Fernando Martins de Bulhões, now known as St. Anthony was born on August 15th, 1195 in Lisbon, Portugal. From a young age, he was educated by priests, and entered into religious life in the Augustinian order at just 15 years old.

A few years into his studies, Fernando was moved by the witness of Franciscan martyrs who were killed for preaching the faith in the muslim country of Morocco. Their witness impacted him so much that he soon requested to join the Franciscan order, taking the name Anthony, and asked to be sent to Morocco. In Morocco, he quickly became ill and on the way back to Portugal, the young saint’s ship ran into a storm and landed off-course in Sicily, where he was adopted by a friary.

St. Anthony lived a quiet life as a mere dishwasher and his fellow brothers knew very little of his background and education. One day, after being asked to give a talk, Anthony’s fellow brothers were very impressed and realized how gifted he was at preaching. He became a public preacher and eventually was noticed by St. Francis, who upon learning about Anthony’s gift, assigned him to preach in northern Italy.

St. Anthony became a well renowned speaker, who was known for fully living the gospel, not just preaching it. He was later sent to Padua, and that is where he preached his last. Crowds of 30,000 would gather to hear him speak. At one point, he needed a body guard because people would sneak up and cut pieces of his habit away as a relic. Thousands would come to his funeral, and he was canonized only a year after his death - the shortest time for canonization in the history of the Catholic Church.

St. Anthony’s sainthood is marked by an overwhelming amount of miracles, both during his lifetime and after his death. He lived a life that truly exemplified the life we are called to live as Christians.

Oh St. Anthony, Patron Saint of the poor, sailors, fisherman, priests, travelers, “Guardian of the mail”, and “Hammer of Heretics”, Pray for us