St. Anthony of Padua is known for several different special talents.
By some he is known as the finder of lost articles. This particular talent was the result of something St. Anthony himself had lost, though not of his own volition. Copies of the Sacred Scriptures were extremely valuable books in St. Anthony’s time. One day while he serving as the novice master of his community, a novice asked if he could borrow St. Anthony’s copy of the Scriptures. That night, the novice left the community and took the volume with him. St. Anthony prayed for the novice. He returned the next day and rejoined the community, also returning St. Anthony’s lost Scriptures.
However, St. Anthony’s true genius was in his preaching. He had been ordained as a Canon of St. Augustine but joined the Franciscan Order when he witnessed the return of the martyred bodies of several Franciscan missionaries. Though he was a priest, he willing accepted the position of a scullery servant, scrubbing the pots and pans. As it happened, the friar who was supposed to preach at the ordination of several of the young friars suddenly died just before the ordination ceremony. So one of the friars rushed to the kitchen to find the saint with soap suds up to his elbows. “Anthony, the guardian asks that you come to preach at the ordination.” One sermon later, everyone knew the secret: Anthony was a wonderful preacher. From that time on, St. Anthony was to be found in pulpits wherever he went, preaching the Word of God.
He came to be known as St. Anthony of Padua when he preached a sermon in that city that converted every person in the town and convinced them to turn away from their sinful and avaricious life style. The reputation for holiness for which that the city was henceforth known lasted for years, even after the Saint had died.
So today we remember St. Anthony as a man of the Gospel, who, as the reading from St. Mark tells us, went into the world and proclaimed the gospel to every creature. His memory reminds us that we are called to do the same.