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<\/a>British expressionist Stephen B. Whatley<\/a>\u00a0painted this tribute to St. Anthony of Padua on June 13, 2007. \u201cI awoke\u00a0and on reading my prayers for strengthening I found that not only was it the Feast Day of St Anthony of Padua, 13 June, but also a Friday, the day the Saint died. 777 years ago,\u201d he writes.<\/span><\/p>\nNearly every American who grew up Catholic learned a prayer to St. Anthony like this one for times when we couldn\u2019t find our homework or shoes or lunch box. \u00a0\u201d\u00a0<\/span>St. Anthony, St. Anthony. P<\/em><\/span><\/span>lease come down. Something is lost\u00a0a<\/em><\/span><\/span>nd can\u2019t be found.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/a> I grew up thinking that St. Anthony was an Italian because of my Italian grandparents\u2019 devotion to this saint. In fact, St. Anthony is Portugese. Fernando Bouillon was born in 1195, 13 years after St. Francis of Assisi. He \u00a0grew up in a very wealthy Portugese family and, to the great disapointment of his parents, entered the religious order of St. Augustine at age 15. At one point, he was put in charge of hospitality at his monastery. In that role he encountered five Franciscan friars on their way to Morocco to preach the Good News to Muslims.<\/p>\n The men were subsequently tortured and beheaded in Morocco. The bodies of these first five Franciscan martyrs were returned to the monastary in a solemn procession that included the Queen of Portugal.<\/p>\n
\nWhat Whatley <\/a>knows, however, is that the life of St. Anthony was replete with spiritual and emotional loss. Thus, we may ask this heavenly companion to pray for us when we experience loss, including loss in our knowledge of the reality of the Resurrection. \u201c<\/span>Saint Anthony has felt like a friend,\u201d Whatley emailed me when I wrote to ask about his devotion to the saint. \u201cI have felt his intercession in the simplest things- finding lost things, finding my way \u2013 and more profoundly on St Anthony\u2019s Feast Day 2009 I was praying near his statue in church \u2013 and exhausted at the time, praying for strength, I felt the most peaceful calm come over me for a few moments; it felt like the Holy Spirit.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
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