Saint Anthony of Padua (1195–1231) was born Fernando Martins de Bulhões in Lisbon, Portugal, to a noble family. He first joined the Augustinian Canons, devoting himself to study and Scripture. After the relics of five Franciscan martyrs killed in Morocco were brought to Coimbra, he was so moved by their witness that he sought to join the Friars Minor, taking the name Anthony in honor of Anthony the Great.
He set out for Morocco hoping for martyrdom himself, but illness forced his return; a storm then drove his ship to Sicily. His learning came to light almost by accident at an ordination in Forlì, when, asked to speak extemporaneously, he astonished the assembly with his eloquence and depth of doctrine. Saint Francis subsequently entrusted him with teaching theology to the friars, addressing him as “my bishop.”
Anthony became one of the great preachers of the age, renowned for confounding heretics in northern Italy and southern France, for which he earned the title Malleus haereticorum, the “Hammer of Heretics.” His preaching drew immense crowds, and many miracles are attributed to him. Among the most famous legends are his preaching to the fishes when townspeople refused to listen, the mule that knelt before the Blessed Sacrament, and the appearance of the Christ Child to him.
He spent his final years at Padua and died there on 13 June 1231 at the age of 35. He was canonized within a year, on 30 May 1232, by Pope Gregory IX. In 1946 Pope Pius XII declared him a Doctor of the Church, with the title Doctor Evangelicus.
He is popularly invoked as the patron of lost things, from the tradition that a novice who had taken his psalter returned it after Anthony prayed for its recovery. His feast falls today, 13 June.