The Man Named Fernando: St. Anthony of Padua

Do you know St. Fernando? How about St. Anthony of Padua?

Though many Catholics know of St. Anthony, if you’re like me, you never knew his story and how Anthony was not always his name.

Becoming Anthony

It is crazy to me that I have been Catholic for over 30 years and feel like I am just meeting this man. Many Catholics know of Anthony for his miracles, his statues, and most of all for his intercession for lost car keys. However, very few people would recognize his birth name in 1195, Fernando Martins de Bulhões.

New Names for New Missions

Changing names has a long history and tradition in the Faith. From the early Biblical Patriarchs to the religious of today, including the Pope, there is something significant about choosing or being assigned a new name.

Often in scripture a new name signifies a new mission assigned by God: Abram becomes Abraham, Jacob to Israel, Simon to Peter, etc. All of these men got a new name and a new mission to serve God in a deeper way.

Fernando’s Mission

Born into comfort and wealth, Fernando felt a pull towards God. He gave all of that up. He joined an Order of St. Augustine at the young age of 15. Then after years of study and hearing of St. Francis and his order of Franciscans, he got permission to leave his order and join Francis. At the age of 25, he took the name Anthony after the Great St. Anthony of the Desert.

This name points towards his desire to put aside anything he was known for before, and to give up everything for God as Antony of the Desert before him. However unlike Anthony of the Desert, St. Anthony would travel all over Southern Europe and North Africa preaching to large crowds, performing miracles, evangelizing, and teaching Franciscans.

What We Can Learn From Fernando of Lisbon

St. Anthony finished his travels and died in 1231 near Padua in Italy.

It is amazing to me that one can live 25 years known by one name, and then be remembered by the whole world by a different name that he took on for only 11 years. The name Anthony of Padua seems so far from Fernando of Lisbon.

So what can we learn from this?

I do think that the ancient concept of time as Kairos rather than Chronos is interesting. It is the idea that time is cyclical or at least a spiral. Our past echos into our future. We learn from history, apply it morally, and strive to get it right until we get to heaven.

At the same time, the past does not define who we are. Like Fernando, one can take on a new name, become even more committed to Christ and change the world, remembered for eternity as who we are and not who we once were.

This gives hope that any of us can commit to serving God more today going forward. We may not need a new name, but if Fernando could become Anthony and 11 years later be remembered for eternity in the Church by that name, we have time too to be who God wants us to be in the history of His Church.

At any moment, we could change our lives and become a great saint!

Also, we can’t talk about Anthony without talking about his skill of finding things…

There is a common joke that in marriages, the man can never find anything. This is true in our household, and Anthony has a special place for Katie and I (another reason I am sad that I did not know more about him). When we were dating we would find Anthony statues everywhere we traveled, often paired with our other favorite, Therese of Liseaux for some reason.

St. Anthony the Finder

So far, Fernando has found a new order, a new name, and a new way of life, but how did he end up being the patron of lost items?

It is said that while teaching friars, one of his students left with his book which would have been very difficult to replace in the 1200s. Anthony prayed to have his book back. With that, both his book and his student returned to the friary.

It seems odd that one event leads to so many millions of faithful asking for St. Anthony’s intercession. Yet, maybe there is more that we can ask Anthony to help us find: purpose, deeper faith and trust in God, a way of life that is united with God’s Will for us.

We can also think about the many days that pass, but all it takes is one little prayer and miraculous event in our lives to be assigned a patronage that will have you fielding prayers from Heaven for a long time!

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