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 (December)

Date

Name of the Friars

Events

Year

02

St. Louis Friary – Palmaner

Fidelis D’ Lima

Foundation

Ordination

1949

1964

05

Abraham Vadana

Shaji Nicholas Vadachery

+ Valentine Crasta

Birth

Birth

Home

1946

1969

2011

06

Baptist D’ Souza

Birth

1975

07

+ Anthony’s Church - Bannur

Erection

1999

09

Anil Kerketta

Birth

1980

11

Richard D’Silva

+ Agnel D’ Mello

Ordination

Home

1960

2013

13

Vincent Soosai

Varghese Sebastian

Scaria Varanath

Thomas M.M.

Dayanand

Anand Suresh Minj

Nideesh M. John

Birth

Ordination

Ordination

Ordination

Ordination

Birth

Birth

1970

1975

1975

1975

1975

1987

1993

14

+ Titus Myppan

Home

2012

15

Gregory Fernandes

Ordination

1963

16

Paul K.L.

Assisi Sadan - Nagpur

Birth

Foundation

1952

1993

17

Sidney Mascarenhas

Varghese Lakra

Ordination

Birth

1967

1977

18

Ajit Kerketta

Birth

1976

19

James Kallarackan

Friary Chapel – Palmaner

Birth

Blessing

1942

1967

21

Parish Church - Palmaner

Blessing

1964

22

Francis Agnelo Rozario

Birth

1966

24

Emmanuel Christopher

Birth

1992

25

Mukti P. Ekka

+ Celestine Reardon

+ Ambrose Staskunas

Birth

Home

Home

1973

1976

1986

26

Tony D’ Souza

+ Paschal Fernando

Birth

Home

1962

1994

27

Irudayaraj Fernando

Sahaya Dhas J.

Ordination

Ordination

2002

2013

28

Madhu Sudhan Reddy

Ordination

2015

29

Thumma Ranjith Kumar Reddy

Ordination

2015

30

+ Gratian McEvoy

Wilson Paul Nattalil

Stephen Lamin Gashnga

+ Kuriyan Joseph

Home

Ordination

Ordination

Home

1992

2003

2012

2015

31

Sleeva Reddy

Birth

1968