The recognitions

View photos of the 1981 recognition »
View photos of the 2008 translation »
 

In brief here we want to present the history of the recognitions and ostensions of these sacred Anthonian relics, attempting to understand the significance in light of the Christian faith in the resurrection.


History of the recognitions

As is well known, Friday 13^th June 1231 in Arcella, a suburb situated to the North of the city of Padua, St Anthony entered for ever into the beatific vision of “his Lord” who he had faithfully served on this earth. The following Tuesday 17^th June his body was buried, as he wished, in the little church of Santa Maria Mater Domini, next to the small Franciscan convent that existed at the time. It is likely that the first tomb was not underground, but somewhat raised, so that the devout, who were increasingly more frequent and numerous, could touch the ark-tomb.

The most important recognition and translation took place on 8^th April 1263, when, once a decisive phase of the construction of the new church had been completed, the venerated body was moved there. San Bonaventura da Bagnoregio, at the time the minister general of the Franciscans, oversaw the ceremony. While the sacred remains were examined, before being placed in the new wooden box, it was discovered that the Saint’s tongue was incorrupt. At this discovery he said: “Oh blessed tongue, you have always praised the Lord and you have led others to praise Him, now your great merits acquired with God are manifest to all.” On that occasion the ark with the mortal remains of the Saint was probably placed in the centre of the transept, under the present conical cupola (called the Cupola of the Angel), in front of the presbytery. From 1263 to 1310 his tomb therefore remained at the centre of the Basilica; however, the position of the tomb from 1310 to 1350 is uncertain (perhaps already in the present Chapel of the Ark). From 1350 onwards the Saint’s body was certainly kept in this chapel because on 15^th February 1350 a solemn translation was carried out thanks to the Apostolic legate Cardinal Guido di Boulogne-Su-Mer, during which the Saint’s body was moved to the position closest to the place of its first burial. Until the beginning of the 16^th Century, the Chapel of the Ark was in the gothic style, with frescoes by Stefano da Ferrara, the same artist who painted the Madonna del Pilastro. Then the Chapel took on the renaissance form we see today, with work by Sansovino, the Lombardo brothers, Tiziano Aspetti and other 17^th Century masters.

In the centuries between 1263 and 1981 no one had ever opened the tomb of St Anthony. It was only on 6^th January 1981, on the 750^th anniversary of St Anthony’s death, that a new and accurate investigation of his mortals remains was carried out. A religious commission and a technical-scientific commission, both nominated by the Holy See, supervised the opening of the tomb and examined what was found. After removing a lateral slab of green marble, they found a large deal box, wrapped in cloth. It contained another smaller box, again made of deal, which held in different wrappings, arranged in three compartments, wrapped in precious cloths and with indicative writings, there was the skeleton, without the chin, left forearm and other lesser parts (preserved for centuries in special reliquaries); the habit; the massa corporis, the organic matter reduced to the corpuscular state. Outside of the large cask, in the burial niche that held it, a plaque was also found with the dates of the Saint’s death, his canonisation and the translation of his remains from the little church of Santa Maria Mater Domini to the new Basilica. Moreover various coins and small rings were found.

The recognition in 1981 allowed proper investigations of a historic, technical/artistic, anthropologic and medical nature to be carried out on all the material discovered. The Saint’s skeleton was then reassembled on a mat and placed in a crystal box, which was then enclosed in an oak coffin and replaced in the tomb. The remains of St Anthony were then exposed, from the evening of 31^st January to the evening of Sunday 1^st March 1981 (for a total of 29 days) to the veneration of the devout, who flocked in staggering numbers: over 650 thousand people.

At present in the Treasury Chapel the following are displayed: the Saint’s habit, the two wooden boxes, the cord and two seals, the three cloths of red/crimson silk reassembled into a cope, the two large golden cloths, the plaque, the coins and the rings. All these “new” Anthonian relics are worthy companions to the older and prestigious ones situated in the central niche of the Treasury Chapel: the Saint’s tongue, the relic of the chin and the cartilage of the larynx. One does not expect to see a bright red tongue. But what one does see is still unexplainable, given that it is a very fragile part of the body and one of the first to dissolve after death. By now 780 years have passed since St Anthony’s passing and that tongue is a perpetual miracle, the only one in history and is full of religious significance, almost a divine seal of the evangelisation work he performed in society of his time and which now must be continued by his brothers.

Since March 1981 the tomb had never been touched again, but on 12^th April 2008, owing to the necessity stemming from the restoration of the Chapel of the Ark, a temporary translation was carried out, namely the transfer of the cask containing the remains of St Anthony into the Chapel of St James situated opposite that of the Ark. The oak chest was kept closed since no new scientific investigations were going to be carried out, and so the seals placed in 1981 were not broken. The box was then kept inside a modern marble altar thus allowing the customary visits of the faithful and the devotional “touching” of his tomb. This altar will probably go to India, where it will become the “eucharistic table” of a church dedicated to St Anthony.

On 4^th December 2009, once the restoration works had been completed, the Chapel of the Ark was reopened in all its splendour. On 20^th February this year, in the evening, the translation of St Anthony’s body will be completed, and he will be replaced in his traditional home, giving however the faithful the opportunity to see him once again inside the crystal urn for six days (from 15^th to 20^th).

The significance to faith of ostension

The ostension of a saint’s body always represents an extraordinary event in devotion, which in any case must be well understood. Many ask themselves whether faith today still needs these exterior forms: do we believe with our hearts or with our eyes? And if there isn’t perhaps the danger of lapsing into superstition, as if it were magical recourse to relics of a body which is nevertheless human?

It is not easy to answer these questions, but faith certainly needs tangible signs, seeing and touching them we are led to feel the mysterious and inexpressible reality which lies beyond our senses. This can happen in many ways, and therefore even in the disclosure experiences spoken about by psychologists and theologians, namely those life experiences in which “the heavens open” also for us and we “see” what the physical eye cannot glimpse. In this sense, as in the Gospel of John, seeing is synonymous with believing and vice versa. The disciple whom Jesus loved, on entering the empty tomb “sees” the cloths laying on the ground and the shroud rolled up a place by itself, and “believes” (cf. Jn 20: 3-8). And again John, in his first Letter says: “We declare to you what was from the beginning, that we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have touched with our hands” (cf. 1 Jn 1:1-3).

Therefore if we touch the body of a saint, if we touch his tomb, we perform gestures that refer us to the glorified body of the resurrection: if this our brother has preceded us into our Father’s house, we too know that this is our destination meta. The life of a saint is living parable, as was that of Christ, the firstborn of many brothers: seeing these holy relics we have a tangible sign that reminds us of our eternal and unfailing vocation. As John says “This life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us” (1 Jn 1:2).

For Christians the resurrection of the body is an integral part of our faith, but how this happens totally eludes our understanding. What does a “spiritualised” body mean, one transformed into pure energy, immerged in the divine reality, and yet still marked by the personal individuality of each of us? We don’t know, but seeing Anthony’s life Christians glimpse as if it were in transparency the life which is Christ Himself, they glimpse their own lives as they could and should be, they receive encouragement and faith in continuing the daily path, comforted by the example and by the intercession of the Saint who made himself and is everyone’s “friend”.

Luigi Dal Lago