I found St. Anthony in Lisbon
When I was a little girl and I had lost some toys or books, I would recite this prayer, which I actually learned from my younger sister Mary Mae, from my heart: “Dear St. Anthony, please come around. My ____ is lost and can’t be found.”
And indeed, I would find the lost toy. Perhaps it was the nanny who found it while cleaning and then propped it back on the shelf. Or not.
Anyway, the lost toy that turned up after I prayed to St. Anthony made my child’s heart believe in the power of prayer. To a child who has virtually no cares in the world, to lose a precious doll is devastating—and to find it after a heartfelt prayer, a gift from Above. When a child realizes from experience that prayers are indeed answered, the child grows up into an adult who believes in miracles, lost things that are found, lost causes that are resolved, and that as Alfred Lord Tennyson once wrote, “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.”
On a recent trip to Lisbon prior to a cruise on the Silver Allure on the Douro River, I looked for the church of St. Anthony, after I had heard of it from a dear friend. She said St. Anthony, a 13th century saint, a Franciscan friar and protégé of St. Francis of Assisi, “actively sought” him out when he was once facing challenges in life. Then and now, a saint of countless answered prayers.
Is he the same Anthony as the famous St. Anthony of Padua, I wondered? I had been to the basilica of St. Anthony in Padua (or Padova) and it is a huge church with a queue snaking into its main entrance.
I found the answer when my travel buddy Joy David of CITTI accompanied me to the church, which is not far from the Lisbon Cathedral in the old district of Lisbon (well, Lisbon is old to begin with, so you can imagine how historic its “old” district is.) Indeed, St. Anthony of Padua is the same St. Anthony of Lisbon, where he was born to an affluent family in the late 12th century.
We took a taxi from our hotel in Lisbon to the church, also known as Igreja de Santo António de Lisboa in Portuguese. The nice thing about Lisbon is the accessibility of major attractions from anywhere you stay, with an average of six euros for taxi fare.
Joy had been to the church of St. Anthony before as she had headed several pilgrimages organized by CITTI. This trip wasn’t a pilgrimage, but I was blessed to be with someone who knew the way so I could find St. Anthony.
The church of St. Anthony in Lisbon, after the 1767 earthquake to a Baroque-Rococo design by architect Mateus Vicente de Oliveira, is nowhere near as grand as the St. Anthony church in Padua, but it was where the saint was born.
After hearing Mass inside the church, Joy and I descend to the crypt chapel that marks St. Anthony’s exact birthplace in 1195 as Fernando Martins de Bulhões.
It is all that is left of the early basilica that was destroyed by the earthquake. Then Pope John Paul II, now also a saint, paid a visit to this chapel in 1982 and inaugurated a statue of the saint, which can be seen outside of the church.
According to an article by the Catholic News Agency (CAN), St. Anthony was known in his own day as the “Hammer of Heretics” due to his powerful preaching. He was commissioned by St. Francis of Assisi to teach theology to the friars in 1224 and went on to preach as a missionary in France and Italy before he died at the age of 36.
How did he get to Padua from Lisbon? It is a story as well of destiny, of how we find it when we seek discernment about our mission and purpose in life.
It was in a monastery in Coimbra that St. Anthony heard about five Franciscan friars who had died for their faith in Morocco and felt the desire to adopt the Franciscans’ poor and humble way of life. He traveled on a ship bound for Africa with the hope of imitating the Franciscan martyrs, but he became seriously ill during the journey and forced to return home.
“This ship that was supposed to take Anthony back to Portugal for medical treatment was blown off course and by this unplanned circumstance, St. Anthony landed on the shores of the country that would enthusiastically embrace him as their own for centuries to come: Italy,” according to historical sources.
The detour turned out to be his destiny. Today, the basilica of St. Anthony of Padua is a renowned pilgrimage site. The Basilica is recognized by the Holy See as one of the eight international Shrines and is visited by millions of pilgrims each year. The Basilica reportedly displays the chin and tongue of St. Anthony in addition to his tomb.
Aside from his bigger intercessions and miracles, how did St. Anthony become the patron saint of lost things? According to tradition, someone’s lost psalter (book of psalms) was found following a prayer of St. Anthony. For this reason, he is known as the patron saint of lost things.
The St. Anthony of Padua website shares, “Anthony is famous throughout the world as the saint who helps to find lost objects: everyday items, important documents, even the faith itself.”
St. Anthony’s journey was diverted from Lisbon to a place where he was able to propagate his faith more. He found his mission by first losing his first purpose (to go to Africa.) And yet he ended up where he was meant to be, where he has found a place in this world, and helped millions of Catholic faithful find their faith again.
It was a blessing to find the birthplace of St. Anthony in Lisbon after I had visited a couple of times the basilica in Padua where he rests.
Happy New Year, everyone. May we all find what we are looking for.
