13 DAYS NOVENA 2023: Thank you St. Anthony

Our journey starts in the Museum of Anthonian Devotion, which collects hundreds of ex-votos donated by the faithful in gratitude for graces received through the intercession of St. Anthony.
This collection of these testimonies of faith and love gives us a clear idea of the extent of devotion to St. Anthony. It also constitutes an interesting journey into the evolution of religious sensibility through the centuries.

In the appendix of St. Anthony’s first biography, the Assidua, we find a list of no less than 51 miracles that, read in the presence of Pope Gregory IX, lead to his canonization. Also, in The Book of St. Anthony’s Miracles, the Franciscan friar Arnaldo da Serrano recounts as many as 66 miracles, plus 14 prodigious events.
It should therefore come as no surprise that for centuries Anthony has been known throughout the world as the Saint of Miracles.
Today we are recalling an earthquake that happened in the late 1800s, in the region of Umbria in Italy, and the story of Matthew and his mother Adelina.

The construction of St. Anthony’s Basilica began in 1232, a year after the Saint’s death, and was strongly desired by the people of Padua because of their great love for the Saint. They loved him not only because, through his preaching, he had brought even the most hardened sinners back to the Lord, but above all because he had always taken care of the poorest, whom he defended against every abuse.
Over time, the Basilica of St. Anthony has become one of the world’s most famous and popular shrines. Every year millions of pilgrims from all over the globe come here to Padua to venerate their beloved Saint, often bringing an ex-voto for a grace received through his intercession. Today fr. Mario will tell you the story of one of these ex-votos that dates back to the end of the 18th century: the healing of Fernando.

We all believe that the Lord often intervenes in our lives and sometimes works miracles, through the Virgin Mary or the Saints. Yet, especially nowadays, if it happens to us we feel embarrassed to talk about it. We do not want to be considered ‘strange’ people in our secular society.
In the Museum of Popular Devotion there are hundreds of ex-votos donated by so many people who were not afraid to witness the intervention of the Supernatural in their lives.
Like, for example, a notary from Padua in 1810.

If God is capable of creating the universe and ensure that every element is in perfect harmony with everything else, why should we be surprised if sometimes the Lord decides to intervene to help us, for instance through the intercession of St. Anthony?
Today fr. Mario will tell us the story of three young men who, in 1778, got into very serious trouble for playing a prank on the inhabitants of their village, Novale, near Vicenza.

Thank you St. Anthony- 6.Episode: The red dress.
Many people understand a miracle as an event in which the power of God intervenes in our lives… a sign that He acts in human history.
Fr. Mario narrates the story of a little girl, Daniela, who fell out of the window, plunging into the void.

Are some of what we call miracles simply lucky coincidences, or are they instead the work of God intervening through normal facts of life?
How can we distinguish between them?
When an extraordinary event happens after a prayer invoking the help of the Lord or a Saint, well, to us it sounds like a miracle ... like what happened to Victor in 1902.

There are people who go to church every Sunday, listen to the words of Jesus, the stories of his miracles and his resurrection ... and believe them. But then, when they go home, they live as if everything they have heard is only relegated to the past. They certainly do not expect miracles to happen in our day ... and that even today God can do amazing things. But God does intervene in our lives, and often too; like in that cold evening of March 6, 2016 in Massachusetts.

We all get sick sooner or later, and when it happens, especially if the illness is serious, we turn to the Lord or to our dear St. Anthony to restore our health. Sometimes prayer has such an extraordinary effect that doctors find the evidence hard to believe. Prayer can also be effective even if we do it for other people. Indeed, some spiritual directors say that “prayer done for others is always more fruitful than prayer done for oneself.”
From what we friars hear every day, St. Anthony has sick people particularly at heart, and always intercedes for them, as in the case of Luigina, who came here to the Saint’s Basilica to thank him on May 23, 1888.

God is constantly at work and performs countless miracles every day. Just think that the Church officially recognized more than two thousand miracles during John Paul II’s pontificate alone; as many as the miracles attributed to the saints and blesseds he proclaimed.
Fr. Mario himself witnessed a very special event, during one of his many trips with St. Anthony’s Relics to the United States.
An elderly woman approached the Relics and the effects of her chronic illness disappeared soon after her prayer to St. Anthony.
A similar miracle like what happened to Stephen, an Alpine soldier, on January 17, 1943 on the Russian Front.

Just as Jesus’ soul was created by God in Mary’s womb, so every human soul is created by God whenever a new life is conceived. Life that comes into being thanks to the cooperation given to God by the mother and father of the child about to be born. Not all parents, however, think this way. Today we are going to hear the story of Gianna, who was born severely disabled due to cerebral and muscular palsy, and the story of Onorina, in whom God showed his great love, through the intercession of St. Anthony.

Jesus’ resurrection makes us realize that although God does not always protect us from pain and suffering, He can remove the power they have over us to help us progress as transformed people who choose life over death, love over defeat.
The story of Giacomo, who was a drug addict; that of Milena, an elderly, lonely and sick woman; and that of Emilio, who after a violent blow to the head was presumed dead, remind us to never lose faith and hope in Jesus and St. Anthony.

We have come to the last stage of our journey toward the feast of St. Anthony by talking mostly about miracles. We have done so mainly thanks to some ex-votos left beside his Tomb by some of his many devotees, which are now in our large museum.
We have told you about all these prodigious events that God has performed through the intercession of St. Anthony with the only purpose of helping you to perceive in your lives a presence of grace that goes beyond your human logic. A presence that goes beyond a kind of rationalistic faith that thinks that certain events can no longer happen because today, with science, we can explain everything. Stories that only wanted to remind all of us that God continues to work grace upon grace to confirm and sustain us in our journey of faith.