Loved and invoked throughout the world, people learn from an early age to turn to him. Today, we invite you to join us on a journey through his best-known miracles.
The Bread of the Poor
Tommasino was a 20-month-old boy: his mother had left him at home alone to play and shortly afterward found him lifeless, drowned in a tub of water.
In despair, she turned to Saint Anthony in prayer and made a vow: if her prayer were answered, she would donate as much bread to the poor as the child weighed. Her son miraculously came back to life. Thus began the tradition of the «pondus pueri», a prayer in which parents, in exchange for protection for their children, promised Saint Anthony as much bread as their children weighed.
This miracle gave rise to the Opera del Pane dei Poveri and later to Caritas Antoniana, organizations associated with Saint Anthony that work to provide food, basic necessities, and assistance to the poor throughout the world.
The Sermon to the Fish
The famous sermon to the fish is said to have taken place in Rimini, which was then controlled by groups of heretics. When the Saint arrived in the city, the leaders said they would isolate him behind a wall of silence. Anthony did not know whom to turn to. The churches were empty. There was no one to listen to him, not even in the square. So he began to pray and meditate. When he reached the sea, he began to call his audience: «Since you prove yourselves unworthy of the word of God, behold, I turn to the fish, to expose your unbelief more openly.» And hundreds of fish surfaced.
The Miracle of the Mule
The miracle of the mule, sculpted by Donatello in a bronze bas-relief, also took place in Rimini. There was an especially militant heretic there who mocked what Anthony preached about the Eucharist and denied Christ’s real presence. He went so far as to challenge the Saint to prove it with a miracle. If this happened, he would convert to the true doctrine. He told Anthony that he would keep his mule shut in the stable for several days without feeding it; then he would bring it into the square in front of the people and place some fodder before it. Anthony, meanwhile, would have to place the host in front of the mule: if the animal ignored the food and knelt before the consecrated wafer, he would convert. The Saint accepted the challenge; after three days of absolute fasting, the mule was brought into the square. From one side came the heretic with the fodder, and from the other Anthony with a gleaming monstrance. Attracted by curiosity, a large crowd had gathered and was able to witness the wonder: ignoring the basket of fodder, the beast turned toward the Eucharist and knelt before it.
The Vision
Shortly before his death, Anthony obtained permission to withdraw in prayer to Camposampiero, near Padua, in the place that the local lord, Count Tiso, had entrusted to the Franciscans, near his castle.
As he was walking through the woods, Anthony noticed a majestic walnut tree and came up with the idea of having a sort of small cell built among its branches. Tiso had it prepared for him. The Saint thus spent his days of contemplation in that refuge, returning to the hermitage only at night.
One evening, the count saw an intense glow emanating from Anthony’s small room. Fearing a fire, he pushed open the door and stood motionless before the miraculous scene: Anthony was holding the Child Jesus in his arms. When the moment of ecstasy ended, Anthony saw Tiso moved and begged him not to tell anyone about the celestial apparition. Only after the Saint’s death would the count tell what he had seen.
The people of Padua, who admired and followed Saint Anthony so much during his lifetime, dedicated a Franciscan-style church to him just a few years after his death. It was later transformed into the marvelous basilica with an Oriental-style design, which became one of the most famous and most visited places of worship in Christianity. Paul VI called it a “spiritual clinic” because of the inner miracles that often take place there through the Saint’s intercession.
