Day 1: The Franciscan Friar

The first day of the Saint Anthony Novena begins with the saint's identity: Franciscan friar, preacher, theologian, miracle-worker, Doctor of the Catholic Church. The Catholic devotion to him spans eight centuries and every Catholic culture; we begin the novena by approaching him under his fundamental religious identity as a son of Saint Francis of Assisi and a preacher of the Catholic Gospel.

Today's invocation

O glorious Saint Anthony of Padua, model of every virtue, intercessor before the throne of God for those who have recourse to you, in the name of your love for the Lord Jesus and for His Blessed Mother, hear my prayer in this novena. Through your intercession with the Lord, obtain for me the graces I most need (state your petition), if they be conducive to my salvation. Amen.

Today's meditation

Saint Anthony was born around 1195 in Lisbon, Portugal, then a frontier city of the Christian reconquest of Iberia from the Moors. His Portuguese name was Fernando Martins de Bulhões. He entered the Augustinian Canons Regular at the abbey of Saint Vincent de Fora outside Lisbon, then transferred to the larger abbey of Santa Cruz at Coimbra, where he received an outstanding theological education in the medieval Catholic tradition.

The decisive turn in his life came in 1220, when the bodies of five Franciscan friars martyred in Morocco were brought back to Coimbra for veneration. Fernando, deeply moved, asked permission to leave the Augustinians and join the new mendicant order founded by Saint Francis of Assisi (who was still alive at that date). His request was granted, and he took the new religious name Anthony in honor of Saint Anthony the Great (the founder of monasticism in fourth-century Egypt). He set out almost immediately for Morocco as a missionary, but he fell seriously ill in North Africa and was forced to return.

The return journey, by sea from Morocco to Italy, was the providential turn of his life. The ship was blown off course in a storm and washed up at the Italian coast. Anthony, recovering from his illness, made his way to the Franciscan general chapter at the Portiuncula in 1221, where he met Saint Francis of Assisi himself. He was assigned to the small Franciscan hermitage at Montepaolo in northern Italy, where for a year he lived in obscurity, sweeping the friary, washing the dishes, and quietly studying.

His preaching gifts were discovered almost by accident. When a scheduled preacher failed to appear at an ordination ceremony, Anthony was asked to preach in his place. The young Franciscan friar, who had not been known previously to have any unusual gifts, preached a sermon of such depth and beauty that the local Franciscan superiors immediately recognized his calling. From that moment until his death ten years later, Anthony preached almost continuously throughout northern Italy, southern France, and central Europe, drawing crowds so large that no church could hold them; he often had to preach in town squares to congregations of thousands.

Today's intention

Bring to Saint Anthony today the principal intention for which you are praying this novena. Be specific. Saint Anthony of Padua, glorious Franciscan, I bring to you today the matter on which I am asking your intercession.

Reflection

The Catholic faithful have long observed that Saint Anthony's patronage is unusual in its universality. Many saints have particular patronages that limit their primary invocation: Saint Peregrine for cancer, Saint Jude for impossible causes, Saint Joseph for fathers and workers. Saint Anthony's patronage is more comprehensive: he is invoked for lost things (his most famous patronage), but also for the conversion of sinners, for the protection of children, for fertility, for the recovery of straying spouses, for the strength to make a difficult moral decision, for the resolution of family conflict, and for an entire range of human difficulties. The Catholic devotion has come to treat him as a kind of universal Catholic intercessor, available for any need that the faithful bring.

The novena's first day is the appropriate Catholic moment to bring whatever need has caused the soul to begin the novena. Saint Anthony, hear my prayer.

Closing prayers

Conclude with the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Glory Be.

Saint Anthony of Padua, pray for us.