By DEB PIROCH
“If thy brother be impoverished, and weak of hand, and thou receive him as a stranger and sojourner, and he live with thee: Take not usury of him nor more than thou gavest: fear thy God, that thy brother may live with thee. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon usury, nor exact of him any increase of fruits” (Lev. 25:35-27).
Why do we no longer hear about the sin of usury? Because our whole world has embraced it. We are acclimated to credit cards, lines of credit, and “lay-it-away” plans. But the Church has traditionally been against usury, condemning it even at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. The reason is the simplest of all: None should profit from lending of money to the poor, who need it for their daily sustenance. Surely, today, we can see with our eyes and hearts the difficulties that the Church in her wisdom foresaw. Our saint today was a great denouncer of usury, for the harm it did to people and the Church.
Born Fernando Martins de Bulhoes in Lisbon, the future saint’s father had defeated five Moorish kings (Muslim rulers) and was eventually made king of Portugal. Our saint to be could certainly have flourished in the courts but chose a life of prayer and poverty instead and by age 15 he had entered the Canons Regular of the Order of the Holy Cross, at the Abbey of St. Vincent in Lisbon. He was visited so often by family and friends, however, that he asked to be transferred to Coimbra, then the capital. By 1919 a priest, he was in charge of the abbey’s hospitality.
There he learned that the relics of four Franciscans, who had been martyred in Morocco, were being returned home to the monastery. This enjoined an inner fire in him, and he asked to permission to join the Franciscans, who were then a new order, and he then adopted the religious name of Anthony.
He attempted to sail to Africa to evangelize but, arriving there, he was so sick, that the saint had to return to Italy. Eventually he ended up in Forli, Italy, where he was able to invest time and prayer in the cave of a brother friar. Butler’s Lives tells us he wanted only to be little and obscure, and he never touted or even discussed his learning before others.
Then, in 1222, there was a misunderstanding as Franciscans thought visiting Dominicans would preach on an occasion, and they wanted a Franciscan. In the end, as each excused himself, Anthony’s superior ordered him to speak as the Holy Ghost prompted him. Without preparation, his words erupted, filled the room with such fervor, erudition, and love of God, that they were greatly moved. He was but 26 years of age. Not long after he was sent to Romagna, near Bologna, and came to the attention of St. Francis.
St. Francis worried that many were not truly committed to his ideals for a holy, devout order. But in Anthony he had no doubts. He put all those pursuing study in Anthony’s charge. It was at this time that Anthony’s own prayer book — all hand-copied and of infinite value to him — disappeared. For one who owned nothing, with a vow of poverty, this was a loss indeed. A novice had left the order and taken the psalter with him. St. Anthony prayed hard and not only did the novice return his missing book, he rejoined the order. Hence the practice of praying to the saint for lost objects.
St. Anthony became famed as a great orator, and in addition to Italy, also spent time in France, teaching, especially in Montpelier and Toulouse. After attending a chapter meeting in Arles, he also spoke in the Provence before returning to Italy, in 1228 becoming papal envoy for his chapter to Pope Gregory IX. The papal court hailed his gift for speaking, terming it the “jewel case of the Bible.” He took no earthly praises to heart, however, and was just as gifted in reading great men their errors to convert them, as he was in aiding souls in the confessional.
This man with the gift of discernment and prophecy so associated with Padua, only lived there the last two years of his life.
Anthony was aware his final illness was drawing near. As his health grew fainter, he recited seven penitential psalms and a hymn to the Virgin, before giving up his spirit. And yet, he was just 36. Children ran through the streets crying, “The saint is dead.” It gives one pause to remember, that only in dying to self did God raise him to such a height. Pope Gregory IX, who knew him, canonized him within the year.
Another similar “santo subito” saint, Pope St. John Paul II, asked in 1981 that a scientific team study the Italian saint’s remains. It seems that when his body had been exhumed centuries ago, circa 30 years after his death, all save one part had turned to dust; his tongue. St. Bonaventure removed the tongue to add to the relics of the Basilica and spoke: “O blessed tongue, that didst always praise God, and hast been the cause that an infinite number learned to praise him: now it appears how precious thou art before Him who framed thee to be employed in so excellent and high a function.”
The tomb was reverently opened 750 years after St. Anthony’s passing. Surely it must have been profoundly silent and reverent at the moment when his tomb was opened for the first time in over 700 years. Removed were two wooden coffins inside one another. Three bundles held variously his skull, his bones, and his habit, with scrolls attached to each. Friars sang the Te Deum and the Magnificat.
Expert professors who examined the remains at the University at of Padua found the bones well preserved, in part because of the “large amount of incense.” Incense seems unlikely as a preservation method, but fair enough. These experts in pathology, anthropology, and paleontology found the bones mostly complete and that the jaw and skull in the reliquary indeed belonged to the skeleton. Remnants were even some skin and cartilage that had been attached to the jaw. The saint had been about 5’6”, above average for the time. His shin bones were enlarged, consistent with long periods of praying on his knees.
A facial reconstruction was done. Despite scientific methods, these still involve a degree of imagination and one is free to imagine him looking differently. Based on the skull, his face was narrower and longer than previously thought. The skeleton was placed in a crystal coffin for 29 days and 650,000 came to pray for his intercession.
A great many miracles have been associated with St. Anthony, even during his lifetime. Some are apocryphal. One involves the saint preaching at the funeral of a man who lent money for interest. The saint said he was now in Hell and should not be buried in consecrated ground. Furthermore, St. Anthony said the man’s heart was missing. The people opened the man’s side and found that indeed his heart was gone, but even more frightening, when they opened his money chest, there was the heart.
What is not in doubt, is that Anthony preached many times with great fervor against usury. Three months before he died, he succeeded in getting the Padua government to change the debtors’ law, so that those with no money could no longer be imprisoned for debt or banished. Six hundred years later in England, during the time of Dickens, people were still being thrown in debtors’ prison.
Would that there more time to discuss his spirituality, his words, and miracles associated with his goodness. His feast is June 13, but pray to him at tax time or, indeed, any time and any day of the year, whether or not your bank account is empty or you are missing an object.
The Padua basilica where he is buried now is still referred to as “Il Santo.”
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