Saint Anthony of Padua, Priest and Doctor of the Church

Fernando Martins was born in Lisbon about 1195 and became an Augustinian canon at Coimbra. In 1220, when the bodies of five Franciscans martyred in Morocco were brought there, he joined the Franciscans, taking the name Anthony, and sailed for Morocco himself. He fell ill, and on the way home his ship was blown to Sicily.

Living unnoticed in an Italian hermitage, he was asked to preach at an ordination in 1222, and his learning astonished the friars. Francis of Assisi allowed him to teach theology to the brothers. He preached to great crowds in Italy and France; tradition tells that at Rimini, when people would not listen, he preached to the fish. He died near Padua on 13 June 1231, aged about thirty-six, and was canonized within a year. He was named a Doctor of the Church in 1946.