Praise be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.
The future St. Anthony was born in Lisbon in 1195 and was baptized, Fernando.
He received his initial schooling from the canons of the cathedral.
He felt called to religious life and became an Augustinian friar when he was about 15.
He lived in the friary of St. Vincent outside the city walls.
However, he did not find there the quiet and contemplation he was seeking because people he knew kept coming to visit him.
So he asked to be transferred to the friary of the Holy Cross in Coimbra.
There he lived for eight years, studying the liberal arts, scripture, and theology.
Then the Franciscan proto-martyrs passed through the city on their way to martyrdom.
And in 1220, the relics were brought back to the very church where Fernando served.
They had done what he wanted.
They had given all for Christ.
He asked to become a Franciscan, but on condition that he be sent to preach among the Saracens, and received what he asked, he took the religious name, Anthony.
In Morocco, he became so ill, however, that his superiors ordered him back to Portugal.
But God wanted him elsewhere, so the ship that was to take him there was blown off course and wound up in Sicily.
The general chapter of the Franciscans was soon to be held, and so the friars of Sicily took Anthony to Assisi with them.
There he could find out what his superiors wanted him to do, where they wanted him to go now if God did not want him in Morocco.
This was the great chapter of 1221, in which 5,000 friars participated.
It was the last at which all the friars were allowed to come.
After that, only the provincial superiors.
One friar was assigned to one place, and another to another place.
But no one knew Anthony, so at the end, he was left over.
The provincial superior of Bologna then accepted him and assigned him to a hermitage near Forli.
There he did humble tasks for his brethren and dedicated himself to prayer for ten months.
You could say that he asked for wisdom, and it was given him.
Then he went to an ordination.
A sermon was expected.
The Dominicans thought that a Franciscan would preach because the ordination was in their church.
The Franciscans thought that a Dominican would preach because they were more learned.
They would be able to better impress the bishop.
So no one had prepared, and no one wanted to preach without preparation.
Anthony's superior ordered him to preach.
Even if he did badly, no one would be disappointed, because no one expected much of a sermon from the friar who washed the dishes and swept the corridors.
And he began his sermon, as might be expected, with simple ideas, using everyday language.
But as he got going, his words became brilliant and burning.
And a flood of divine eloquence poured from his mouth, reaching such a height that its audience was rapt.
From that day, Anthony had a new job.
He was sent throughout Lombardy to preach in the cities and towns.
People gathered by the thousands and tens of thousands to hear him preach.
He spoke in the Great Assembly.
Enemies were reconciled, injustices redressed, lost faith was restored, and charity aroused.
He also taught theology to his conquerors in their schools at Bologna and Padua, with St. Francis's permission.
St. Francis also sent him further abroad to preach against the Albigensian heretics in southern France.
He fought heresy also in northern Italy, and was called the Hammer of Heretics.
Few could resist the power of his words and the fire of his charity, backed up by miracles.
In Bourges, in the center of France, he was challenged by Guyard, the leader of the heretics.
If you can prove with a public miracle that Christ is really present in the Eucharist, he said, I swear I will renounce my doctrines and embrace those you preach.
St. Anthony agreed, and Guyard told him what he wanted to see.
I have a mule, he said.
I will keep it without food for three days, and then I will lead it to the public square, where you will come with the consecrated host.
If the mule, instead of eating the fodder presented to him, will prostrate himself before the sacrament, I will admit I'm beaten and believe.
On the third day they were in the square as agreed, St. Anthony turned to the mule and said, in the name of the Creator, who, despite my unworthiness, I really carry in my hands.
I command you to come at once with humility and attest the respect that you owe him, so that the heretics may know, and no longer doubt, that every creature is subject to the Creator, called upon the altar by the word of the priest.
The mule backed away from the fodder, went before the blessed sacrament, knelt, and remained still.
Guyard kept his word.
He, too, knelt before the sacrament and declared himself a Catholic.
St. Anthony worked innumerable miracles during his life, and innumerable more after his death.
When he preached in Rome in the presence of Gregory IX, the miracle of Pentecost was repeated, for all the pilgrims heard him in their own languages.
On this occasion, he displayed such a thorough knowledge of scripture that the Pope dubbed him the Ark of the Testament.
In late May 1231, the swelling that had afflicted him for some time became debilitating.
Forced to stop preaching, he could now dedicate time to contemplation.
He had a cell built among the branches of a walnut north of Padua, and there he spent his days in prayer.
Here he was seen one day contemplating the child Jesus, who appeared to him on a cloud.
But he had not been there long when he collapsed while he was eating with the other friars of the hermitage.
He knew that his end was near, and he asked to be taken to Padua to die in a church dedicated to Our Lady.
So they loaded him on a cart and set out, but he died on the outskirts of the city, singing to Our Lady with his last breath.
“O Gloriosa Domina, excelsa super sidera”, that is, “O Glorious Lady, exalted above the stars.”
He was only thirty-six, but he had given himself completely to Jesus, and Jesus had taken him.
Praise be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.

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Ave Maria.