Saint Anthony of Padua: Herald of the Word, Son of Mary, and Hammer of Heresy

Fr. Scott Haynes

Among the great saints of the Church, few have left so luminous and immediate an impact as St. Anthony of Padua (1195–1231), Doctor of the Church, wonderworker, and preacher of fire. Known worldwide as the patron of lost things, St. Anthony was much more than a gentle helper of the forgetful; he was a tireless evangelist, a defender of the poor, and a mighty foe of heresy, so much so that Pope Pius XII named him "Doctor Evangelicus" in 1946. Yet the story of this remarkable saint begins not in Padua, but in Lisbon, where he was born and baptized, and where his first steps in the religious life took place—not as a Franciscan, but as an Augustinian Canon.

Early Life in Lisbon and the Augustinian Vocation

St. Anthony was born Fernando Martins de Bulhões on August 15, 1195, to a noble and pious family in Lisbon, Portugal. His birthplace was near the Lisbon Cathedral (Sé de Lisboa), a Romanesque church constructed shortly after the Christian reconquest of the city in 1147. It was in this same cathedral that Fernando was baptized, and it would become the site of his early religious service years later.

The Church of St. Anthony (Igreja de Santo António de Lisboa), traditionally identified as the site of his birth, stands just a few paces away from the cathedral. It was there, in the shadow of Lisbon’s great ecclesiastical monuments, that young Fernando grew in holiness, knowledge, and piety. Educated by the cathedral clergy, he soon desired a religious life dedicated to prayer and study.

At age 15, he entered the Order of St. Augustine, becoming a Canon Regular at the Monastery of São Vicente de Fora in Lisbon. The Augustinian Canons, following the Rule of St. Augustine, were dedicated to communal living, prayer, and scholarship. Fernando’s time with them was marked by a thirst for sacred learning and a life of rigorous asceticism. However, his devotion to study was often impeded by visits from family and friends, whose social standing interfered with his solitude. Seeking deeper seclusion, he transferred to the Augustinian Monastery of Santa Cruz in Coimbra, then Portugal’s cultural and intellectual capital.

It was in Coimbra that he encountered the writings of the Fathers, particularly St. Jerome, St. Augustine, and St. Gregory the Great. His mind was a storehouse of Scripture, his memory an ordered library of the wisdom of the Church. Later, when his preaching astonished crowds across Italy and France, people marveled at his ability to expound on the Sacred Text with immediate recall and profound insight. St. Bonaventure would later write of him:

“The marvels of his preaching sprang not from cunning words but from the depths of contemplation. He had drunk deeply of the Sacred Scriptures and had fed on them with the fire of divine love.”¹

Marian Devotion and the Fiat of a Vocation

From his youth, Fernando had a strong devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. His birth on the Feast of the Assumption seemed to foretell this special bond. The Church of his baptism, Lisbon Cathedral, was itself dedicated to Our Lady. He would often retire to pray before her image, invoking her intercession for wisdom, purity, and perseverance.

As an Augustinian, Fernando daily recited the Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and he memorized many Marian hymns. His love for her was not sentimental but theological and practical: Mary, the New Eve, stood as the model of receptivity to God’s will. He saw in her the supreme example of what it meant to say “yes” to God—a theme that would later characterize his own radical turn toward the Franciscan path.

This turning point came in 1220, when the bodies of five Franciscan martyrs were brought back to Coimbra. These missionaries had gone to preach the Gospel to the Muslims in Morocco and were tortured and killed for the Faith. Their relics were brought in solemn procession to the monastery where Fernando was living. The witness of these men ignited a flame in his soul: a desire to imitate Christ even unto martyrdom.

Soon after, Fernando petitioned to leave the Augustinians and enter the Order of Friars Minor, founded only a few years earlier by St. Francis of Assisi. The Franciscans were drawn to his holiness and granted his request. Upon entering, he took the name Anthony, after St. Anthony the Great, the father of monasticism.

From Hermitage to Preaching

Anthony was sent to Morocco, hoping for martyrdom, but became seriously ill and was forced to return to Europe. Divine providence intervened again, and his ship wrecked off the coast of Sicily. He recovered at a Franciscan hermitage and lived in anonymity, performing humble tasks.

His gift for preaching was only discovered when, at an ordination, a Dominican failed to show up to deliver a sermon. Anthony was asked to speak, and all were astonished at the depth, clarity, and power of his words. From that moment, his mission as preacher and teacher of the Gospel unfolded rapidly.

He preached against heresy, especially in southern France and northern Italy, confronting Catharist and Albigensian errors. His words were imbued with charity, authority, and clarity. He emphasized repentance, the sacraments, devotion to Mary, and fidelity to the Church. Crowds of 20,000 or more would gather to hear him speak.

The Life of Prayer and Union with Christ

What made Anthony’s preaching so powerful was not rhetorical flair but a deeply interior life rooted in constant union with God. He fasted, prayed long into the night, and often sought solitude. His miracles—of bilocation, prophecy, healings, and even raising the dead—were not ends in themselves but signs of the inbreaking of God’s Kingdom. They were the fruit of a heart transfigured by divine love.

St. Bonaventure recounts that Anthony was frequently found in rapturous ecstasy before the Blessed Sacrament. His relationship with Christ was intensely Eucharistic. In one famous miracle, Anthony confronted a heretic who denied the Real Presence. The man challenged him, saying that if his mule would kneel before the Host, he would believe. After several days of fasting, the mule was brought before Anthony, who held up the Host. The animal knelt in adoration.

Anthony lived out the words of St. Paul: “And I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me” (Galatians 2:20). He was not only a man of learning but a man of fire. His theology was not dry but infused with love. His sermons often ended with appeals to conversion, to confession, and to deeper trust in God’s mercy.

The Exorcism Prayer of St. Anthony: “St. Anthony’s Brief”

One of the most enduring contributions of St. Anthony to spiritual warfare is the prayer known as “St. Anthony’s Brief.” Its origin dates to a dramatic event during his own lifetime. In 1231, a nobleman named Count Tiso, a friend of the saint, was being tormented by demons. Anthony gave him a small parchment with the Latin words:

“Ecce Crucem Domini! Fugite partes adversae! Vicit Leo de tribu Juda, radix David. Alleluia!” (Behold the Cross of the Lord! Flee, ye hostile powers! The Lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered, the Root of David. Alleluia!)

The prayer had immediate effect, and the demonic attacks ceased. This short invocation spread quickly, especially after Anthony’s death. It became known as “St. Anthony’s Brief,” likely because it was written on a small piece of parchment (breve in Latin), and it was frequently worn around the neck for protection.

St. Anthony’s Brief embodies his theology of spiritual combat: victory lies not in human strength but in the power of Christ Crucified, the Lion of Judah. Today, the prayer remains a powerful form of exorcistic invocation, used especially in cases of diabolic oppression or temptation.

Death and Canonization

In 1231, worn out by his labors and illness, Anthony withdrew to a retreat near Padua. There, in a treehouse built among walnut trees in the quiet of nature, he prepared for death. He composed sermons, prayed constantly, and received visitors seeking counsel. On June 13, 1231, at only 36 years of age, he died, murmuring the words, “I see my Lord.”

The people of Padua were devastated. Miracles multiplied at his tomb almost immediately. Less than a year later, on May 30, 1232, Pope Gregory IX canonized him—one of the fastest canonizations in history.

A Saint for All

St. Anthony is unique in that he is venerated by scholars and common folk alike. Learned theologians study his sermons, which reflect a deep and mystical grasp of Scripture. The humble and poor flock to him for help finding lost objects, lost people, or lost faith. He is not merely a patron for trivial matters but for recovering what sin has taken—peace, truth, love, and heaven.

St. Bonaventure declared:

“If you seek miracles, death, error, all calamities, leprosy and demons, flee, and sickness disappears. The sea obeys and fetters break, and lifeless limbs do move. While treasures lost are found again, when young or old his help implore.”²

This stanza became the famous hymn “Si quaeris miracula”, often sung in his honor.

Devotion to Mary and the Road to Christ

Throughout his life, Anthony’s love for the Blessed Virgin Mary only deepened. He saw her as the Ark of the New Covenant, the woman clothed with the sun, and the perfect image of the soul’s response to God. In his sermon for the Feast of the Assumption, he writes:

“Mary, the heavenly ladder, through whom God descended and man ascended; she is the mediator of grace, the mother of mercy.”³

This Marian devotion grounded his spiritual life in the Incarnational mystery. Just as Mary brought Christ into the world, so every Christian is called to bear Christ through grace. For Anthony, devotion to Mary never detracted from Christ but always led to Him. Her intercession was powerful because her fiat was total.

Conclusion

St. Anthony of Padua remains one of the most beloved and powerful intercessors in the Church. His short life—filled with light, learning, and labor—embodies the Gospel fully lived. From the cathedral of his baptism in Lisbon to the basilica that holds his relics in Padua, his memory continues to evangelize, heal, and convert.

His deep life of prayer, Marian devotion, theological brilliance, and unshakable trust in Christ make him not merely a saint of the past but a prophet for our time. May we, like him, be “lamps on a lampstand” (Luke 11:33), illuminating the darkness with the light of Christ.

Notes

¹ St. Bonaventure, Legenda Minor Sancti Antonii, ch. I.

² Si quaeris miracula, attributed to Julian of Spires, 13th century.

³ St. Anthony of Padua, Sermones Dominicales et in Solemnitatibus, Sermon for the Assumption.