From Thursday June 4 through Friday, June 12, we’ll meet at 5 pm each evening at the usual St. Charles Zoom link to pray a Novena to St. Anthony in preparation for his feast day, June 13.  Like the Holy Spirit Novena, each day takes about 10-15 minutes, and on days when we pray the rosary or vespers at 5 pm, the novena will follow.

Download the prayers here: Saint Anthony Novena 06.03.20

St. Anthony was born in 1195 in Lisbon, Portugal. His parents were rich, but he wanted to be poor for the sake of Christ, so he joined the Franciscan Order. He was a great preacher and missionary who brought many sinners back to God, mostly by his good example.

He is the Patron Saint of Lost and Stolen Things because of an event in the friary. St. Anthony had a book of psalms that was very important to him. A novice who had grown tired of religious life left the community, and took St. Anthony’s book with him! St. Anthony prayed for the book’s return, and the novice was not only moved to return the book to St. Anthony, but also to return to the Order. The Order accepted the novice back, and the stolen book is now preserved in the Franciscan friary in Bologna.

Biography adapted from Rev. Lawrence G. Lovasik, S.V.D., Favorite Novenas to the Saints (Catholic Book Publishing Co. 1992); and St. Anthony Shrine, “Who is St. Anthony of Padua?” (https://www.stanthony.org/who-st-anthony/).