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Saint of Miracles
By peace | June 16, 2010
St Anthony of Padua Statue
Fernando Martins de Bulhões, venerated as Anthony of Padua or Anthony of Lisbon, (c. 1195 [1] – 13 June 1231) is a Portuguese Catholic saint who was born in Lisbon, Portugal where he lived most of his life, to a wealthy family and who died in Padua, Italy.
Little Ferdinand: First Miracle
The saint was born in Lisbon (Portugal) in 1195 on the day of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin. His father, Martin de Bulloens and his mother, Maria Teresa Tavara, gave him the name of Ferdinand.
Virtue began to flourish in him from his earliest years. The first words he began to lisp were the names of Jesus and Mary. When very young the future saint was often to be seen visiting the Blessed Sacrament in the nearby church.
One day, when Ferdinand was about seven years old, he went off to play in the field. He was gathering an armful of lovely fresh daisies when he met his father. Don Martin was out supervising the work of the farmhands, who were very busy just then sowing seed. The sowers seemed to be having a great deal of trouble. Enormous flocks of sparrows and swallows had found the seed very much to their liking, and as soon as a field was sown they would hurry to take their meal without waiting for any invitation. The men were helpless about it. They had tried scarecrows. Nothing would keep the little thieves away.
The boy’s father invited Ferdinand to come to play in the field and frightened off the birds; clapping his hands, throwing pebbles at them, chasing them by every means he could imagine.
Ferdinand obediently left his flowers and started the chase. He ran here and there and invented every possible plan for scaring away the sparrows. Suddenly he stood still. Through the tall trees he had just caught sight of the nearby church steeple. It recalled to him the presence of Jesus in the tabernacle and he wanted to go and visit Him awhile. But Ferdinand knew he must obey his father and keep the birds from the seed. With a sudden inspiration the child began to shout to the little birds with all his might. The swallows flocked to him from every corner of the field. The sparrows came just as eagerly. They gathered around him by hundreds and hundreds. By Ferdinand’s invitation the birds followed him. Meekly they formed their aerial ranks escorting the young saint as far as the door of the castle and hovered around while he climbed the broad stone stairway and crossed the threshold. Once inside Ferdinand ran nimbly up to the attic and opened a large window calling again to the birds. They rushed in and filled the room. Ferdinand told them to be good, while he went to pray. He ran out and away.
A little later the boy’s father passed through the fields and asked for Ferdinand. The men told him he had been working very hard to chase away the birds and that perhaps he had gone back to his games.
Seeing the church door open Don Martin quickly turned his steps in that direction and entered. Ferdinand was kneeling before the tabernacle deep in prayer. Reminded of his father’s order Ferdinand answered that the harvest would not suffer and asked his father to come with him to the attic.
Impressed by the serious expression on the child’s face, Ferdinand’s father followed him to the castle, and was surprised to notice that there was not a single sparrow in sight as they passed through the fields.
They reached the attic. It was like a giant birdcage filled with birds. Without saying a word, Don Martin pressed his little son to his heart and his eyes filled with tears.
Anthony of Lisbon (or Padua) is known to have become the “quickest” saint in the history of the Catholic Church because he was canonized by Pope Gregory IX less than one year after his death on the 30th of May of 1232.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me. He has anointed Me to bring good news to the poor. ~Luke 4:18
Wikipedia St Anthony of Padua
Saint Anthony of Padua
Topics: All Posts, Animals, Famous People, Places, children, christian | 1 Comment »
June 17th, 2010 at 9:01 am
[...] Saga seeds (Forget-me-not) lined the peripheral of the heart. Within the heart, behind the background of the words are sparkling stars. What a beautiful heart! This is a beautiful artwork done by Andorra. She had come to my house to ’send her blessing’ to us. On the heart, as shown above, it is written: Happy Toh’s Family. This gift is a “Baby Gift” since I was pregnant with Isaac. She arranged to come to my house in May, giving me all these blessings. [...]