OFM Franciscans - India

Life Of St. Anthony

St. Anthony of Padua is one of the most famous disciples of St. Francis of Assisi. He was a famous preacher and worker of miracles in his own day, and throughout the eight centuries since his death he has so generously come to the assistance of the faithful who invoke him, that he is known throughout the world.

St. Anthony's Youth & Conversion

St. Anthony was born in the year 1195 A. D. at Lisbon (Portugal) where his father was a captain in the royal army. Already at the age of fifteen years, he had entered the Congregation of Canons Regular of St. Augustine and devoted himself with great earnestness both to study and to the practice of piety in the Monastery at Coimbra (Portugal).

About that time some of the first members of the Order of Friars Minor, which St. Francis has founded in 1206 A. D. came to Coimbra. They begged from the Canons Regular a small and very poor place, from which by their evangelical poverty and simplicity they edified everyone in the region. Then in 1219 A. D. some of these friars, moved by divine inspiration, went as missionaries to preach the Gospel of Christ to the inhabitants of Morocco. There they were brutally martyred for the Faith. Some Christian merchants succeeded in recovering their remains; and so brought their relics in triumph back to Coimbra.

The relics of St. Bernard and companions, the first martyrs of the Franciscan Order, seized St. Anthony with an intense desire to suffer martyrdom in a like manner. So moved by their heroic example he repeatedly begged and petitioned his superiors to be given leave to join the Franciscan Order. In the quiet little Franciscan convent at Coimbra he received a friendly reception, and in the same year his earnest wish to be sent to the missions in Africa was fulfilled.

St. Anthony's Arrival in Italy

But God had decreed otherwise. And so, St. Anthony scarcely set foot on African soil when he was seized with a grievous illness. Even after recovering from it, he was so weak that, resigning himself to the will of God, he boarded a boat back to Portugal. Unexpectedly a storm came upon them and drove the ship to the east where it found refuge on coast of Sicily. St. Anthony was greeted and given shelter by the Franciscans of that island, and thus came to be sent to Assisi, where the general chapter of the Order was held in May, 1221 A. D..

Since he still looked weak and sickly, and gave no evidence of his scholarship, no one paid any attention to the stranger until Father Gratian, the Provincial of friars living in the region of Romagna (Italy), had compassion on him and sent him to the quiet little convent near Forli (also in Italy). There St. Anthony remained nine months as chaplain to the hermits, occupied in the lowliest duties of the kitchen and convent, and to his heart's content he practiced interior as well as exterior mortification.

ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI

ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI

ST. FRANCIS

ST. FRANCIS

FRIARS' BIRTHDAY (February)

Date

Name of the Friars

Events

Year

01

Wilson PaulNattalil

Hemant Xess

Robin Lakra

S. Vows

S. Vows

S. Vows

2001

2004

2004

02

Tomy Palackal

Vijay Minj

Gali Bal Reddy

Julius Arul Rayan

Birth

Birth

Birth

S. Vows

1974

1979

1996

2001

03

Ignatius Baa

Benjamin Jojo

S. Vows

S. Vows

2002

2002

04

St. Joseph de Leonisse, Priest, Cap.

Thomas A. 


Birth

1612

1972

05

Pratap Kumar Xess

Birth

1996

06

SahayaDhasJ.

Madhu Sudhan Reddy

Sleeva Reddy

Prem Kumar D’ Souza

Stephen Lamin Gashnga

Jayapal Dwarakonda

Joseph Stephen

SahayaDhas J.

Vinoth Robin

Felix Vijay

Eugene A.

Praveen Roshan Toppo

Jeddu Praveen Chinna Reddy

Nijil Chiramel

Joseph Prasanna Kumar

Pasala Showri Raju

Emmanuel Christopher

Birth 

Birth

Ordination

S. Vows

S. Vows

S. Vows

S. Vows

S. Vows

S. Vows

S. Vows

S. Vows 

S. Vows

S. Vows

S. Vows

S. Vows

S. Vows

Ordination

1980

1986

2002

2011

2011

2011

2011

2011

2012

2012

2012

2012

2012

2012

2012

2012

2021

09

Nijil Chiramel

Ordination 

2015

10

+ David Jackson

Home 

1972

12

Francis Xavier

Birth 

1970

14

Alphonse Velankanni

Birth

1996

15

Praveen Henry D’Souza

Deen Dayal

Pasala Showri Raju

Birth

Ordination

Ordination

1977

2017

2015

17

Prakruthi Mithra, Chundel

Blessing

2014

18

Assisivanam, Peravoor

Blessing

2009

20

Regi Matthew

Birth

1973

22

Lalith Kujur

Birth

1978

23

Vilas Correia

Xavier Durairaj

Birth

Birth

1973

1975

26

Nanasera Friary 

Jacob Kannampuzha

+Athanasius Xaxa

Blessing

Birth

Home

1996

1999

2019

27

Wilson PaulNattalil

Birth

1970

28

Madhavaram Friary

Amaladass Manickam

Foundation

Birth

1953

1954