Fernando Martins de Bulhões was born to a noble Portuguese family in Lisbon. He joined the Augustinian canons at fifteen but transferred to the new Franciscan order in 1220 after seeing the bodies of five Franciscan martyrs killed in Morocco. He took the name Anthony, after the Egyptian desert father, hoping to be martyred himself.
Storms drove his ship to Sicily; circumstances led him to a Franciscan chapter in Assisi where Francis himself was present. His learning was unknown until, at an ordination, the friars asked him at the last moment to preach — and a torrent of theological eloquence poured out. Francis appointed him the first lector of theology in the order.
He preached across northern Italy and southern France to crowds reported to reach 30,000. He combated the Albigensian and Cathar heresies, intervened repeatedly for the poor against usury, and spoke with such force that ordinary people would line the streets the night before he arrived. He died of dropsy at thirty-five at the friary of Arcella outside Padua.
Pope Gregory IX canonised him in 1232 — fewer than eleven months after his death, one of the fastest canonisations on record — drawn by the explosion of miracles at his tomb. He was declared a Doctor of the Church (the 'Evangelical Doctor') by Pope Pius XII in 1946.
The Incorrupt Tongue
Discovered 1263Thirty-two years after his death, when his relics were translated to a new basilica, St. Bonaventure himself opened the casket. The body had returned to dust — but the tongue, jaw, and vocal cords of the great preacher were found incorrupt and red. Bonaventure lifted the tongue and cried: 'O blessed tongue, that always praised the Lord!'
→ Full miracle pageThe Recovered Psalter (Patron of Lost Things)
A young novice, fed up with the order, fled in the night taking Anthony's prized psalter. Anthony prayed. The novice, overcome by terror, returned the book and his vocation. From this episode comes the universal devotion to Anthony for finding what is lost.
Preaching to the Fish at Rimini
When heretics at Rimini refused to listen, Anthony walked to the shore and preached to the fish, who reportedly rose to the surface and held their heads above water in still ranks until he finished. The crowds returned.
The Mule of Toulouse
Challenged by a heretic to prove the Real Presence, Anthony proposed that a starving mule be brought before both the consecrated host and a measure of oats. The mule passed the oats and knelt before the host. Many in Toulouse converted that day.
The Drowned Child of Padua (St. Anthony's Bread)
A mother in Padua vowed that, if Anthony returned her drowned child, she would give the child's weight in grain to the poor. The child was restored. The pious custom of 'St. Anthony's Bread' — almsgiving in his name for the poor — traces from this episode (c. 1263).
The shrine at Laç, Albania
A hilltop church of his above Laç, consecrated in 1557, was dynamited by Albania's communist regime in 1967; on his feast in 1990, with religion still outlawed, believers gathered at its stones openly. Christians and Muslims alike climb to it every June. The Church has judged none of the favours asked there.
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Sources & Further Reading
