A Novena to Saint Anthony of Padua
Si quaeris miracula
The Finder of What Is Lost
The Novena Prayer
Saint Anthony, perfect imitator of Jesus, who received from God the special power of restoring lost things, grant that I may find what has been lost.
At least restore to me peace and tranquility of mind, the loss of which has afflicted me even more than my material loss. To this favor I ask another of you: that I may always remain in possession of the true good that is God.
Let me rather lose all things than lose God, my supreme good. Let me never suffer the loss of my greatest treasure, eternal life with God.
The patronage began with a stolen book: a novice made off with Anthony's psalter, annotated in his own hand and irreplaceable before printing, and the story says the thief was so troubled that he brought it back. From that small domestic recovery grew a patronage now invoked worldwide for lost objects of every kind.
Lisbon
The Novena Prayer
Saint Anthony, perfect imitator of Jesus, who received from God the special power of restoring lost things, grant that I may find what has been lost.
At least restore to me peace and tranquility of mind, the loss of which has afflicted me even more than my material loss. To this favor I ask another of you: that I may always remain in possession of the true good that is God.
Let me rather lose all things than lose God, my supreme good. Let me never suffer the loss of my greatest treasure, eternal life with God.
Anthony was born Fernando in Lisbon in 1195, a canon of the Augustinian order with a comfortable and scholarly career ahead of him; at about twenty-five he left to join the Franciscans, a new and controversial order of mendicant beggars, taking the name Anthony at his reception into the order.
The Shipwreck
The Novena Prayer
Saint Anthony, perfect imitator of Jesus, who received from God the special power of restoring lost things, grant that I may find what has been lost.
At least restore to me peace and tranquility of mind, the loss of which has afflicted me even more than my material loss. To this favor I ask another of you: that I may always remain in possession of the true good that is God.
Let me rather lose all things than lose God, my supreme good. Let me never suffer the loss of my greatest treasure, eternal life with God.
Anthony sailed for Morocco intending to preach to the Almohad rulers, fell seriously ill almost immediately, and was put on a ship home; a storm blew the ship off course and landed him in Sicily instead, from where he made his way to the Franciscan community in Italy.
The Accident of Being Asked
The Novena Prayer
Saint Anthony, perfect imitator of Jesus, who received from God the special power of restoring lost things, grant that I may find what has been lost.
At least restore to me peace and tranquility of mind, the loss of which has afflicted me even more than my material loss. To this favor I ask another of you: that I may always remain in possession of the true good that is God.
Let me rather lose all things than lose God, my supreme good. Let me never suffer the loss of my greatest treasure, eternal life with God.
Anthony spent roughly a year in a hermitage doing kitchen work, unknown to his brothers, until an ordination at which no one had prepared to preach; asked to say something extemporaneously, he preached with a skill that surprised the community and led his superiors to send him to teach and preach across northern Italy and southern France.
Preaching to the Fish
The Novena Prayer
Saint Anthony, perfect imitator of Jesus, who received from God the special power of restoring lost things, grant that I may find what has been lost.
At least restore to me peace and tranquility of mind, the loss of which has afflicted me even more than my material loss. To this favor I ask another of you: that I may always remain in possession of the true good that is God.
Let me rather lose all things than lose God, my supreme good. Let me never suffer the loss of my greatest treasure, eternal life with God.
One of the best-known legends has Anthony preaching at Rimini to townspeople who refused to listen, and turning instead to address a crowd of fish gathered in the river, who are said to have come to the surface and listened; the story appears in Franciscan sources within a century of his death.
Hammer of the Comfortable
The Novena Prayer
Saint Anthony, perfect imitator of Jesus, who received from God the special power of restoring lost things, grant that I may find what has been lost.
At least restore to me peace and tranquility of mind, the loss of which has afflicted me even more than my material loss. To this favor I ask another of you: that I may always remain in possession of the true good that is God.
Let me rather lose all things than lose God, my supreme good. Let me never suffer the loss of my greatest treasure, eternal life with God.
Anthony preached forcefully against usury and against corrupt officials, naming offenders directly, and is credited with persuading the city of Padua to pass a law in 1231 protecting debtors from imprisonment for unpaid debts.
The Child
The Novena Prayer
Saint Anthony, perfect imitator of Jesus, who received from God the special power of restoring lost things, grant that I may find what has been lost.
At least restore to me peace and tranquility of mind, the loss of which has afflicted me even more than my material loss. To this favor I ask another of you: that I may always remain in possession of the true good that is God.
Let me rather lose all things than lose God, my supreme good. Let me never suffer the loss of my greatest treasure, eternal life with God.
The image of Anthony holding the infant Christ, now the most common way he is depicted, comes from a story recorded more than a century after his death, in which a host is said to have looked through a door and seen him holding a child of extraordinary brightness.
Dying at Thirty-Five
The Novena Prayer
Saint Anthony, perfect imitator of Jesus, who received from God the special power of restoring lost things, grant that I may find what has been lost.
At least restore to me peace and tranquility of mind, the loss of which has afflicted me even more than my material loss. To this favor I ask another of you: that I may always remain in possession of the true good that is God.
Let me rather lose all things than lose God, my supreme good. Let me never suffer the loss of my greatest treasure, eternal life with God.
Anthony died in 1231 at thirty-five, after roughly nine years of preaching, and was canonized the following year by Pope Gregory IX, one of the fastest canonizations in the Church's history.
What Is Really Lost
The Novena Prayer
Saint Anthony, perfect imitator of Jesus, who received from God the special power of restoring lost things, grant that I may find what has been lost.
At least restore to me peace and tranquility of mind, the loss of which has afflicted me even more than my material loss. To this favor I ask another of you: that I may always remain in possession of the true good that is God.
Let me rather lose all things than lose God, my supreme good. Let me never suffer the loss of my greatest treasure, eternal life with God.
When Anthony's tomb was opened in 1263, thirty-two years after his death, the exhumation was conducted by Bonaventure, then minister general of the Franciscans. The body had decayed to bone, but the tongue and vocal apparatus were found intact, and they are preserved today as relics in the Basilica of St. Anthony in Padua.
The opening invocation, given here, is the traditional one, long in public circulation. Fernando de Bulhões of Lisbon, 1195–1231, took the name Anthony on entering the Franciscans and was canonised within a year of his death. What follows each day is a fact from his life or its aftermath, one per day; see also the prayer for the recovery of lost things.
