
speak, they listened with as much attention as if
they had been gifted with reason, nor would they
depart until he had given them his blessing." We
are irresistibly reminded of the words of Him who
said : "if these [children] should hold their peace
the very stones should cry out." l

It was on his return from Rimini that Antony
was appointed by St. Francis, Lector in Theology, a
fact which has given rise to much discussion. " To
my beloved brother Antony," runs the Brief,
" Brother Francis, greeting in Christ. I desire that
you instruct the brothers in Sacred Theology,
provided that this study does not overcome in them
the spirit of holy meditation and devotion accord-
ing to the prescriptions of the Rule. Adieu."
The letter, says Celano, was addressed to " Brother
Antony \ my Bishop ".

Two things at least seem certain : St. Antony
was the first Lector of the Order (and perhaps the
first friar qualified to hold such a post) ; and St.
Francis, with his supernatural insight as regards the
necessities of his children, had modified his orig-
inal intention as to their theological training. Our
Saint first exercised this office at Bologna, not, as
some have supposed, at the University (for it had

1 Some writers place the Miracle of the Mule at Rimini,
but as with our present insufficient knowledge its locality
must remain an open question, we have followed P.
Che"ranc6 in placing it at Bourges, whither the weight of
evidence appears irresistibly to tend.

"NO VA LUX ITALIM." 31

no chair of Theology till 1360-62) but in the
Convent of Friars-Minor (1222-23). We are in
complete darkness as to the details of his stay in
this city, but we may feel sure he visited with
devotion the tomb of St. Dominic, who had gone to
his reward a few months earlier (6 Aug., 1221).
Antony could not have remained long at Bologna.
Even more important work awaited him, and it was
perhaps on his way to undertake it that we find him
next at Vercelli. Here, says tradition, he preached,
Lent, 1223 ; here he made the acquaintance of Jean
Gerson, believed by many to be the author of the
" Imitation of Christ " ; and here (which is manifest-
ly impossible) he passed five years studying mystic
theology under the celebrated master, Fr. Thomas
Gallo, Abbot of Sant' Andrea, Vercelli, Canon
Regular of St. Augustine.

That St. Antony was a mystic we shall presently
see ; and we know certainly that during his stay at
Vercelli he formed a strong friendship with the
great Abbot, which endured till death. They were
in " familiar relations ". " So quickly," writes Gallo,
" did he acquire mystic theology that he was as one
consumed inwardly by celestial fire, and outwardly
luminous with Divine Knowledge. "

But great as must have been the joy to our Saint
to meet this master-mind, with whom he could con-
verse of all that lay nearest his heart, his stay at
Vercelli could not have been long, for if contem-
porary dates are to be trusted, in 1223-24 we find
St. Antony in France.

32 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

CHAPTER IV.

(1224—1226.)
"MALLEUS HMRETICORUM."

LESS perhaps is known of the years of St. Antony's
sojourn in France, in many respects the most in-
teresting of his history, than of any other part of
his apostolate. The " Legenda Prima " does not
even mention this mission, and it is to Jean Rigauld
that we are indebted for nearly all we know of it.
From the few facts we possess we can construct the
probable itinerary of St. Antony. We know that
he held certain offices, and wrought many miracles.
But of his chief work, the crusade against the Albi-
genses, we know only this : that from his success in
destroying their arguments, and from the numbers
he gained for the Church, St. Antony won the title
of " Hammer of Heretics ".

Toulouse, in the latter half of the twelfth century,
was the stronghold of that form of Catharism known
as the Albigeois heresy which like an insidious
disease had spread throughout France, and raged
most fiercely over the beautiful plain of Languedoc.
St. Dominic himself had not succeeded in extermin-
ating it. The Counts of Toulouse, in the face of
the danger which menaced both Church and Society,
first fought, then temporized, finally themselves se-
ceded. " The evil," writes Raymond V in 1117, " is
so widespread that I neither can nor dare repress
it." His son went farther, and favoured the rebels.

"MALLEUS HMRETICORUM." 33

Fearful were the outrages committed by the Albi-
geois chiefs. Churches, and even cathedrals, ruined,
priests hacked to pieces while saying Mass, abbots
cruelly blinded or slain outright, ecclesiastical pro-
perty of all kinds stolen, monasteries sacked and
their inhabitants driven out to beg — such deeds as
these were of every-day occurrence.

" On one occasion Count Raymond de Foix, that
'wild beast let loose/ destroyed, after a short siege,
the Church of Urgel, leaving only the four walls.
Of the limbs of the great crucifix his scoundrels
made spits to cook their food. Their horses ate
oats on the altars." l They even dressed out the
figure of our Lord in old rags, and amused them-
selves by piercing it with lances. " Come," cried
the renegade, " the Church and the Abbey are in
ruins ! Nothing remains but to destroy God."

"If the Albigenses had triumphed,'' says a Pro-
testant historian, " Europe would have returned to
the horrors of barbarism." 2

The campaign opened so gloriously by the
Spanish Saint was to be continued by the Portu-
guese Miracle-worker. He was not the first Fran-
ciscan in the field. Since 1218 his brethren had
been fighting in Languedoc, at posts of the gravest
responsibility and of continual danger.

The date of St. Antony's arrival can only be ap-
proximately estimated, but it was probably at the
end of 1223, or early in 1224. His mission was
threefold : to convert the Albigeois, to teach theo-

1 Ch£ranc£, p. 69.

2 Lea, " History of the Inquisition," Book I, p. 120.

3

34 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

logy, and to make foundations. He went first to
the quaint old city of Montpellier in Provence,
where he held the office of Lector in Theology in
the recently established Franciscan friary — not, as
some have supposed, at the University.1

To Montpellier is attached the beautiful legend
of the Lost Manuscript. St. Antony, lecturing on
the Psalms, was in the habit of writing out his notes,
and the manuscript by degrees became a valuable
commentary.

A novice, greatly tempted to leave the Order, determined
to run away, first stealing the precious book (which he
thought of selling, as he had no money), and this he did.
St. Antony, greatly distressed, asked the friars to pray
earnestly for the return of the novice and the manuscript.
The next day the door of his cell was burst open, and the
novice appeared, trembling and weeping. Laying the manu-
script at the Saint's feet he implored his forgiveness, and
begged that he would intercede for him, that he might be
received again into the Order. He said that in his flight he
had come to the river, which was so flooded that he was un-
able to find either bridge 2 or ford. The devil then appeared
to him, offering to carry him across if he would give him the
manuscript which he carried. The novice at first agreed,
but his terror at the aspect of the devil was so great that he
was afraid to trust him. Hastily making the sign of the
cross he turned and ran back to Montpellier, where, realiz-

1 Founded in 1196 it did not possess a Chair of Theology
till two centuries later.

2 The Pont Nouveau at Lattes, a suburb of Montpellier,
which occupies the site of the Pont Juvenal, is the Bridge of
the Novice. It is a coincidence that the river which it
crosses is subject to sudden and violent floods, often rising
many feet. Below Montpellier it flows through marshy
country to the Mediterranean.

"MALLEUS HMRET1CORUM." 35

ing at length the greatness of his crime, he did not pause
till he had restored the stolen book and begged for for-
giveness.

This legend is generally supposed to be the
origin of prayer to St. Antony to recover lost ob-
jects. It first appears in the " Liber Miraculorum "
(1367). But as this special devotion to St. Antony
goes back to the date of his death (1231) it may
possibly be presumptive proof of the truth of the
tradition. Another legend tells us : —

At Montpellier the Saint silenced the frogs which by their
croaking at night in a neighbouring swamp greatly disturbed
both the prayers and the rest of the friars.

But Antony was not very long at Montpellier.1
We find him next at Toulouse, " a vast field for his
apostolic work ". The Friars Minor had been here
for two years already.2 And here, in this grand and

^he Cathedral of Montpellier was not founded till 1364,
so St. Antony could never have preached there. It is pos-
sible that he preached in the celebrated Church of Notre
Dame des Tables, which stood on the site of the present
market. The Franciscan monastery, which was founded in
1220, and had a magnificent church in which were twelve
chapels, was destroyed by Huguenots in 1562. The church
subsequently built was also destroyed, and the third and last
from which the friars were ousted at the Revolution was first
turned into a Protestant temple, and is to-day a motor-
garage. The parish church in St. Antony's time was St.
Firmin, destroyed 1568 by Huguenots.

2 Their convent was the gift of rich citizens of Toulouse

and of two Franciscan prelates, Cardinal Messire Pierre de

St. Foix and Jean de la Teissandiere, Bishop of Rieux.

" In this splendid convent St. Antony taught, and wrought

3*

36 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

historic city — to-day one of the most beautiful and
interesting in France, with its desecrated, but still
glorious churches and ruined cloisters — where in St.
Antony's day the Black Confraternity of the Albi-
geois was vigorously opposed by the White Confra-
ternity of Catholics under the holy Archbishop
Foulques ; where the contest between faith and
error was still keen in spite of the great victory of
the Crusaders under Simon de Montfort at Muret,
ten years earlier — here, just when we should expect
to find the fullest details as to our Saint's preaching,
the miracles he wrought, and the souls he won from
heresy, we find — nothing.

Perhaps the best explanation for this and other
gaps in Antony's history is that the earliest biogra-
phers, ever on the look-out for the miraculous,
scarcely thought anything else worth describing.
If this is a working hypothesis it would go very far
to prove that the celebrated Miracle of the Mule
did not occur at Toulouse. " We are reduced,"
says Pere Cherance, " to repeat the desperate cry

miracles both before and after his death." At the Revolu-
tion all was sold " for the good of the nation," except the
church, a perfect specimen of thirteenth century Gothic,
which has been described as one of the most magnificent in
France. This was used as a store for army forage, and
crammed with hay and straw. It was accidentally burnt to
the ground, probably through spontaneous combustion,
23-24 March, 1871. The tower, of the beautiful deep red
brick for which Toulouse is famous, alone remains to-day a
glorious and pathetic monument. On account of its great
height the government found it convenient to turn it into a
telegraph station (May, 1834). To-day the cumbrous de'bris
of the old machinery still defaces the tower.

"MALLEUS HMRETICORUM." 37

of Sicco Polentone, who, writing in the fifteenth
century, exclaims : ' We know not half the beautiful
acts of our Saint ! The greater part are forgotten,
either for want of authentic documents, or on
account of deplorable negligence on the part of his
first biographers.' " None of his historians observe
any chronological order as to the places visited by
St. Antony, but it is probable that his next stay
(1225) was at Le Puy-en-Velay in the heart of the
Cevennes, which, though distant, belonged to the
Countship of Toulouse. If the tradition that St.
Antony was Guardian here be true he perhaps
founded the first house l of the Friars Minor in this
beautiful mountain city, with its wonderful volcanic
hills, the highest of which is crowned with a
glorious grey Cathedral built of lava. Two legends
come down to us from Le Puy.

A notary of Le Puy, of notorious life, was much dis-
composed by the fact that, whenever he met Antony, the
Saint bowed down to the earth — as the notary believed, in
mock reverence. One day he very angrily asked him
(threatening him with death if he did it again,) why he
chose thus to deride him publicly ? To which Blessed
Antony made reply that he knew by revelation that the
grace of martyrdom for which he had most earnestly longed
and sought was denied him, but would be granted to the
notary. 4< And when this crown shall be given you," con-
tinued the Saint, " then remember me, I beg you, and pray
for me." The notary laughed him to scorn, but shortly
afterwards, touched by grace, he joined in a crusade organ-
ized by the Bishop of Le Puy against the Saracens, fought,
and gained his crown almost as the martyrs of Morocco had
won theirs,

1 Now a private house.

38 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

The other legend is this : —

A woman came to inquire of the Saint what manner of
child should be born to her. Antony told her she would bear
a son, that his name should be Philip, that he would become
a Friar Minor, and die a martyr, all of which things came
to pass.

But when we come to Berry and the Limousin
we deal with facts as well as legend. It was prob-
ably in 1225 that St. Antony became Custodian1
at Bourges, that picturesque town clustering round
its magnificent Gothic Cathedral where our Saint
doubtless preached; which rises stately across the
grey water-meadows and purple heaths of that flat,
but charming country. The Franciscan convent, of
which no traces are left, was near the centre of the
town, which, with its quaint cobbled streets is prob-
ably to-day in many respects much what it was in
the thirteenth century.

Not very far from the Cathedral stands the beau-
tiful grey stone church of St. Pierre-le-Guillard,
built, says tradition, by the heretic who was con-
verted by his mule. This miracle, like so many
others, is claimed by at least three different places ;
Rimini and Toulouse (the latter almost certainly on
insufficient grounds) dispute the honour with
Bourges.2 Without discussing the question of lo-
cality (which cannot without more precise evidence
be definitely settled), the miracle itself may be re-

1 The Custodian had charge of several monasteries in a
Province, directly under the Provincial.

2 The evidence for all three places is excellently given in
P. Dal Gal's " Life of St. Antony," pp. 81-87.

"MALLEUS HMRETICORUM." 39

lated here. Though Berry was not a hotbed of
heresy like Languedoc the Albigeois were still
both numerous and aggressive, and St. Antony
preached to them continually and successfully, re-
ceiving many into the Church. But " an obstinate
and crafty heretic refused, in spite of the exhor-
tations of Blessed Antony, to believe in the Real
Presence of the Body of our Lord under the species
of bread and wine in the Sacrament of the Altar.
Although the testimony of the Truth Who cannot
deceive, and Who said : 'This is My Body,' ought
to be enough for any faithful and humble soul, this
man would not yield. . . . Utterly devoid of faith,
and trusting only to the evidence of his senses, he
refused to admit the truth of the Sacrament, simply
because he could see no change take place in the
species. Touched by his incredulity " l St. Antony
asked him whether he would believe if his mule
should kneel and adore the Body of God. Where-
upon the man replied that he would keep his mule
without food for two days, and on the third would
bring it to the public square. There he would offer
it a measure of oats, while the Saint should be
present with the Blessed Sacrament in a ciborium.
" If the hungry animal leaves the oats to prostrate
before the Body of Christ I will confess with heart
and mouth the reality of the Sacrament." To this
the Saint agreed, adding that in case the mule re-
fused to adore "it would in no way affect the

1 This and the following quotations are from Rigauld, who,
however, says horse where almost every other legend says
mule. We have retained the latter word.

40 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

Truth," but ought rather to be attributed to his—
Antony's — sinfulness.

Accordingly the starving mule was brought on
the third day into the presence of a great crowd, in
the midst of which stood St. Antony, bearing rev-
erently the Blessed Sacrament, and near him the
heretic with the oats. The animal, " left free to go
wherever it chose, walked deliberately up to the
Body of Christ, bent its knees reverently before the
Saint who bore it, and remained kneeling till [he]
gave it permission to rise."

On the very spot, says tradition, where the
miracle took place the heretic built the beautiful
church of St. Pierre-le-Guillard, consecrated by the
Archbishop of Bourges in 1231, and evidently
designed " to perpetuate the memory of some won-
derful event ". Close by was built — tradition again
says, by the nephew of Guillard — a small chapel,
on the walls of which were a series of bas-reliefs re-
presenting the miracle. This was destroyed nearly
a century ago.1 There is little doubt that both
church and chapel were votive.

The Archbishop of Bourges, Simon de Sully, had
no love for the new Franciscan Order. In spite of
its formal approval at Rome, he, like many another
aristocratic prelate, looked upon it as an innovation.
At a certain synod in Bourges when St. Antony was

1 The present (1910) cure of St. Pierre-le-Guillard has
spoken to old people who remember going to Catechism in
the Chapel of the Mule, as children. The evidence in
favour of Rimini is purely negative.

"MALLEUS H&RETICORUM." 41

preaching he turned suddenly to the Archbishop.
" To thee I speak, mitre-bearer," * he cried, and he
proceeded openly to reproach him with certain
" hidden faults," supporting his words with passages
from Scripture, until the Archbishop was " seized
with compunction and moved to tears, and to a
devotion hitherto unfelt." At the close of the
Sermon he " humbly manifested to [the Saint] the
wounds of his conscience," confessing that he had
spoken the truth. " From that time forth he was
more faithful to God and a devoted friend to the
Friars." 2

What were the faults which Antony, greatly
daring, yet God's chosen instrument, rebuked in
his Archbishop, the friend of St. Louis and of the
Pope ? A certain slackness in his duties of which
he was (1231) accused was disproved by him. The
most probable explanation is his well-known hostility
to the Order, of which he now became the firm
supporter.

One-third of St. Antony's Apostolate was spent
in France, and perhaps his most beautiful miracles
were wrought here. He seems to have possessed,
if not the gift of tongues, an extraordinary aptitude
for " picking up " a new language. He must have
spoken at least four : Latin, Italian, Portuguese, and
French, with the greatest fluency, for though he
preached in the language of the country he habitu-
ally wrote his sermons in Latin, the common tongue
of learning.

1 " Tibi loquor, cornnte." a Rigauld.

42 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

In 1223 the Friars Minor had first come to Li-
moges, a fine fortified town on the Vienne. Here,
as so often happened, they were befriended by the
Benedictines, between whom and the new Order
there existed a strong and beautiful tie of sympathy.
Their first convent was at St. Paul's,1 not far from
the grand Abbey of St. Martin. Early in 1226 St.
Antony was sent to Limoges as Custodian. He
preached his first sermon here in the Cemetery of
St. Paul, from the text: "Weeping endureth fora
night, but joy cometh in the morning ". His second
was preached in the Abbey Church of St. Martin,
on the words, " Who will give me the wings of a
dove, that I may fly away and be at peace ".2 Dom
Pierre Coral, the Benedictine Abbot, almost im-
mediately made him a grant of a second site, close
to the Abbey, and not far from the Cathedral.3 It
was here, and in the magnificent Church of St.
Pierre - du - Queyroix whose slender steeple with
that of St. Michel-aux-Lions rises clear above the
huddled roofs of the highest part of the city, that
St. Antony's most wonderful miracle was performed.

1 Now the site of the railway-station. In the courtyard
of the Hotel de Bordeaux, just outside, still exists the Friars'
Well— "la Fontaine des Menudets " now sealed up. The
present Church of St. Paul is modern. (See " Notice sur
St. Antoine de Padoue en Limousin," par l'Abb£ Arbellot,
Limoges, 1880.)

2 "Arbellot," ut sup., pp. 6, 8.

3 St. Antony's convent stood on the site of the present
11 Palais Militaire " — i.e. barracks. The friars only remained
here seventeen years. In 1243 they removed to a third house
between the Cathedral and the river, which belonged to the
Order till the Revolution.

"MALLEUS HMRETICORUM." 43

It was the night of Holy Thursday, 1226, and
the Saint was preaching, doubtless from the great
mystery of the day, to a crowded congregation in
the beautiful church of St. Pierre-du-Queyroix.
The people were hanging on his words. Suddenly
he remembered that he was due in the choir of his
convent to read the last lesson at Matins. He had
forgotten to arrange for a substitute. There was
no time now ; St. Pierre-du-Queyroix is ten minutes'
walk from the convent, even could he leave the
pulpit. What followed was witnessed by the hun-
dreds who were present. St. Antony leant for-
ward in the pulpit, drew his cowl over his head so
as to conceal his face, and remained silent for a few
minutes. At the same moment his brethren in
choir saw him walk out from his stall, read his
lesson, and return to his place, whence he im-
mediately disappeared. Then, as the people in
the great church gazed, wondering, the hooded
figure in the pulpit once more stood upright, threw
back his cowl, and the Saint continued his sermon.
It was by this wonderful miracle of bi-location that
Almighty God permitted St. Antony to show his
devotion to the Divine Office.1

The miracle, attested as it was by the whole body
of friars, and more than a thousand of the popula-
tion, produced the most profound impression. No
church in Limoges was henceforth large enough

1 The present pulpit is of the Renaissance. The church
with its beautiful double aisles is of the twelfth-thirteenth
centuries, Legend attributes a similar miracle to Mont-
pellier.

44 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

to contain the crowds which flocked to hear the
Miracle-worker. Antony began to preach in the
open air, in a wide empty space at the top of a low
hill dominating the city,1 Creux des Arenes. Here
a second miracle took place. One day, shortly
after the sermon had begun, clouds were seen to
roll up, distant thunder grew loud, and there was
every sign that a terrific storm was about to break.
The people naturally began to seek shelter. " But
the Man of God tranquillized them, saying quietly :
1 Fear not, do not move nor cease listening to the
Divine Word, for I trust in Him Who never suffers
us to trust in vain, that the rain will not touch
you'." And this came to pass, for, continues
Rigauld, "the Almighty . . . withheld the rain
from falling on their assembly, though all around
them it poured in torrents. . . . When I entered
the Order many Friars who had been present at
this sermon were still living," declares the Limousin
chronicler, " they even told me on what subject the
Saint was preaching. Their testimony is worthy of
entire belief, for they bore witness to what they had
actually seen and heard."

The gift of discernment of spirits was granted in
large measure to Antony. Brother Peter, a novice
lately received into the convent at Limoges, was be-
set by such cruel temptations to leave the Order
that he had secretly determined to run away. St.
Antony being aware of this " by an interior light,"
sent for the novice one day, and after a few ques-
tions "opened the young man's mouth with his

1 To-day laid out as a public garden.

"MALLEUS H&RETICORUM." 45

hands, and breathing into it said, ' Receive ye the
Holy Ghost ' ". From that hour to his last Brother
Peter, who lived and died a fervent religious, de-
clared he never had another such temptation.

These things could not be hid. All through the
towns and villages of the Limousin the fame of
the Miracle-worker was noised abroad, as he trav-
elled about continually, preaching to large con-
gregations in the open air. At St. Junien when the
church would not contain the people, and a wooden
pulpit was hastily extemporized outside, he declared
aloud before beginning his sermon : " I know that
presently, during the sermon, the enemy will attempt
to molest you, but do not fear, for no one will be
injured by his attempt ". Very soon the hastily
erected pulpit broke down, " causing great excite-
ment, but without the slightest injury to anyone ".
Thus, as the people saw that this wonderful friar
was also a prophet, their veneration grew to awe,
and the rest of his sermon was listened to " with
even greater reverence ".

A life like this might well have taxed the strongest
constitution, and Antony's was enfeebled by disease,
and by ceaseless austerities. At the great Benedic-
tine Abbey of Solignac, between Limoges and Brive,
he fell ill, and was tenderly nursed in the infirmary.
The monk in whose care he was had for long been
a prey to the most violent and cruel temptations,
and, as in the case of his own novice, this was under-
stood of our Saint " by revelation ". One day when
they were alone the sick man spoke to the monk
with the greatest tenderness, revealing to him his

46 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

knowledge, and begging him to put on the tunic
which he himself had worn. And as the shadow of
St. Peter, much less the garments he had worn,
healed the sick, so it was with the spiritual malady.
" Scarcely had the tunic of Brother Antony touched
the body of the tempted monk than ... his soul
was healed."

Antony's austerities were unusual, even in that
austere age. The chain which he wore next his
skin was long preserved in the Limoges convent.
By continual prayer, by severest fasting, by cruel
disciplines, he brought his own body into subjection,
lest when he had preached to others he himself
should be a castaway. Often " his trembling feet
were scarce able to support him ". The disease
which so early cut short his life had already laid
hold of him, but he never spoke of his sufferings, or
complained. " Therefore," says Rigauld, with beau-
tiful simplicity, " his blessed spirit being but slightly
burdened with the weight of the flesh, raised itself
on high, so that all his conversation was in Heaven ;
and by reason of this Almighty God from on High
saw and granted his desires."

One sanctuary in France, the monastery of Brive,
between Toulouse and Limoges can lay claim to
the special honour of having been founded by St.
Antony himself. Tradition tells us the first Fran-
ciscan habitation here was in the celebrated Grot-
toes, crevices partly natural, partly hollowed out of
the rock on which stands the present monastery —
now " secularized " and rented from the Government,
which stole it, by a private individual. Here to-day

"MALLEUS H^RETICORUM." 47

the very cave is shown in which the Saint is believed
to have lived ; here the water falls drop by drop into
the little basin which he is said to have scooped out
of the rock that he might drink. But whether the
first friars lived in the Grottoes — which is more
than probable, remembering the Carceri and La
Verna — or in huts hard by, we have Rigauld's testi-
mony that St. Antony founded the Monastery of
Brive. Two beautiful miracles took place here.
The Grottoes are situated some distance outside
the town, and it is to be feared the wants of the
brethren were sometimes forgotten. One day when
there was literally nothing to eat, St. Antony sent
to beg a certain great lady to send them some vege-
tables from her garden. The lady bade her servant
go and gather a large basketful, but the girl at first
refused, saying that it was impossible that she should
go out into the kitchen garden in the pouring rain.
However, so earnestly did her mistress beg her that
at last she yielded, and collecting a big basket of
carrots, onions, and cabbages, ran with them through
the storm to the monastery, where they were grate-
fully received. When she returned, in spite of the
torrential rain, which had not ceased for an instant,
not a thread of her dress nor a hair of her head was
wet. The son of the lady in question, Pierre, Canon
of Noblac, "often related this miracle, which he
had heard from his mother ".

No wonder the people loved him when his charity
and courtesy were shown by such miracles as this !

The next deals with a very different world. It
was St. Antony's custom to remain in the tiny ora-

48 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

tory after Compline in the evening until the hour
of Matins at midnight, in contemplation. One
night when the moon was at its full the brethren
came anxiously to call him out of choir, and to
point out that in a field close by, belonging to a
neighbour who had shown great kindness to them,
a gang of men was busily engaged in tearing up and
trampling down the springing corn. But the Saint
answered : " Leave it alone, brothers . . . and
continue your prayers, for this is only a trick of
your enemy to disturb your night's rest and inter-
rupt your prayer. Hold it for certain that no harm
shall happen to our benefactor, nor shall anything
be destroyed in his field." And so it happened,
for next morning the field lay fair and untouched,
" whereby they understood the devil's artifice, and
conceived a still greater veneration for the piety
and prayers of the Saint ".1

There are countless legends of the Limousin :
the woman whose child, fallen into a boiling caul-
dron, was miraculously restored to life ; another,
whose husband in a fit of jealousy tore out her
hair, which was restored to her by the prayer of
St. Antony ; yet another who, prevented by her
husband's sickness from being present at St. An-
tony's open-air sermon, heard him from her window
two miles off, as she watched the congregation far
away. But above all others stands out the beauti-
ful legend of the Apparition of the Holy Child.2

1This miracle is also claimed by Limoges. We may
perhaps call it the first Franciscan ghost-story !

2 There is, alas ! no contemporary evidence for this Appari-

"MALLEUS H^RETICORUM." 49

At Chateau-neuf St. Antony was the guest of a pious
gentleman who, overcome with the honour of receiving the
Saint into his house, took the unpardonable liberty of
watching him secretly when he believed himself to be
alone. He saw the Saint holding in his arms a beautiful
child, whom he kissed with the greatest reverence and
devotion, gazing upon His face with adoration. The aston-
ished and stupefied host was pointed out by the Divine Child
to Antony who immediately turned, and rebuking his curi-
osity, made him promise never to speak of what he had seen
during his lifetime. But at the Saint's death the man pro-
claimed the story everywhere.

Such is the legend. Another apparition, that of
St. Francis himself, yet living, and at the time in
Italy, comes down to us on incontestable authority.
At the Provincial Chapter of Aries, in Provence,
where the friars had a convent l between the
Cathedral of St. Trophimus and the great Roman
amphitheatre, St. Antony was preaching to the as-
sembled friars " in sweet and earnest words " from
the title over the Cross : "Jesus Nazarenus> Rex
Judaorum ". Suddenly Brother Monaldo, " a man
of tried virtue," looked up, and beheld over the
doorway the figure of the Seraphic Father, his

tion. The first mention of it is in the " Liber Miraculorum "
(1367) ; and the first known representation of St. Antony
with the Holy Child was painted in 1459. No less than
three places, Padua, Chateau-neuf, and Camposampiero
claim to be the scene of it. It is related of a number of
other Saints.

1 To-day a pensionnat. The chapter-house is used for
meals. A large stove stands on one side, from which a
long black pipe runs up to the roof, through the beautiful
vaulted, painted ceiling.

4

50 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

pierced hands outstretched in blessing. Thus did
Francis "bear . . . testimony to Antony, who . . .^had
so earnestly desired, and still continued to desire,
the sufferings of the cross ".

Of all the supernatural occurrences which gem
the life of Blessed Antony this is the most remark-
ably authenticated. For not only did Fra Monaldo,
its eye-witness, affirm it, not only did St. Bonaven-
ture, Jean Rigauld, and others, record it ; but St.
Francis himself " openly attested the truth of it ".
Though this is of course not a miracle of our Saint
it is one of the " signs following " which confirmed
his apostolate. The date of this apparition is
unknown, but it must have happened before 4 Oc-
tober, 1226.

The last miracle recorded of St. Antony in
France shines out from a crowd of beautiful
legends. It happened in a little Provencal village
on the way to Marseilles, whither he was hastening
en route for Italy after hearing of the death of St.
Francis. Blessed Antony and his companion, worn
with travel, had been invited by a poor woman to
rest and dine in her house. Hastening down to the
cellar to draw a jug of wine, the woman in her ex-
citement and joy left the cask running, so that all
the wine was spilt. Quite unaware of this, she set
the jug, with glasses, and such food as she pos-
sessed before her guests. The second friar, on
lifting his glass, accidentally knocked it against the
table so roughly that it was broken in two. The
woman said nothing, but she went down to the
cellar again, and there, finding the wine on the

"MALLEUS HMRETICORUM." 51

floor and the cask empty, she wept aloud, and
rushed upstairs " distracted with grief, disconsolate,
beside herself. . . . Then Blessed Antony, touched
with her grief, covered his face with his hands,
and bent over the table . . . and while the
woman anxiously awaited the result and the end
of his prayer a marvellous thing suddenly took
place : the goblet which was at one end of the
table came and placed itself upon the stem which
was at the other end." Astonished, the woman
shook the wineglass roughly, but it was whole.
" Only the power of the Saint's prayer could have
done this. Believing that the same power that had
restored the glass was quite able to restore the wine
she had lost," she ran down to the cellar. Accord-
ing to her faith was her reward. " She was not
disappointed of her hope ; " for the half-cask she
had lost she found a brimming cask of new wine
" sparkling and bubbling ". " God had just created
it to spare His humble servant Antony from shame
and reproach, and to make known . . . the power
of his prayer.0

St. Antony " made haste to leave the village
. . . where he would have been held in honour,"
and continued his journey. But as the woman
gazed after her marvellous guest she perhaps under-
stood that in this weary, travel-worn stranger she
too had entertained an Angel unawares.

4*

52 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

CHAPTER V.

(1226-1230.)
"FCEDERIS ARCA."

WE now arrive at a period of St. Antony's life of
which we know even less than we do of his early
years in the Order. Between the years 1226 (when
he hastily returned to Italy on the news of St. Fran-
cis's death) and 1229, when Rolandino definitely
states he first came to Padua, we have practically
no contemporary data, though it is true these years
are amply filled with details by the legends of the
fourteenth-eighteenth centuries. We are thus in-
formed that at Easter, 1227, Antony was sent on a
special mission to Rome by the Minister-General,
and there appointed by the Pope to preach to the
pilgrims of all nations who had gathered for the
Holy Week ceremonies, when the miracle of Pente-
cost renewed itself, and French and English, Slavs
and Germans listening as one man to the sermon,
each understood it in his own tongue. That after
the General Chapter at Assisi at which he was
created Provincial of Emilia (Romagna, the north-
east side of Italy, comprising the country between
Bologna and the Veneto, the Veronese and Trevi-
san Marches, and Adriatic seaboard), Antony again
preached at Rimini, and then made an extended
tour through his province, visiting Venice, Treviso,
and Udine, and preaching Lent at Padua in 1228.
That he then proceeded to Ferrara and Bologna,

" FCEDERIS ARCA." 53

crossing the Apennines by the great road to Flor-
ence, which he reached in the autumn, and preached
Advent, 1228, and Lent, 1229, in that city; after
which he went north to Milan, where he had a
great controversy with the Catharists, and then
made a mission-tour through the Italian lake-
country, winding up with Mantua, Verona, and
Padua. That in 1230, after the General Chapter at
Assisi, he again visited Rome on important affairs
of the Order, and spent a long period at La Verna
on his way back to Padua, in which city, after paying
a visit to Verona and reducing the tyrant Ezzelino
to abject submission, he spent the rest of his life.
These legends are in part very possibly true,1 but
we have no definite records. Three facts alone are
absolutely certain: (i) St. Antony was present at
the General Chapter in 1230, whence (2) he went
to Rome, and (3) was at Padua both before and
after those events. But as to the years 1226-29 we
can only conjecture. It is possible that he was at
the Chapter of 1227, and he was evidently elected
to office, probably as Provincial of Emilia, for at
the next General Chapter (1230) we find the Saint
released at his own request from all administrative
work.

1 We may entirely dismiss the extraordinary legends which
record how the Saint appeared suddenly (twice) in Lisbon
to vindicate the innocence of his father, on one occasion ac-
cused of embezzlement, and on the other of child-murder !
As M. de Kerval amusingly points out, the unfortunate noble-
man must have had either a startling reputation, or been
amazingly unlucky !

54 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

St. Francis was canonized at Assisi in 1228, but
we have no record that Antony was present, which
would be explained by the fact of his absence in a
distant part of the country. We can only conclude
that during these three years he was engaged in
Italy in active work, probably administrative. Le-
gend, however, clothes these years with miracles,
such as the story of the Florentine usurer, whose
heart, declared the Saint after the man's death,
would be found among his treasure, as indeed it
was.1 The legend of the Faded Sins is too beauti-
ful to omit, though, alas ! it is first related of St. John
Climacus (525-605) and after him of at least two
other Saints. A penitent, one of the crowds which
thronged St. Antony's confessional, was so overcome
with contrition that he was unable to utter a single
word. The Saint bade him write on a slip of paper
the sins which he could not repeat. But as Antony
glanced at the list the sins effaced themselves one
by one till nothing was left but a sheet of white
paper !

Of the two miracles vouched for by Jean Rigauld,
one is attributed by no less an authority than St.
Antoninus of Florence to St. Peter of Verona, the
Dominican Inquisitor martyred in 1252 by the
Catharists. It is one of those sculptured in low
relief round the walls of the Cappella del Santo at
Padua, and by whichever Saint performed the
story is as follows : —

1 This legend belongs to the extensive category of those
in which a simple fact or figure of speech is made the peg on
which future centuries hang a startling miracle.

'» FCEDERIS ARCA." 55

A young man confessed to the Saint that in a fit
of rage he had kicked his mother so violently as to
throw her to the ground. " Seeing his compunc-
tion the Man of God enjoined him amongst other
things to beg pardon most humbly of his mother."
This the young man did, but his mother would only
say that though he had her forgiveness he would
doubtless never obtain that of Almighty God.
" On hearing these words, overcome with grief, he
. . . chopped off the foot, which had struck his
mother, with a hatchet ; " whereupon his cries and
those of his mother brought the whole neighbour-
hood to the spot. " At that moment," continues
Rigauld, " the Man of God happened to be passing ;
and when the cause of the tumult was explained
to him he remembered that some one had accused
himself in confession of having struck his mother,
and entered the house." Taking the foot in his
hands, he " held it to the place from which it had
been cut," while praying earnestly, and in a moment
the limb was whole. " Thus were shown the effi-
cacy of contrition and confession in the young man,
and also the power of Antony's prayer."

The whole scene is so characteristically and
typically Italian that even were it not vouched for
we should smile over its realistic truth. The second
miracle is a very beautiful one : The Cathari who,
like all heretics, were continually quoting Scripture
to serve their own ends, invited our Saint to a meal
at which a poisoned dish was set before him. An-
tony, who was aware of this by revektion, men-
tioned it to his hosts, who replied that they were

ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

merely anxious to make an experiment. " Is it not
said in the Holy Gospel," they urged, " ' eat that
which shall be set before
you ? ' And again, ' if ye
drink any deadly thing it
shall not harm you'?"

Then the Saint, with splen-
did simplicity, made the sign
of the Cross over the food,
saying : " I eat this, not with
the design of tempting God,
but of showing my zeal for
the salvation of these souls,
and for the Faith of the
Gospel ! "

He was rewarded by the
conversion of his hosts.

It was not until 1229 that
our Saint visited Padua. It
may at first seem strange that
his name should be indis-
solubly connected with a city
which he never entered till
within two years of his death.
The explanation is simple —
he loved it. Thrice he chose
it, twice to live and once to
die there, and there his holy
body rests to-day. From
the first the devotion of the
people to St. Antony was overwhelming, — indeed
it speedily became even embarrassing ! And as

St. Antony of Padua
(Sienese School)

"FCEDERIS ARCA." 57

those can testify who in our own day have the
privilege of being present in Padua at his feast,
the Miracle-worker, after seven centuries, is a real
living personality to the countless thousands who
flock to his tomb. He is " // Santo" to-day
throughout the whole of the Veneto — " The Saint "
whom it is unnecessary even to name ! It is to
the Saint that citizens, peasants, and pilgrims
(quite literally) sob out their troubles, whisper their
joys and confide their difficulties. His tomb, per-
haps the most beautiful in Italy, is actually hung
with the ex-voti which, quite regardless of decora-
tive effect, St. Antony's clients attach to the marble
walls ; from the silver heart and the framed photo-
graph to crutches, and a pair of little rough shoes !
He lives in the heart of the Paduans to-day as
literally as he did when he raised their dead and
healed their sick. His tomb, go when one will, at
any hour of any day, is never deserted. Great
rough men will lean against it with closed eyes,
their big toil-stained hands spread out upon the
marble which shuts in the body of // Santo^ tears
stealing down their cheeks, until they are pushed
on to make way for others eager to take their place.
St. Antony's Feast at Padua is an overwhelming
triumph, which must be seen to be understood,
and which conveys with extraordinary power the
conviction of the objective reality of the Com-
munion of Saints. To watch the crowding thou-
sands for whom it is the great day of the year must
surely encourage those who are inclined to lose
heart at the present critical condition of Italy.

58 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

Anarchist processions may march through her great
cities, bearing unashamed the banner inscribed :
" Neither God nor King ; " l Freemasonry and
Socialism may prepare to do their worst ; but
against the cult of Antony of Padua not even that of
Francisco Ferrer shall prevail !

Padua in 1229, says Rolandino, was enjoying
" an unaccustomed peace " ; and welcomed eagerly
the Friar-Apostle who was probably making his
Provincial visitation. This ancient city, one of the
three oldest in Italy, with its chequered history of
nearly nine centuries, plays so important a part in
the final years of St. Antony's life that we shall do
well to try to understand something of its political
status in the thirteenth century. For we must
never forget that though in many cases we have lost
important details of the lives of our Friar Saints,
they were some of them of national importance,
and many of them helped to make history. St.
Dominic, St. Bonaventure, St. Pius V, St. John
Capistran, the Saint-King Louis of France, — such
names as these, and others besides are written for
all time across the archives of many nations. We
are perhaps too apt to think of St. Antony as a
beautiful, but rather indistinct figure in an ancient
fresco, surrounded by a radiant indefinite halo of
tradition and miracle ; or as a slightly unreal, almost
legendary person like those solemn painted figures
stiff in gorgeous mosaic which we see in the glorious
Byzantine Churches of Ravenna and Venice, instead
of as a man of intensely strong personality, whose
1 *' Ne Dio, ne Piemonte " (Florence, 16 Oct., 1910).

" FCEDERIS ARC A." 59

character was informed by an irrepressible and virile
energy ! For this energy had its origin in the quench-
less enthusiasm of the idealist, and as its motive power
the passionate longing to serve Almighty God through
the Franciscan Order. Though he certainly was
never concerned with national politics we shall
better appreciate the position filled by this sweetest
of Saints if we glance briefly at the contemporary
history of his adopted country.

When Pope Leo III, on Christmas Day, 800,
crowned Charlemagne at Rome, the government of
Italy was about to be divided between Pope and
Emperor. Bologna, Ravenna, Umbria, and Rome
were the Papal States, while Tuscany and all the
country to the north formed part of the Empire.
But the great towns, such as Florence, Pisa, Mantua,
and Milan were self-governing, and only as feudal
vassals acknowledged the Emperor's sway. Such
rising republics as Genoa and Venice were practic-
ally independent. In Charlemagne's day the Holy
Roman Empire was a vast tract extending from
Brittany to Vienna, and to the Emperor was com-
mitted the suzerainty over the greater part of Italy.
In 850 France became a separate kingdom. In the
thirteenth century the empire comprised Germany
(as far as the Oder, but not Prussia), Belgium, Hol-
land, the greater part of Austria with Vienna, Hun-
gary, Switzerland and Burgundy, including Avignon,
Lyon, and the Rhone valley.

Calabria, Sicily, and Naples had been added (by
a royal marriage) to the Emperor's domains, but on
the distinct understanding that there should be no

6o ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

attempt to unite these provinces with those in the
north, for the Papal States lay between. It is evi-
dent, then, that the temporal power and possessions
of the Pope were to a certain extent dependent on
the good faith of the Emperor.

In St. Antony's day Frederic II, a man of unusual
gifts, unbridled passions, and unrestrained ambition,
ruled over the Empire, and was causing great scandal
throughout Christendom. Gregory IX, who be-
came Pope in 1227 (the nephew of Pope Innocent
III, who had placed Frederic on the throne) had
twice excommunicated him, first for refusing, con-
trary to his oath, to undertake a crusade to Palestine,
and later for concluding a most shameful peace with
the Saracens. Frederic, enraged, invaded the Papal
States from the south, and succeeded more than
once in driving the Pope out of Rome, whither he
did not return till 1230. After this disgraceful out-
rage the Emperor, making a pretended submission,
revenged himself (1229-30) by letting loose upon
Verona and the Veneto a distant relation of his own,
that " tiger in human form," Ezzelino da Romano,
whose barbarities are still spoken of in the country
with bated breath. For Italy, always a hotbed of
party -politics and intrigue, was then torn by the
rival factions of Guelf and Ghibelline — roughly
speaking, the Papal party and that of the empire.
To place a Ghibelline prince to rule over Guelfs, and
so touch the Pope through his people, was, to Fred-
eric II, a sheer delight. Ezzelino came to Verona
in the same year as Antony came to Padua, and the
"unusual peace" of 1229 must have given place

"FCEDERIS ARCA." 61

swiftly to gloom, for the cities were neighbours, and
sisters. Verona's peril was Padua's danger, and
though the latter city was not attacked during the
Saint's life-time, the danger, as we shall see, was
imminent.

St. Antony lived, then, in troublous days. Italy
was as ever divided against herself; the Catharist
heresy was rampant ; the Holy Father was perse-
cuted ; and even in the new Franciscan Order discus-
sions were arising. Lawlessness and indifference
prevailed everywhere ; and though the horrors of
the fourteenth century were not yet, when the Pope
was driven out of Italy and a Papal legate flayed
alive in the streets of Florence,1 men's hearts al-
ready were failing them for fear, and the love, even
of the faithful, was growing cold.

Above this gloomy sea of trouble the Friar Saints
of the thirteenth century shine like stars, and chief
among them Antony, Sidus Hispanice. On his ar-
rival in Padua he took up his abode at the Monastery
of Sta. Maria Maggiore2 presented to the friars,
with its small church by the Bishop, Jacopo Cor-
rado, and " there he gave himself up assiduously to
the task of preaching ". " But though his body
lived on earth with his brethren his soul dwelt in
Heaven."

The terrible disease 3 of which he died by this

1 1378.

2 The chapel of the •' Madonna Mora," with its enormously
thick walls, adjoining St. Antony's chapel in the present
Basilica (which was built over its site) is the only remaining
portion of this church.

3 Dropsy.

62 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

time seriously affected his health, which was quite
unfit to stand the strain of continual sermons, long
hours spent in the confessional, and of frequent
journeys on foot to the neighbouring towns and
villages. To the last hour of his life nothing would
induce him to accept any modification of the severe
Rule for the ease of the " little ass," l as St. Francis
had styled his suffering body. He worked to the
end, even adding to his present labours that of writ-
ing his first volume of sermons (Sermones Domini-
cales)? besides preaching daily throughout Lent, 1230.
Legend tells us that while in Padua he was the
spiritual director of Blessed Helen Enselmini, a lady
of noble family in the city who was certainly at
that time a Poor Clare in the convent at Arcella,
just outside the gates. Basing his story perhaps on
a few words in a lesson for her Feast, Fra Mariano
of Florence, O.F.M. (the enemy of Savonarola),
writing 250 years later, has not scrupled to build up
the legend of a spiritual connexion resembling in
degree that between St. Francis and St. Clare.
There is absolutely no foundation for this, nor do
we certainly know that St. Antony even visited
Arcella, till he came there to die, though it is nat-
ural and probable. An earlier biographer of the
fifteenth century, who chronicles the lives both of
St. Antony and Blessed Helen 3 makes not the
least reference in either case to the other.4

1 Asinello.

2 An important critic fixes the writing of these sermons
at Limoges, 1226.

3 She is buried in Sta, Sophia, the oldest church in Padua.

4 Sicco Polentone.

"FCEDERIS ARCA." 63

We are on surer ground with regard to St.
Antony's connexion with the Third Order. The
penitential confraternity of Colombini which he
founded was, almost certainly, a congregation of
Tertiaries. It was important, say the city records,
and very numerous. The members built a special
church — Our Lady of the Dove. They wore a
long ash-coloured tunic, and were girt with the
Franciscan cord, " such as the Saint wore ". Like
all the P'riar Saints, Antony was aware of the im-
portance of the Third Order, and of the extraordin-
ary power for good which such an organized
body might be, and he continually urged his peni-
tents and converts to enter it.

Soon after Easter, 1230, he travelled to Assisi;
May 25 was fixed for the Translation of the relics
of St. Francis from St. George's Church, where
miracle was already succeeding miracle, to the
beautiful partly finished Basilica just built by Brother
Elias at the command of the Pope, — the present
church of San Francesco. What is now known as
the Lower Church was then ready ; the Provincials
and many Cardinals were assembling ; and Pope
Gregory himself had promised to preside. After
the Translation a General Chapter was to be held.
But on May 22, three days before the date fixed,
Brother Elias persuaded the civic authorities of
Assisi to help him to remove the relics secretly,
and hide them in a safe place, lest, said he, they
should be stolen by one of the neighbouring towns !

Though the Feast of Translation was actually
held on May 25, — for every one had assembled,

64 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

though the Pope was unable to be present ; though
the magnificent ceremonies as far as possible were
carried out, the high-handed act of Brother Elias
was looked upon by all as a sacrilege and profana-
tion, and anger against him waxed hot. He was
not even at that time Minister-General, John Parenti
having been elected at the General Chapter of
1227.

It is impossible here to give even a brief sketch
of this extraordinary man's career. This, however,
may be said : he has found no biographer to give
us his own side of the many controversies in which
he involved not only himself, but the whole Order.
A man of unusual gifts and high administrative
ability, chosen by St. Francis as his Vicar, Elias,
while possessing in a curious degree the confidence
and esteem of the Poverello, was privately convinced
of the impossibility of putting the original Rule, as
the Order developed, into literal practice. " His
ideal was to make the Friars Minor a powerful and
disciplined Order : powerful in order to resist their
enemies . . . disciplined because [their] rapid de-
velopment imperatively demanded it. That which
Francis willed to accomplish solely by charity,
humility, and poverty, Elias hoped to bring about
by energy and common sense." l

Much has been written as to the relations be-
tween Antony and Elias. In reality before the
General Chapter of 1230 they had never come into
collision. At this Chapter, which immediately fol-
lowed the " Translation," three questions were most

iLepitre, p. 118.

"F(EDERIS ARCA." 65

hotly debated (for Elias had a considerable follow-
ing, and party feeling ran high) — (i) the scandal of
the Translation, (2) the exact force of the Will left
by St. Francis, (3) the election of Provincials.
The first was referred directly to the Pope, as was
eventually the second, though upon this there was a
stormy discussion, each one speaking for himself,
and unwilling, we are told, to listen even to St.
Antony. Finally seven delegates, with the Minister-
General John Parenti at their head and St. Antony
second, were chosen to visit Rome, and personally
to refer the question to the Holy Father. When
the Provincials were elected St. Antony begged to
be discharged from his office in order that he might
devote himself wholly to preaching, for which in
his humility he felt greater aptitude than for govern-
ment. The Minister-General not only granted his
request, but allowed him to choose his own abode.
Antony, says the " Legenda Prima," chose Padua,
" because of the faith of its people, of his love for
them, and of their devotion to the Order "-1

But before he could return — for the last time —
to the beloved city, he went to Rome. The ques-
tions submitted to Pope Gregory IX were perhaps
the most important in Franciscan annals. Was the
Will of St. Francis, made on his death-bed, binding

1 The story of the personal quarrel between Antony and
Elias (in the presence of the Pope 1) after which the former
was excommunicated (and even scourged !) by the latter's
order, is absolutely apocryphal. Elias, as a matter of fact,
was now banished to a distant convent to do penance for his
fault, " letting his hair and beard grow ".

5

66 ST. ANTONY CF PADUA.

by Rule on the Order ? Could the lofty ideal of
absolute poverty be observed as the Poverello had
desired ? Gregory, the friend of St. Francis and
of his Order, replied to the first in the negative ;
and as to the second, decided that in order to make
it possible to observe the Rule the friars should
choose a third person 1 to receive the money be-
stowed by their benefactors, whose representative
he should be juridically, and not theirs.

This question, the beginning of the sad story of
dissension in the Order, is touched upon here be-
cause there have not been wanting learned writers
to declare that St. Antony was the chief champion
of the original Rule left by St. Francis as opposed
to Elias, the head of the " relaxing " party ; while
others state exactly the contrary. On this point
there is no doubt at all. Putting aside the question
on its own merits, and that of the attitude of Elias,
which it is impossible here to discuss, it is clear
that while St. Antony was never in any sense of the
party of Elias, he was equally opposed to those who,
in their obstinate determination to adhere strictly
to the letter of the Rule, in defiance of the Pope,
formed later on the schism of the Zelanti. He
stood, with all the noblest sons of St. Francis, mid-
way between the two. Perfectly aware that the
Pontifical decision could over-rule the will of any
founder, he accepted with the whole body of loyal
Franciscans the modified Rule confirmed by Gregory
IX as the true Friars Minor have continued to do
ever since.

1 " Nuntius."

"FCEDERIS ARCA." 67

It must be remembered that Antony was at that
time one of the most learned men in the Order.
Educated at Coimbra, the close friend of Thomas
Gallo, first Franciscan Lector in Theology, and, as
we shall see, the first Franciscan orator, this great
Saint "had been attracted to the Order by his de-
sire of martyrdom, and if he remained in it after re-
nouncing this heroic hope, if he became in all things
a humble Religious, we must not rank him with
simple ignorant friars like Brother Giles, or Bernard
of Quintavalle ".* He looked upon the whole
matter with a more enlightened gaze than that of
an uneducated Religious, however holy. " He must
have understood that without departing from the
Founder's spirit it was useful and even necessary to
modify the Rule in some points ... on account
of the extraordinary development of the Franciscan
Family."2 What was possible for the few chosen
first companions of the Poverello was manifestly
impossible for a growing Order now numbered by
thousands. It had become necessary to merge the
Ideal in the Actual. That Antony fully realized
this is proved (if we accept as fact that he was
Provincial of Emilia, 1227-30) by two Papal bulls
(1227) confirming the gift by the Bishop of Vicenza,
of a church and convent at Bassano to the Friars
Minor, which must in his official capacity have
passed through Antony's hands. The same thing
may be said of the convent at Padua. Even sup-
posing the Saint was not Provincial he certainly ac-

1 Lepitre, p. 129. 2Dal Gal, pp. 189-90,

68 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

cepted these acts without protest. "This is the
truth," says an eminent writer1 of the same Order,
" and we state it simply to confirm the fact that St.
Antony was never opposed to the modification in-
troduced into the Rule by the celebrated Pontifical
Bull ( Quo elongati\ In this he was guided solely by
good sense and prudence, and not by any desire of
relaxation/'

Meanwhile our Saint had been preaching at
Rome with marvellous results. " Learned men/1
says Rigauld, " were astonished to find that so
acute a spirit, so eloquent an orator, could measure
out his words with such admirable discretion. . . .
His words drew back to the truth those who had
fallen into error, roused sinners to repentance, and
excited the good to do still better, so that no one
failed to receive benefit." Pope Gregory, who was
much attracted by him, and deeply impressed by
the consummate knowledge of Scripture of which
his sermons were the evidence, gave him the name of
" Ark of the Covenant ". Before he left the
Eternal City the Cardinal- Bishop of Ostia (after-
wards Pope Alexander IV) earnestly begged him
to undertake seriously the writing of those sermons
which were converting Italy, and this he promised
to do.

So for the second time, Antony journeyed
to Padua.

1 Dal Gal, 190.

"PRJEDICATOR EGREGIE." 69

CHAPTER VI.

(1230-1231.)
"PRJEDICATOR EGREGIE."

IN considering the last months of St. Antony's life
at Padua we have emerged from the mists of legend
and hypothesis, and are in the clear light of history.
On returning to the city in the autumn of 1230 he
set himself at once to the task of writing down his
sermons on the Saints : " Sermones in Festivitatibus
Sanctorum ; " and this great work occupied him
almost entirely throughout the winter. Sorely as
he needed rest he pitilessly spurred his flagging
energies, his body enfeebled by mortal sickness, to
even greater exertion. The effect of his stay in
Padua may be traced even to-day in the archives
of the city. We think of St. Antony chiefly as a
miracle-worker and a great preacher. He was this,
and even more — he was a social reformer and true
patriot, who pointed out fearlessly to his fellow-
citizens the highest destinies of their country.
These, he said, were to be achieved by outward
peace and interior reform in all classes of society,
for just as interior and perhaps hidden disease
harms the body far more than the knocks and
blows it may receive in daily life, so ceaseless
internecine strife was sapping the strength of Italy,
so secret sins were corrupting the lives of many
outwardly religious.

His nature was one in which the mystical was

70 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

combined with the intensely practical in such a
degree that his constant endeavour was to translate
the ideal into the actual. Such characters as these,
given the proper conditions, move the world.

Padua was a rich and flourishing city, the seat of
a recently founded (1222) University. Practically
untouched by the Catharist heresy, it was yet the
prey of other evils : luxury, extravagance, and
display of all sorts. To obtain money for their
pleasures the people had recourse to usurers, many
of whom were Jews, and all of whom exacted the
most exorbitant rates of interest, 28 per cent being
general in St. Antony's day, and 50 or even 60
not unusual ! Usury, one of the crying evils of the
century, had Padua firmly in its grip. So great
had the scandal become that the authorities,
fearing lest their University should be removed to
Vercelli, fixed the rate of interest for students at not
more than 20 per cent, after having tried to estab-
lish a system — which failed — to bring it down to
5 or 6. Scarcely a family in Padua was not
hopelessly in debt, with little prospect of freedom.
Nor was this the worst. Debtors unable to pay
were liable to be seized, and either banished or im-
prisoned for life, forfeiting at the same time all
their goods. Banks, as we understand them now,
were unknown, and the only way the people had of
raising money was to apply to the infamous
usurers. It is scarcely possible to exaggerate the
harm which this deeply rooted evil caused in
Europe, and especially in Italy during the Middle
Ages.

EGREGIE." 71

With the keen instinct of a true reformer St.
Antony warned the Paduans with all his eloquence
against the sin of guilty extravagance, the true
cause of the evil. He used all his power with the
authorities to get the existing law as to the treat-
ment of debtors altered, and as a result a statute
was passed (15 March, 1231) which enacted that
no citizen who yielded all his goods should hence-
forth be punished for debt by life-imprisonment
or banishment. It is expressly stated therein that
this decree was passed at the instance of Blessed
Antony.

Legend again surrounds the story of the Saint's
intervention with Ezzelino da Romano. This per-
sonage had been established by Frederic II as
Tyrant of Verona, which declared itself Ghibelline,
had succeeded in driving out nearly all the Guelf
nobles, and taken prisoner the rest. The van-
quished fled for help to Padua, a Guelf city, and
the governor had already attempted one unsuccess-
ful expedition to release the prisoners. Ezzelino's
name was terrible in the ears of all the inhabitants
of the Veneto. His barbarities " excited universal
horror in an age when inhumanity towards enemies
was as common as fear and revenge could make it.
. . . There is hardly an instance in European his-
tory of so sanguinary a government existing for
more than twenty years."1

No one felt safe with so grim a neighbour within
striking distance, and one who was moreover the
kinsman of the Emperor, their feudal lord. Neither

1 Hallam, " Europe during the Middle Ages," p. 171, note.

72 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

great nobles nor rich merchants, nor even poor vine-
dressers and peasants, held their lives worth an
hour's purchase if they fell into the clutches of
Ezzelino. Many of the nobility chose to dwell
chiefly in Padua, where they built great houses,
among whom we may reckon St. Antony's friend,
Count Tiso of Camposampiero.

It was necessary to find an ambassador to plead
with the tyrant for the release of his prisoners, and
St. Antony promised to go. Tradition says : —

When the Saint came into Ezzelino's presence he rebuked
him sharply, calling him cruel tyrant and mad dog, and
warning him that he was threatened with a terrible punish-
ment from God. Ezzelino was about to have him slain, but as
he looked there came from Antony's eyes so terrible a light
that the unhappy man felt, he said, as if he were plunged into
hell. He knelt at the Saint's feet (as commonly represented
in the many fine pictures painted of this scene), promising
to let loose the prisoners, and perform whatever penance
might be allotted to him. Another tradition tells us how later,
to test the Saint's vow of poverty, he sent messengers with
rich gifts to Antony, instructing them to kill him immediately
if he should accept them.

Such are the legends, the second of which may
be utterly dismissed.

The facts are these : Antony did intercede with
Ezzelino for the prisoners — a fact which shows both
his patriotism and personal courage — but quite un-
successfully. All he said " availed nothing ". The
prisoners were not released till 1 232, a year after the
Saint's death. Results are always subjectively the
least important part of any action, and though St.

" PR^DICATOR EGREGIE." 73

Antony was grieved, he had done his duty, and
left the rest to God.

The Lent of 1231 was the culminating point of
St. Antony's apostolate. He gave himself up en-
tirely to preaching and hearing confessions. But
he was not allowed to do this in peace. Once more
" the ancient enemy who ceases not to hinder good
works," endeavoured to weary him with temptations.
Finding this useless, one night at the beginning of
Lent the devil "seized him by the throat and
wrung it so hard that he was almost strangled ".
The Saint instantly signed himself with the cross,
calling on the Holy Name of Mary to deliver him
and put the enemy to flight. "Opening his eyes,
he saw the cell full of the most brilliant light,
which being intolerable to the enemy of all light he
departed in confusion."

For this we have Antony's own testimony, given
in his lifetime to another friar, says " Legenda
Prima". "Nor can we wonder," adds Rigauld
quaintly, " that the devil tried to strangle Antony."

" So anxious were the people to hear him, and so
great were the crowds that collected," says Rigauld,
" that daily stations had to be erected in all the
churches. Very soon, however, the churches were
insufficient to contain them, and they were obliged
to assemble in the vast meadows and plains which
surround the city : there the clergy as well as the
people flocked to hear him ; they came from all the
surrounding towns and villages, and every one tried
to secure a place beforehand wherever the sermon
was to be preached. Shopkeepers shut their shops,

74 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

and would on no account sell anything whatever
until the sermon was over. Then might be seen
the most deadly enemies reconciled, prisoners re-
stored to liberty, usury abolished, debts and ransoms
paid, and women of evil life giving up their sin."

" These facts . . . spread the fame of the Saint's
preaching far and wide : consequently the devotion
of the people to him was so great that they counted
themselves happy if they could but touch him as he
passed. Sometimes he would have been crushed by
the crowd in going out or coming in if he had not
been protected by a strong escort of young men.
Such was the veneration of the people that whoever
could contrive to cut off a piece of his habit rejoiced
in the conviction that he possessed an invaluable
relic." Women, armed with scissors, were the worst
offenders ! " Again, so great was their desire to
listen to his gentle, devout and holy words, that
amongst thirty thousand men, and even more, not
the slightest sound could be heard when the servant
of God was speaking." l The Bishop of Padua
himself and his clergy came humbly with the rest to
hear the Saint. The fame of his preaching seems to
have been almost greater than that of his miracles,
only one of which at this time can be considered
other than legendary, — the cure of a little epileptic
girl of four, lame in both feet, whom St. Antony met
in her father's arms one day. At the poor man's
prayer the Saint made the sign of the cross over the
child and gave her his blessing. When they returned
home the father put the child down on the ground,

1 Rigauld.

"PR.EDICATOR EGREGIE." 75

when she was able to walk, at first with a crutch,
but later, alone.

A very beautiful story of the power of his words
must be told in the pathetic language of Rigauld.
"About the year 1292 a very old man told one of
the friars that he had known Blessed Antony. ' I
was a robber by profession,' he said, ' I belonged to
a gang of a dozen brigands ; we lived in the forest
and plundered all the passers-by. But having heard
the fame of Blessed Antony's preaching we resolved
to go in disguise, the whole twelve of us, on a cer-
tain day to hear his sermon, for we could not be-
lieve in all that was said about the power of his
words. They compared him to a flaming torch, and
called him a second Elias. One evening, therefore,
when he was to preach, we went to hear him, and
no sooner had his burning words sounded in our
ears than we began to feel bitter remorse and com-
punction for our sins and evil deeds, and when the
good Father had heard our confessions, one after
another, and had given a suitable penance to each,
he forbade us positively to return to our former sin-
ful life, promising to those who renounced it eternal
life, and to those who returned to it, unspeakable
sufferings. Some,' added the old man, 'resumed
their criminal life, and very soon perished, as the
Saint had foretold, by a most terrible death, but
those who remained faithful slept in peace in -the
Lord. As for myself the Saint had imposed on me
the penance of going twelve times in pilgrimage to
the tombs of the Apostles, and I am now on my way
from Rome for the twelfth time.' "

76 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

What was the secret of Antony's eloquence?
Above all, his holy life. He spoke out of the abun-
dance of his heart, which burned with zeal for God,
which bled for the wounds of His Church, which
ached for the sorrows of others. His fame was
certainly increased by the miracles he wrought, but
only the magnet of actual personal sanctity could
have had the power to draw so many souls. He,
the first orator of the Order, is the ideal of a Fran-
ciscan apostle.

It may be said at once that St. Antony's sermons
cannot be judged from their written records. Quo-
tations and subtle mystical interpretations are so
multiplied and interwoven ; subjects are so divided
and subdivided, and the divisions are so often irrele-
vant that it is evident the Saint could not have
preached from these notes as they stand.1 In some
sermons there is material for two or three of or-
dinary length. It is most likely that he wrote from
memory, adding to his subject such notes and com-
ments as were inspired by his fertile imagination,
and his profound knowledge of, and delight in Holy
Scripture. For however involved and difficult many
of these sermons appear when written, there is no
doubt that Antony was the first preacher of his day.
His great renown cannot be explained in any other
way. He was more than eloquent ; he was an
orator with the supreme and supernatural gift of
touching the hearts of his hearers.

He preached in Italian, though in Padua he

1 See Appendix.

- <
? E

f. o
y. H

II

S W
^ H

o
^

ta

"PRJEDICATOR EGREGIE." 77

might well have done so in Latin, the common
language of the educated. We are told of the ex-
traordinary good wrought by his sermons even in
those who did ,not understand him. From his
richly stored memory he brought out treasures of
Scripture, texts to illustrate almost every sentence.1
He preached from the whole Bible, which it appears
that he almost knew by heart, and it is curious and
interesting to note the resemblance between his
Sermons and those preached 250 years later by
that glorious Son of St. Dominic, Savonarola.
Both (e.g.) seem to have taken a genuine delight in
tracing the mystic parallels between the Pentateuch
and the Gospels. The Fathers were also, but less
frequently, quoted by St. Antony. In one sense
it is only possible to judge of his extraordinary elo-
quence by its results, for that much misquoted text :
" By their fruits ye shall know them," may aptly be
applied to St. Antony's Sermons !

First then and foremost St. Antony was a mystic.
To him the Sacramentals of Nature in daily life were
as familiar as flowers by the wayside. He had trav-
elled in many lands, he had seen much, and every-
thing he saw was a Sacrament of the Unseen. " In
all things fair he beheld Him Who is Most Fair."
A true lover of Nature, he walks through the vine-
yards which surround Padua. " Man's soul is a
vine," he tells his hearers, " for to bring forth fruit

1 Great stress is always laid on this point in St. Antony's
preaching, but it was the custom then constantly to interpo-
late Scripture not only in sermons, and spiritual writings,
but even in secular chronicles.

78 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

it must be carefully and ceaselessly cultivated. . . .
The vine left to itself becomes the wildest of all
growing things. Its wood is useless, except to burn,
when it is dry. Thus the man whose soul is desti-
tute of holy thoughts and acts will become the prey
of eternal fire. No fruit is equal to that of a well-
cultivated vine, and what is comparable to the holi-
ness of a Saint ? " l

Again : " the devil spreads his web like a
spider! The spider begins from the outside and
gradually works inwards with thousands of threads,
sitting to watch in the centre. . . . The devil does
the same : when he wishes to seize a man he very
cleverly begins spinning his threads among his
bodily senses, but in the heart ... he weaves
more solid threads, more violent temptations . . .
for is not the heart the source of life ? If a fly —
that is, an evil motion, finds consent in the heart
the devil immediately assails that man with count-
less temptations, then envelops him in darkness,
lastly clutches him tight, taking away from him all
strength and energy to resist." 2

If St. Antony sometimes strains the comparisons
and similes so dear to mediaeval preachers, it must
be admitted they are both ingenious and beautiful.
" In the lily are to be remarked its properties, its
beauty, and its perfume. The first reside in the
stalk and root, while the beauty and perfume are
found in the flower itself. These three things are
the symbol of penitents who have crucified the

1 Sermon, Per. 6. Hebdom. II, Quadr.

2 Sermon in Septuagesima.

"PR^DICATOR EGREGIE." 79

flesh with its desires and affections. . . . Beauty is
chastity ; perfume, the odour of sanctity. These
are the lilies of the field, not of the deserts or
gardens. . . . Hermits flourish in the desert, . . .
monks stand like flowers in the cloister garth,
protected from the great heat of the sun, but the
penitent lives and thrives and blossoms in the
field of the world." l

These words were perhaps addressed to the
members of the Third Order, always so dear to St.
Antony's heart. He interpreted Nature in a way
as new as it was delightful to his hearers. He taught
them to see everything sacramentally : a flock of
cranes against the evening sky, a swan, a turtle-
dove, a pine-tree, a shower of falling leaves served
him as a text from which he drew a most practical
application. " Be merciful, like the cranes . . .
When a flock of these birds makes a long flight
one flies in front and . . . with its cries encour-
ages the others. ... So point out by your good
example the way of Truth to those that know
it not, help on those who are slow, soothe
these who are too hasty . . . bear one another's
burdens.'' 2

The dove was one of our Saint's favourite similes.
" In her simplicity she has a poorer . . . nest than
those of other birds. Be as the dove who makes her
nest in the deepest cleft of the rock. This cleft, in
which the soul should hide itself, is the wound in the
side of Jesus Christ. . . . There are many clefts in

1 Sermon, Dom. XV, post Trin.

2 Sermon, Dom. IV, post Trin.

8o ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

the rock ... for His immaculate flesh bore many
wounds, but the wound in His side leads to the
Heart, and it is here He calls the soul, His spouse.
. . . The dove makes her nest with little bits of
straw collected here and there. . . . What are these
scattered fragments which the world despises and
treads underfoot? They are the virtues of our
Saviour . . . humility, gentleness, poverty, patience,
mortification. The world despises them as useless,
but it is with these that we shall build our nest, deep
in the Rock, in the Heart of Jesus." Riches, he
says elsewhere, are like thorns to those who hold
them tightly ; they not only hinder a man, but pierce
and wound him.

But though his beautiful mind and soul are most
clearly manifest in quotations such as these, our Saint
by no means confined himself to the mystical — if
obvious — interpretation of Nature. He was in-
tensely practical. There is no Catholic dogma
which St. Antony has not confessed and defended
in his sermons. Though none of those which re-
main to us — not being preached to heretics — are
controversial, here and there may be discovered
passages which evidently relate to the Catharist
heresy, one curious and interesting example,1 unfor-
tunately too long for quotation, being that of the
hypocrite whom he compares to a hyena ! In
another place he speaks of those who sheltered
themselves under the name of Catholic to propa-
gate their false doctrines.

It is, however, in scourging the evils of the day,

1 Sermon, Dom. VIII, post Trin.

"PR^EDICATOR EGREGIE." 81

social and religious, that St. Antony rises to the most
impassioned fervour. Pride, avarice, impurity,
luxury, all in turn fall under the lash of his fiery
tongue ! He preaches less to the mind than the
heart. How can they, Catholic Christians, the fol-
lowers of a crucified God, spend their lives, and
waste their substance, and even sell their souls for
such fleeting pleasure as money and power could
bestow, is the question upon which he ceaselessly
insists, and forces his hearers to answer. And that
they answered it by forsaking their sins and follies
we know, for the priests of the city were not suffi-
cient to hear the confessions of those who listened
to Blessed Antony's sermons, and he himself often
went fasting till evening without realizing it, spend-
ing his entire day between the confessional and
the pulpit. He appeared in dreams to many who
openly declared it, revealing to them their secret
faults and urging them to confession. He draws
perpetually a strong distinction between those of the
faithful who are content, living in the world, merely
to follow generally the Will of God (insisting, how-
ever, that they shall be detached from earthly things,
and be true penitents), and those who have made
the supreme sacrifice of self, including religious, and
those who, still in the world, are not of it.

Usury, the crying evil of the day, was attacked
by our Saint with all his powers. He exhorted his
hearers to conquer the lust for wealth which brought
them within the clutches of the pitiless money-
lenders ; to be content with such things as they had ;
to live rather in poverty than in debt ; and on the
6

82 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

other hand he preached against the usurers and
their cold-blooded cruelty like one consumed with
Divine fire. He compares them to " reptilia^ quo-
rum non est numerus" and to vultures. Some of
his burning words may apply to the twentieth as well
as to the thirteenth century. " How many rich men
of our day are clad in purple — that is in stuffs dyed
with the sweat and blood of the poor, because the
clothes they wear are woven out of theft, larceny,
usury, and illegitimate gain ? . . . But the garment
dyed with the blood of the poor shall be the prey
of eternal flames." * " The usurer," he says else-
where, " is worse than Judas. That traitor, having
sold the Blood of his Divine Master, brought back
to the priests and princes the thirty pieces he had
received, but the usurer guards and keeps his un-
just gains."

Against this sin he urges the contrary virtue,
almsgiving. The water of a well, he says, is kept
sweet and pure by constant use, but if nothing is
drawn from it, it becomes stagnant. " Thus when
the bucket of almsgiving is let down into the well of
riches it makes their possession purer to the con-
science and more agreeable to God."

But the evil which he lashes more pitilessly even
than usury is the corruption of the Church. Three
centuries later Martin Luther, the apostate, once, like
St. Antony, clothed in the habit of St. Augustine, but
" who had trampled it and his priestly vestments in
the mud," cried to the world that the Church was
corrupt, that her clergy were degraded, that the

1 Sermon in Fer. 6, Dom. I, Quadr.

"PRJEDICATOR EGREGIE." 83

whole Catholic system was therefore rotten to the
core ; and that a new Church, a new clergy, a new
system were needed. The difference between the
methods of a genuine Reformer like St. Antony or
St. Bernardine and those of the father of Protestant-
ism are obvious : both see and deplore the evil, but
while the first would drive it out, and build up the
breaches of the House not made with hands, the
other would go outside and build a new house alto-
gether. That the evil was there none can deny, and
like St. Catherine of Siena, St. Antony does not
spare it. Simony, ambition, avarice and worldly in-
terest, the chief sins of the priesthood, were merci-
lessly exposed and scourged. Priests who refused
to say Mass except for money, who were continually
occupied in worldly affairs, especially lawsuits and
long processes ; religious who used their habit as a
cloak for idleness and sin ; prelates who bought and
sold offices and who abandoned their flocks — to
such he showed no mercy. He compares absentee
bishops to idols, who have eyes and see not, feet
and walk not, " hands to gather money, but not to
touch the wounds of Christ. . . . Thus the wolf,
who is the devil, scatters the flock, and the thief,
who is the heretic, makes off with it ". " Tell me,
ye priests," he cries again, " is it in the prophets or
in the Gospel, in the Epistles of St. Paul or the
Rules of St. Benedict and St. Augustine, that you
find these disputes, these lawsuits, these intrigues
for transitory and perishable things ? "

1 Sermon in Solem. SStorum Apost. Petri et Pauli.
6*

84 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

Many of his sermons, however, are purely theo-
logical. One of them,1 from the text : " Who shall
bring to light the hidden things of darkness and
make manifest the counsels of the heart," on the
last judgment, reads like one of the spiritual exer-
cises of St. Ignatius. St. Antony's vivid descrip-
tions, his application of the senses, are in places
almost identical with those of the Founder of the
Society of Jesus. A modern critic considers this
sermon may have inspired the "Dies Irae" of
Thomas of Celano. "Whither will the sinner flee,"
he cries ; " where will he hide ? Flight is impossible ;
he cannot conceal himself! To appear before God
is unbearable terror. ' Et ibunt in supplicium
aternum '."

However, St. Antony's chief claim to honour as
a preacher is that, as has been well said,2 he founded
a school of Marianite theology. Though not ex-
pressed with scholastic precision, in his Sermons
are to be found the doctrines of the Immaculate
Conception and of the Assumption of Our Lady.3
He never wearied of declaring her prerogatives : her
goodness, her intercessory power, her mercy to all
the faithful, the great part she played in the Plan
of Redemption. He compares her to a lily, a cedar
of Libanus, an olive-tree, a precious vase, a rainbow.
Among mediaeval preachers he is perhaps only
second to St. Bernard in the force and beauty of
his eloquence about Our Lady, the " Gloriosa
Domina " whom he so faithfully loved and served.

1 Sermon II, Dom. II, Quadr. 2 By Lepitre, p. 160.
8 And, it may be added, of Papal Infallibility.

"ANTON I BEATISSIME." 85

We cannot do better than conclude this chapter
with the prayer attributed to St. Antony, of which
the manuscript is preserved at Padua,1 and which
he is believed always to have used.

A PRAYER OF BLESSED ANTONY BEFORE PREACHING.

Light of the World, Infinite God, Father Eternal,
Giver of wisdom and knowledge, most holy and
ineffable Dispenser of spiritual grace, who hast
known all things from the beginning, who hast made
darkness and light ; guide my hand, and touch my
lips that they may be like a sharp sword to set
forth Thy Truth. Make, O Lord, my tongue like
a swift arrow to declare Thy marvellous works.
Send forth, O God, Thy Holy Spirit into my heart
that I may perceive, into my mind that I may re-
member, into my soul that I may meditate. Inspire
me to speak with piety, holiness, tenderness, and
mercy. Teach, guide, and direct my thoughts and
senses from the beginning to the end. May Thy
Grace ever help and correct me, and may I be
strengthened now with wisdom from on High, for
Thy infinite mercy's sake. Amen.

CHAPTER VII.

(1231-1232.)
"ANTONI BEATISSIME."

As the summer of 1231 drew on and the fields

and vineyards claimed the labours of the people

1 Incorporated in a MS. of 1299.

86 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

St. Antony ceased to preach, that their work might
not -be hindered. He knew the end was near. The
mortal disease from which he suffered so cruelly
was making terrible inroads on his constitution,
and his body — " Brother Ass" — which he treated
with such relentless severity, was becoming weaker
every day. During these last few weeks he longed
for solitude and silence such as was impossible in
the tiny convent in Padua ; he who had so long lived
in the eye of the world now desired to go apart
for a little space, and prepare for death alone with
God. A Paduan nobleman, Count Tiso, possessed
large estates at Camposampiero,1 part of which was
thick forest. Here was the solitude of La Verna,
of the Carceri, of Montepaolo, Antony's first Italian
home. But in this flat country there were no rock-
cells in the forest. There was, however, an immense
walnut-tree, whose six great branches, a little distance
above the ground, spread outwards like a crown from
the massive trunk. It was in this tree that Count
Tiso himself made, at the Saint's request (" that he
might be nearer Heaven "), a cell woven between
the branches with osiers and twigs, where, protected
from the great heat by the leafy roof above him, and
from human eyes by his walls of willow and walnut,
he might remain in peace through the long summer
days, when the Rule did not compel his presence in
Community. A few rough steps led up to it, and a
couple of rustic cells were built close by for his com-
panions.

His dying eyes turned continually to the city

1 Nineteen kilometres from Padua, on the Bassano road.

"ANTONI BEATISSIME." 87

which he loved so well. One evening at the end
of May, a fortnight before his death, he walked with
his companion to the top of a little hill which over-
looked the great plain in which lies Padua in the
midst of her vineyards. As he gazed at the ancient
city with its beautiful buildings — the new University,
the fortress-like Duomo, the vast Benedictine church
and monastery of Sta. Giustina, did he see what was
one day to dominate them all — the magnificent Ba-
silica with its soaring minarets and cross of seven
domes, with its triumphal inscription : " Gaudefelix
Padua qua thesaurum possides " which in a few years
would begin to rise over his own body ? Perhaps,
for he " began to rejoice exceedingly in spirit, and to
break forth in praise of that city, declaring that very
soon it would be crowned with honour. By these
words he alluded to his own death and happy passing
to Heaven."1

At noon on Friday, June 13, when St. Antony
descended from his leafy cell, and joined his breth-
ren in the little convent close by, at the sound of
the bell,2 as he did daily, he was scarcely able to
gain the refectory, " for the Hand of God was heavy
upon him ". He came in, however— his last volun-
tary act was obedience — and took his place with the
rest, but in a few minutes was seized by an attack
of acute and violent pain, his strength gave way,
and he could no longer sit upright. He was sup-
ported by his brethren, who laid him on a mattress
... it was all that they could do.

He understood that it was the end. To Brother
J " Vocante eum Camfana ".

88 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

Roger, his companion, he said humbly : " If you
think well, Brother, I will go to Padua to die, that
I may be no charge to the Brothers here ". His
friend agreed, but the other friars with bitter lam-
entations begged him to remain with them. Seeing,
however, that it was really the Saint's wish to go to
Padua, they yielded ; a rough ox-cart was prepared,
St. Antony was laid in it, and the sorrowful proces-
sion started for the city.

It is scarcely possible to imagine what the dying
man must have suffered during that long and weary
journey. The scorching glare of the sun upon the
flat unsheltered road, the thick choking white dust,
the clouds of flies, the jolting of the springless cart
over the rough stones — all these to a man in sound
health would be wearisome and trying, but to one
racked with physical pain and sickness, to whom
every movement was torture, each grinding revolu-
tion of the solid creaking wheels must have been
agony such as falls indeed to the lot of the martyrs.
It was his Via Cruets — nay, the very pain of the
Cross, the physical suffering for which he had
thirsted when he begged to join the Order, the suf-
fering through which he was to gain his crown.
He had it now, all through the blazing June after-
noon, and of his bodily anguish, as of the joy and
triumph which flooded his soul, we may scarcely
dare to think.

They had nearly reached Padua, late in the after-
noon, when a friar from St. Mary's who had been
sent to inquire after St. Antony met them, and saw
instantly that the Saint could not live to reach his

"ANTONI BEATISSIME." 89

convent He begged him to stop at Arcella, close
by, where was a convent of Poor Clares served by a
few friars in whose house adjoining he could rest.
And St. Antony, giving up his last earthly wish with
pathetic unselfishness, agreed to remain at Arcella.
So they turned off to the left, before they reached
the bridge leading into Padua, and the brethren,
rushing out to meet them, lifted the Saint from the
straw on the rough boards of the ox-cart, and
carrying him in, laid him down on a pallet, to die.
The cell with its rough brick walls and curiously
vaulted roof stands to-day, small and square in a
beautiful modern church, as the Portiuncula rises
within Our Lady of the Angels ; and of all the
spots hallowed by the life of Blessed Antony none
is so intensely moving as this, where he yielded
that beautiful life to God. It is possible — even
though a modern altar now fills the greater part —
to reconstruct the scene, to gaze upon the very
walls on which his dying eyes rested, to tread the
stones over which they bore his holy body. Even
to-day the little cell seems fragrant with the
presence and personality of this sweet Saint and
servant of God.

As they laid him down, " exhausted in body but
courageous in spirit," he lay quietly for a time, but
" the Hand of God grew heavier upon him ". So
quickly and terribly did his sickness increase that
" it soon became evident that his blessed and glori-
ous end was approaching. Having made his Con-
fession, and received the Sacred Body of the Lord
in Holy Communion, that this Holy Viaticum might

go ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

accompany him on his way, he began with great de-
votion the hymn to our Blessed Lady." 1

O Gloriosa Domina,
Excelsa supra sidera :
Qui te creavit provide,
Lactasti sacro ubere

Quod Eva tristis abstulit,
Tu reddis almo germine :
Intret ut astra flebiles,
Cceli fenestra facta es.

Tu Regis alti janua,
Et porta lucis fulgida :
Vitam datam per Virginem
Gentes redemptae plaudite.2

Thus he invoked "the assistance of the Queen
who is exalted above the stars, that she who is the
resplendent gate of Heaven, would herself give him
entrance there.

" Then raising his eyes he looked fixedly, for some
time, on high. As he continued to gaze steadfastly
towards Heaven the friars who surrounded him
asked him what he saw. He answered : ' I see
my Lord V 3

Understanding that the end was very close, the
Brothers asked him if he would not wish to receive
Extreme Unction? As one of them approached,

1 Rigauld.

2 This hymn is now only found in its original form in the
Dominican Breviary. The Franciscan, which follows the
Roman, was revised, and the wording slightly altered, under
St. Pius V (1568). It was St. Antony's favourite hymn.

3 Rigauld.

" AN TON I BE A T I SSI ME." gi

with the holy oil, the Saint, looking up at him said
— and his words have been interpreted as meaning
that he had in that Divine Vision received the
Sacrament spiritually : " It is not necessary, Brother,
for I have the UnctioR within my soul. Neverthe-
less, it is well to receive it, and I will gladly do so."
He stretched out his hands >to be anointed, then
folded them palm to palm upon his breast, and joined
in his faint, almost inaudible voice in reciting the
Penitential Psalms, " to the end ". He did not
speak again. The crown was his at last ! Half an
hour after, "like one quietly falling asleep," his
heroic spirit passed away. " His loving, holy soul
quitted the body, and conducted by the good Jesus,
entered into the joy of his Lord."

It was sunset on Friday, 13 June, 1231. He
was only 36, having spent twenty- one years in
religion, eleven of which were passed as a Friar
Minor. " If it is well to rejoice at the entrance of
Antony into Heaven, it is also well to weep for
Antony who converted sinners from their evil
ways." l

The first instinct of the friars was to conceal his
death, for they foresaw the struggles that would
take place for the possession of his body. More-
over, as Rigauld naively explains, "they feared
that the people might come in crowds so as to
oppress and hinder them ". But their precautions
were in vain. Whether rumours had gone abroad,
spread by some who had met the little procession on
1 Rigauld.

ga ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

its journey to Arcella, or whether it was directly re-
vealed by Almighty God we know not, but almost as
soon as the Saint passed away the children of Padua
began to run about like sheep, crying : " Our blessed
Father is dead ! The Saint is dead ! St. Antony is
dead ! " And the whole city was " moved at the
cry of the children f> into greater tumult than would
have been the case at the prospect of a Ghibelline
invasion.

Arcella is about half a mile from Padua, which is
approached by a bridge crossing the little river
Bacchiglione. The Poor Clares very naturally
wished to be allowed to bury the body of the Saint
in their chapel, that they might thus preserve to
themselves the remains of him " whose living
bodily presence they had been unable to behold ". l
They sent messages to the Podesta,2 to the nobles,
and religious, begging their help in the matter, and
that they would take their part against the friars of
St. Mary's who, they knew, would soon arrive to
remove St. Antony's body.

Those acquainted with the Italian temperament
will be able in a measure to comprehend the scenes
which immediately followed, and which appear to
us to-day so unseemly, so repellent, and even
terrible. " To understand thoroughly," says M. de
Kerval,3 "the scenes of violence and fanaticism
which took place at Padua on the occasion of St.
Antony's funeral ceremonies we must remember
with what blind, and sometimes grotesque passion

1 ' ' Legenda Prima ". 2 Chief magistrate.

3 " Duae Vitae," p. 64 note.

"ANTONI BEATISSIME." 93

the people of the Middle Ages sought by any
means, good or bad, to procure relics, or to carry
off the bodies of saints. We know how the men
of Assisi actually posted guards round St. Francis
during his last illness in order to be sure of pos-
sessing his mortal remains l . . . We must not
forget that in certain cases motives of rather sor-
did interest mingled with the exalted devotion of
the masses ; the presence of famous relics in a city,
drawing crowds continually, became, besides a
source of blessing, the occasion of solid profit."

On this particular occasion, however, there was
no thought of profit, or of anything but fierce, blind
devotion to the Saint who had become to the people
of Padua-emphatically theirs. The scenes, on which
to-day we look back as disgraceful and even scandal-
ous, were to the Paduans of the thirteenth century
most natural and inevitable. And the gulf which lies
between St. Antony's time and our own is easily
bridged to-day by an Italian crowd !

When the friars arrived from St. Mary's Convent,
to carry St. Antony's body into Padua, according to
his dying wish at Camposampiero, they found Arcella
in a state of siege. It was impossible to approach
beyond the bridge, for all the inhabitants of Capodi-

1 In Germany, in this very year (1231) in which the
scenes related in the " Legenda Prima" took place, we find
devotees cutting the ears from the body of St. Elizabeth of
Hungary, and inflicting on it still more cruel mutilations.
On another occasion the Perugians stole outright the body
of Blessed Conrad of Offida from the tomb where it was
working many miracles (ibid.).

94 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

ponte, the suburb between Padua and Arcella on
the bank of the river, had risen as one man, and op-
posed them. The friars went at once to the Bishop,
who decided that they alone had the right to possess
the Saint's remains, and appealed to the Podesta to
uphold this decision.

But when a second attempt was made to reach
Arcella the men of Capodiponte, more fiercely de-
termined than ever, declared that they would rather
die than allow St. Antony to be taken from them.
The happy thought then occurred to the Bishop to
suggest that the decision should be left to the Pro-
vincial, who was expected immediately in Padua,
and as night fell the tumult was momentarily ap-
peased. The house of the friars, close to the Poor
Clare convent, was barricaded as strongly as pos-
sible— not, needless to say, against the friars of
Padua, but against the indiscreet devotion of the
crowd outside. And the Poor Clares began bitterly
to regret that they had moved in the matter at all.

11 In the middle of the night a miraculous event
occurred which I may not pass over in silence. At
midnight those who wanted to see the body of the
Saint thrice broke open the convent doors, with
loud outcries and clamour ; but stupefied and
struck with blindness, they could not once get
inside, though the doors were all open."1

Next day arrived from Padua and from all the
country round crowds of people of all classes, who
insisted on being admitted that they might see St.
Antony. They brought rosaries and medals with

1 Rigauld.

11 ANTON 'I BEATISSIME." 95

which they touched his body, and those who could
not reach him in the press tied them to long poles,
which they pushed between their more fortunate
friends. It was much the same scene as may be
witnessed at Padua on the Feast of the Saint in
these days, after the Procession of the Relics. For
a whole day the crowd pressed and surged through
the little cell, and those were happiest who had
been able to touch the body of the Saint them-
selves.

In Italy, especially during the great heat, burial
speedily follows death. Though in St. Antony's
case there was no sign of necessity, the Arcella friars
decided to follow the custom, and resolved to bury
the body temporarily in the Chapel of the Poor
Clares, for they did not possess one of their own.
But in some mysterious way the rumour spread that
// Santo was being removed ; the armed crowd again
burst the doors and swarmed into the convent
chapel, and insisted on the coffin being disinterred,
actually striking it before they would leave to make
sure they were not being deceived by an empty one.
Revolting as these details are, they testify as nothing
else could, not only to the powerful influence of St.
Antony on the people, but to the mingled religion
and fanaticism, idealism and grossness, simplicity
and cunning which were — and are — the predominant
characteristics of the masses in Italy.

The " Legenda Prima," so meagre hitherto, fur-
nishes on the subject of the Saint's death, and all
that followed, the fullest and amplest details, which
it is only necessary to summarize. It was probably

g6 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

on June 16 that the Provincial arrived, and decided
that the Saint's body should be taken to Padua with-
out further delay. The Bishop supported him, and
again the Podesta's help was invoked. Preparations
were made for a solemn procession, but as it was
feared there would be actual fighting on the bridge,
the Paduans constructed a bridge of boats, a little
way down the river, nearer to Arcella. The men of
Capodiponte attacked and destroyed it with axes,
and paraded the banks fully armed. Things were
again at a standstill. In vain the authorities at-
tempted to take action. This was the iyth. And
then another miracle happened. " The Friars . . .
fearing a general rising of the whole city, began to
call upon God to allay the tumult. And God, who
had permitted the disturbance for the greater glory
of this Saint and to show that the veneration of the
people was not to a coffin, but to a pearl of great
price, Himself quieted the tumult, and so changed
the dispositions of the citizens that, when the Po-
desta gave the order, no further opposition was made
by the -people of the suburb." l

The Podesta, in fact, assembled the people in the
great council hall, and then commanded the men of
Capodiponte to remain that day in Padua, without
returning home, under pain of the confiscation of
all their goods. And at length they obeyed.

" When the tumult had subsided and the people
had calmed down, the Bishop and all his clergy,
the Podesta and all the city magistrates, as well as

1 Rigauld.

"ANTONI BEATISSIME." 97

a numerous assemblage of the faithful bearing
torches, formed in procession, and with hymns and
psalms carried the sacred body to the Friars' Con-
vent at the Church of the Blessed Virgin. Blessed
Antony had then been five days dead ; l and yet,
notwithstanding the severe heat of summer, not the
slightest odour of death was perceptible ; on the
contrary, the sacred body exhaled an aromatic per-
fume, and an odour of sweet ointments, as if to at-
tract all others to run in his footsteps." 2

So at last he was brought to rest in the church
where he had desired to lie. One curious detail is
insisted on by the " Legenda Prima ". Many of the
candles which the people brought to burn in honour
of the Saint were so large that they could not be
taken into the little church, but had to burn in the
square outside. Some were of such incredible size
that it required sixteen men to carry them safely, or
four oxen to draw them, if laid in a cart. Many
were made like candelabras, decorated with garlands
of flowers and leaves in white wax ; others were like
the great wax torches with four and five wicks still
used in Venice for the Corpus Christi Procession,
and at Padua for St. Antony's Feast. It is interest-
ing to remember that the practice of burning candles
in St. Antony's honour dates from the very day of his
funeral !

High Mass was sung in the friars' church by the
Bishop of Padua, and the Saint's body was at last
laid in the tomb, among the prayers and tears of

1 I3th to lyth inclusive. 2Rigauld.

7

g8 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

those to whom he had been so true a spiritual
Father. It was June 17, 1231. From that day
miracles began to take place. Sick and dying were
brought to touch his tomb and were healed ; while
those who could not, for the press, get into the
church, were carried as far as the door, and there,
under the eyes of the crowd, were suddenly restored
to health. Those who implored his help, even at a
great distance, never implored in vain. So wide-
spread was the devotion to the Saint's memory and
so great the renown of his miracles that pilgrimages
were organized to his tomb, to which the people
came barefoot, bearing candles. Not only Italians,
but Russians, Germans, Hungarians, men of all
nations; not only the poor, but nobles and great
ladies, clergy and magistrates, took part in these
processions, in which walked the Bishop of Padua
himself. The University students, we are specially
told, were remarkable for their devotion. Nor was
the devotion confined to burning candles, for the
whole community of St. Mary's was insufficient to
hear the confessions of the pilgrims, as had hap-
pened during the lifetime of the great Confessor
when people flocked to his sermons, and to the tri-
bunal of penitence. His canonization, under these
circumstances, was not likely to be delayed, " for all
were unanimous in petitioning that the process
should be actively taken in hand ". The Cardinal-
Bishop, appointed to revise the miracles, had re-
duced their number from fifty to forty-seven. Two
people had been raised from the dead ; the lame, the
blind, the deaf, the dumb, the paralytic, the epileptic,

Photo: Aii)iari.

M ATH AND BURIAL OF ST. ANTONY. (FROM A FRESCO

MY C.IROLAMO DEL SANTO), IN THE SCUOLA DEL SANTO,

PADUA.

" ANTON I BEA TISSIME." 9Q

—sick of all kinds had been healed; others had
been saved in danger, or in temporal difficulties ;
there was at least one miraculous conversion. We
may take a few examples at random, "« queens
miracula ".

A little girl in Padua, named Eurilia, sent on an
errand by her mother, had fallen into one of the
deep ditches which lie in all directions between the
vineyards, and was taken out of the mud and water
dead. After all efforts to restore life had failed —
the details are pathetic— her mother prayed that
God would restore her child through St. Antony's
intercession, promising to place a waxen figure of
the little girl on the Saint's tomb if Eurilia was re-
stored. As soon as she had made the vow the
child's lips moved, " and by the merits of the Holy
Father, she lived again ".

A number of people sailing across the Lagoon to
Venice were overtaken at the hour of compline by
a terrible storm of wind and rain, when near St.
George 's-in-the-Seaweed.1 It grew dark, and they
no longer knew where they were, so with cries and
groans they gave themselves up to despair. A
priest on board advised them all to make their con-
fession, which having been done, and absolution
received, with one voice they invoked Blessed
Antony, beseeching him to deliver them. No
sooner was this done than the tempest abated, and
the ship sailed on of its own accord — whither they
knew not. But a certain light went before them,

1 The churches on the Lagoon are full of votive pictures
to St. Antony, representing such occurrences.

7 *

ioo ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

now all weeping for joy, and the ship following it,
they were all brought safely to land, and found
themselves at St. Mark's. And when those whom
Blessed Antony had saved had reached their haven,
immediately the light disappeared.

But it was not only to save life, nor even to
restore health, that the Miracle-worker was in-
voked.

A certain woman named Vita, who had an in-
tense devotion to St. Antony, greatly longed to visit
his tomb, but was unable to do so, as she was ob-
liged to scare away a multitude of sparrows from a
field of millet, " now whitening to harvest ". Com-
ing one day to the field she vowed to St. Antony
that if he would keep the sparrows away during her
absence she would visit his tomb nine times. As
she made the vow " a great flock of the aforesaid
birds " flew away, nor was a sparrow seen again in
that place.

The simplicity of this story may make us smile,
but the act was characteristic of the Saint whose
prayer had kept the little servant-girl at Brive safe
from the rain.

One celebrated miracle must be quoted. It is
represented in bas-relief in St. Antony's chapel, and
produced at the time a most profound impression.
A certain heretic named Aleardino made a practice
of ridiculing the devotion to St. Antony, and of
openly declaring his disbelief in the reality of the
continual miracles. Speaking one day at table, in
the presence of a number of people he asserted that
if the glass which he held in his hand should remain

whole when he dashed it upon the stone floor— as
he proceeded to do— he would believe both in the
miracles and in the Saint. The glass, which he
threw with all his strength, was unbroken, but the
massive paving-stone on which it fell was smashed !
Astounded and terrified, the now penitent man
hastened to the friars, related the miracle, made full
confession of his sins, and "henceforth adhering
steadfastly to the Faith of Christ, everywhere pro-
claimed the miracle ".

Pope Gregory proceeded solemnly to canonize
the Saint at Spoleto, on Whitsunday, 30 May, I232.1
In the Cathedral, in the presence of the whole
College of Cardinals, and "a crowd of prelates from
all parts of the world," the list of miracles was read
aloud, and approved by all present. "Then the
Sovereign Pontiff, raising his hands to Heaven and
invoking with fervour the name of the Blessed
Trinity, inscribed the most Blessed Priest of Christ,
Antony, in the Catalogue of the Saints, appointing
for his Feast the day of his death.''

The miracles have not ceased to-day, nor has the
love and devotion of the people. To understand
how a mediaeval Saint can be still a living, almost
visible, personality one must spend the Feast of St.
Antony at Padua.

His body did not' remain many years in its first

1 No other Confessor has been so quickly raised to the
altars. St. Peter Martyr, O.P., slain in 1252, was also canon-
ized within a year.

102 ST, ANTONY, OF PADUA.

tomb. Almost immediately after his death the
present great Basilica — the votive offering of the
world — was begun, and in 1263 was sufficiently ad-
vanced to make it possible to translate his remains
to a resting-place beneath the High Altar. This
was done by the Minister-General, St. Bonaventure.
When the tomb was opened the body of the Saint
was found to be dust, but the tongue, which had
been as a sharp sword to pierce the hearts of thou-
sands, still remained as it was in his lifetime. St.
Bonaventure took it up, and kissing it with the great-
est devotion, cried : " O lingua benedicta, qua Domi-
num semper benedixisti, et alios benedicere fecisti, nunc
manifeste apparet quanti meriti extististi apud Deum"
Many of those present had known St. Antony in his
life-time, and all were moved to the greatest devo-
tion. A magnificent reliquary of goldsmiths' work
was made for La Lingua, to-day the greatest treasure
of the Basilica.

In 1310, under the Minister-General Gonsalvo
de Vauton, the church being almost finished, the
relics of the Saint were placed in a tomb in the
middle of the nave.

In 1350 the Papal Legate, Cardinal Guy de
Montfort of Limoges, whose life had just been
saved by the intercession of St. Antony at Cuges,
in Provence, in making a final translation of the
body to its present chapel, presented a magnificent
silver chasse to enclose all the relics, from which he
withdrew several for presentation to other churches,
notably a portion of the skull, which in gratitude for
his preservation he sent to Cuges, where it is still

"ANTON I BEATISSIME." 103

venerated. In 1351 the General Chapter of Lyons
ordered the Feast of the Translation of the Relics
of St. Antony to be observed on February 15, the
anniversary of this occasion.

In 1257 the Paduans had decided that St. Antony
should be declared patron of the town, and that
every year a sum of 4000 livres should be allowed
for the completion of his Basilica. The fabric,
much as it stands to-day, was completed about
eighty years after the death of the Saint; but
the magnificent decorations of the Cappella del
Santo, where lies St. Antony's body, are of the
sixteenth century. It is perhaps the most beauti-
ful, as it is certainly the most famous, shrine in
Italy.

A most pathetic, and probably authentic legend
of the early fourteenth century tells us that on the
day of St. Antony's death his old friend Abbot
Thomas Gallo, of Vercelli, who was suffering great
pain from a malady of the throat, was sitting alone
in his cell. Looking up he saw Brother Antony
standing before him, silent, but radiant. The Ab-
bot spoke, but he did not answer. Stretching out
his hand he lightly touched his friend's throat, gazed
at him for a moment with a face of ineffable joy,
and then, uttering a single sentence, turned, and the
next moment had disappeared.

The Abbot, in his surprise and delight, scarcely
realized that the pain was gone, and that he was
completely cured. He rushed from the room, and
hastening over the monastery, questioning every one

io4 ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

whom he met, sought his friend everywhere. But
no one had seen Brother Antony, nor could any
trace of him be found. The Abbot at last was fain
to return to his cell alone, and by degrees the
meaning of that single sentence stole into his soul.
For St. Antony had said to him — and his face, as
he said it, was as the face of an angel —

" I have left my little ass at Padua, and I go in
haste to my own country ".

APPENDIX.

A SPECIMEN SERMON OF ST. ANTONY OF PADUA.

Adapted from the original translation of Sermon for the
Fourth Sunday in Lent, by Fr. Michael Bihl, O.F.M.,
from *l S. Antonii Patavini, Sermones Dominicales
et in Solemnitatibus". Edn., Ant. M. Locatelli
(Padua, 1895), pp. 95-106.

(According to the Synopsis (p. 95) the whole could be di-
vided into four sermons : (i) To the preacher ; (2) Against sin ;
(3) About the myrrh-tree ; (4) About the five assemblies. But
it is really the sketch, or rather skeleton, of one long sermon,
abounding in strange and arbitrary etymologies, and mysti-
cal deductions.)

Dominica IV in Quadragesima (Fourth Sunday in Lent).
Gospel (St. John vi. 1-15). Jesus feeding 5000 men with
five loaves and two fishes. As Solomon says (Eccles. xi. i) :
11 Cast thy bread upon the running waters" i.e. the people
about to die. You, O preacher, give to these men the
bread of your sermons.

The Five Loaves = the Five Books of Moses, in which is
found the food of the Soul.

I. Sorrow for sin committed.

II. Confession of sin.

III. Humiliation in satisfaction for sin (i.e. Penance).

IV. Zeal for souls in preaching.

V. Sweetness of contemplation in Heaven.

105

106 APPENDIX.

I. The First Loaf. (See Genesis xxxvin. 20.) Judas sends

a goat by his shepherd the Odollamite, to Thamar.

(a) Judas = confessing.

(b) Goat — sin.

(c) Odollamite = testimony in the water (i.e.
tears of compunction).

(d) Thamar = (i) amara, (bitter) ; (2) commutata,

(changed) ; (3) Palma (a palm) i.e. (i) = be-
ginners in the spiritual life ; (2) = those pro-
gressing ; (3) = the perfect.

(e) So the offspring of Judas and Thamar were (i)

Phares, = division (from sin) ; (2) Zara = Ori-
ent (illuminating good works of penitents).

II. The Second Loaf \ (See Exodus n. 12.) Moses buried

the Egyptian he had struck down, in the sand.

(a) Moses — aquaticus (the man of the water) i.e.

tears of contrition.

(b) Egyptian = mortal sin.

(c) Sand = confession, where like Moses, the peni-

tent who wishes to hide his sin from God dis-
covers it to the priest.

III. The Third Loaf. (See Leviticus i. 16.) The
priests are ordered to throw the crops and feathers of
sacrificed birds in the place of ash/s, towards the
east.

(a) Crop = avarice (Job. xvm. 9).

(b) Feathers = levity of pride (Job. xxxix. 13)

and hypocrisy.

(c) To be thrown in the place of the ashes, i.e.

" thou art dust, and to dust thou shall re-
turn ".

(d) East side = Eternal life, from which our first
parents fell.

IV. The Fourth Loaf . (See Numbers xxv. 7, 8.) Phinees
slaying the two sinners.

(a) Phinees = the preacher, piercing with

(b) The Sword = preaching,

(c) The hearts of sinners.

APPENDIX. 107

V. The Fifth Loaf. (See Deuteronomy xxxn. 49.) Moses
ascended Mount A barim [Vulgate, Nebo] from the
Plains of Moab.

(a) Moses = penitent soul.

(b) Plains of Moab — carnal pleasures.

(c) Abarim = transition, passage from those pleas-

ures to the holy life of contemplation.

These are the Five Loaves with which Jesus nourished
the 5000.

The Two Fishes are the Myrrh-trees, five spans [liter-
ally " elbows "] high, growing in Arabia.

(a) Arabia ( — holy), i.e. the Church, in which such

(b) Myrrh ( = penance) can grow.

The Five Spans are again the Five Loaves by which man
is raised from earthly things to those of Heaven.

These are the Five [sic] brethren of Juda, of whom Jacob
(Genesis XLIX. 8) says : " they shall praise theet
Juda ".

They are :—

(1) Reuben = the seeing man (i.e. by contrition),

having those seven eyes of which Zacharias
(111.9) speaks: "In one stone there were seven
eyes ".

(a) The first eye sees the things of the

past, to mourn them.

(b) The second sees future things, to avoid

[the evil].

(c) The third sees prosperous things, that

they may not make us proud.

(d) The fourth sees calamities, that they

may not depress us.

(e) The fifth sees supernal things, that they

may have savour for us.
(/) The sixth sees inferior things, that they

may become tasteless to us.
(g) The seventh sees interior things, that

they may please us in God.

(2) Simeon = hearing, is the second brother (i.e.the

confession of his sins, that God may hear

io8 APPENDIX.

him). "Hear, O Lord, the voice of Juda "
(Deut. xxxm. 7). " Thy voice is sounding in
my ears ; Thy voice is sweet " (Cant. n. 14).

(3) The third brother to be added is Levi = the

added one (i.e. satisfaction is to be added to
contrition and confession, and the penance
must correspond to the fault). " Worthy
fruits of penance" (Luke in. 8).

(4) Issachar = reward (i.e. after Penance there will

surely be the Eternal reward, and we shall
not be as worthless brands, fit only for the
eternal fire).

(5) Zabulon = house of strength (i.e. he should

dwell in that house of contemplation, together
with the simple Jacob, to taste the Heavenly
sweetness).

These [again] are the Five Loaves and Two Fishes.
The Two Fishes are: (i) the intellect, (2) the mem-
ory, with which you must season the Five Books of
Moses, to understand, and put them in the treasure
of your memory. These Two Fishes, caught in the
deep sea, can also symbolize Moses and Peter.

(1) Moses, so called because he was taken out of

the water ;

(2) Peter, being a fisherman, was elevated to the

Apostolate. To him was committed the
Church, to Moses the Synagogue.

These two, Church and Synagogue, are Sara and Agar,
of whom we read to-day in the Epistle.

(1) Sara = coal (i.e. the Church ignited at Pente-

cost by the Holy Ghost's fiery tongues).

(2) Agar (the servant) = solemn (i.e. the solemn

legal ceremonies and observances of the Old
Testament and Temple). Again : —

(1) Sara = Princess (i.e. the inferior reason which

has to command the lower senses typified by)

(2) Agar = that savage bird, the vulture (i.e. sen-

suality, which follows after carnal pleasures

APPENDIX. Iog

like the vulture after corpses). The son of
sensuality persecutes the son of right reason,
as the Epistle says (Gal. iv. 29). Therefore
it is said also : " throw out this servant and
her son11 (Gen. xxi. 10). The flesh, when
well fed, sets itself up against its mistress, and
so happens what Solomon says (Prov. xxxin.
20-21). . . .

(a) that " servant," is our recalcitrant body.

(b) that " fool " is our soul rilled with sen-
sual delight.

(c) that " wife " is the habit of sinning.

(d) So Agar (i.e. sensuality) becomes the

heir of her mistress (i.e. reason). But
in order that this Dominion should be
broken our Lord nourished 5000 men
with Five Loaves and Two Fishes.
Here you also see the connexion with the Introit of to-
day's Mass : " Rejoice, 0 Jerusalem, and assemble
yourselves together".
Accordingly, Five Assemblies of men have been made.

(1) The first was celebrated in Heaven, and there

was discord there, because the Angel who had
been first, and white, became black. First he
was Lucifer = bringei of Light; then he be-
came Tenebrifer=zbringer of darkness. He
made great discord among the other " breth-
ren " (i.e. Angels) ; as in the Angelic Choir
he did not begin his Antiphon on the proper
low note,1 but a very high one. He said (Is.
xiv. 13, 14) " I shall ascend to Heaven" (i.e.
make myself equal to God the Father) ; " /
shall be like the Most High " (i.e. God the
Son). While he was singing so high he fell,
irreparably.

(2) The second assembly was in [the Garden of]

Paradise [i.e. Eden], and here also was dis-

1 This figure is borrowed from the conventual choir.

no APPENDIX.

cord, through disobedience, on account of
which our first parents were driven forth into
exile.

(3) At the third assembly [the Last Passover] there

was simony. . . . Thus Judas sold the Most
Holy, our Saviour ; and therefore [went to his
own place] (Acts i. 25).

(4) In the fourth assembly [the upper room]

poverty was wanting when Ananias and Sap-
phira kept back the price of their field, lying
to the Holy One (Acts v. 1-5). So it shall
happen to all who have embraced poverty (in
a Religious Order) who wish to rebuild Jericho
destroyed.

(5) In the fifth assembly chastity was wanting, as

St. Paul says (i Cor. v. 5) that some were to
be excommunicated on account of sins against
that virtue.

But you, who are members of the Church,
citizens of the Heavenly Jerusalem, root all
vices out of your hearts, in order that you may
be of the number of the 5000 who were filled
with the Five Loaves and Two Fishes, and
that you may be counted among to the elect,
through Him Who reigns for ever and ever.

Amen.

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