|
Source:
San Antonio de Bexar
Historical, Traditional,
Legendary.
An Epitome of Early Texas History
by Mrs. S. J. Wright
Past-President Texas Federation of Women's Clubs
Illustrated With Drawings by J. M. Longmire
from Rare Photographs.
Publ. by
Morgan Printing Co., Austin, Texas
Copyright 1916
SAINT ANTHONY OF PADUA
(San Antonio)
The life of the
patron sait for whom San Antonio de Bexar was named,
contains that peculiar intermingling of history and
legend which betokens the imagery of the mediaeval mind.
We know that he was born in Lisbon in 1195; that he died
at Padua thirty-six years later, and was canonized in
1232 by Pope Gregory IX.
At the age of twenty-five
he entered the Franciscan order and shortly afterward
having seen conveyed to the church of Santa Croce the
bodies of the first fifteen martyrs who had suffered
death at Morocco, he became inflamed with a desire for
martyrdom and started for Africa filled with holy zeal.
But the scroll of his life had not prescribed this
sacrifice. Later he was sent to the hermitage of
Montepaola (near Forli) to celebrate mass for the lay
brothers. While living thus in retirement, it came
to pass that a number of Franciscan and Dominican friars
were sent together to Forli for ordination. When
the time arrived for this ceremony it was found that no
one had been appointed to preach. Every one
declining - being unprepared - Anthony, finally
turned to, was compelled by obedience to consent.
He first spoke slowly and timidly, but soon became
enkindled with fervor and explained the most hidden
sense of the Holy Scriptures with such erudition and
sublime doctrine, that all were struck with
astonishment, especially as his extreme modesty had
prevented him from making known previously his profound
knowledge of sacred writings.
His public career dated from that moment. The
silver-tongued eloquence with which he proclaimed the
beauty of a seraphic character corresponding to the
spiritual ideal of St. Francis, coupled with his fervor
in putting aside all doctrinal speculations, made him a
powerful force in the extinction of heresy. He
possessed a might gift of miracles. Among those
attributed to him was that of the poisons food which had
been set before him at Rimini by the Italian heretics,
and which he rendered innocuous by the sign of the
cross. Another is that of the fishes to whom he is
said to have preached, finding that the people would not
listen to him, and who turned willing ears to his words.
This occasion caused him to be made the patron saint of
all animals, as well as the fish of the sea and the
fowls of the air. At Padua occurred the famous miracle
of the amputated foot. A young man, Leonardo,
in a fit of anger kicked his own mother.
Repentant, he confessed to Father Anthony,
who said, ''The foot of him who kicks his own mother
deserves to be cut off." Thereupon Leonardo
ran home and cut off his foot. Learning of this
Father Anthony took the amputated member of
the unfortunate youth and miraculously rejoined it.
Existing documents Wdo not decide the question as to
the locality where appeared the apparition of the infant
Jesus to the holy monk. But the fact - or
legend - has made and perpetuated him the protector of
all little children.
Aside from other gifts he possessed that of prophecy,
with which he made the subject matter of his sermons
more popular in spite of the fact that in them he had to
fight against the three obstinate vices of luxury,
avarice and tyranny.
Immediately after death he appeared at Vercelli to the
abbot, Thomas Gollo, and his death was also
announced to the citizens of Padua, by a troop of
children crying, "The Holy Father is dead! St.
Anthony is dead!" The citizens of Padua erected to
his memory a magnificent temple to which his precious
relics were transferred in 1263.
The name of St. Anthony, patron saint of an early Texas
mission, has been locally perpetuated through the work
of friar and soldier - San Antonio de Valero, the old
mission known to this generation only as "The Alamo,"
and San Antonio de Bexar, its adjacent presidio and
protection, having given their common name to that of
the ancient capital and present metropolis of our State,
once called the villa of San Fernando, now the city of
San Antonio. |
|
