Wednesday 29th October
It was a long four & a half hour journey from Assisi to Padua, stopping at a wonderful service station near Bologna that puts our British equivalents to shame.
On route, we reflected on the travels of Francis and his followers.They covered huge distances and basically lived as nomads, working on the land and begging to earn their keep, but spending lengthy periods of time in caves and in makeshift tents and huts praying and helping lepers and the poor. We imagined them as settling at the Portiuncula as a community, but in reality that was a go-to base and the only real stability was Clare and her community at San Damiano.
Francis would then set his sights on responding to the Muslim conquest of the Holy Land. His first failed attempt to go there led to a period of reflection and isolation, and then when he considered venturing to North Africa he got as far as Santiago de Compostela before illness stopped him. But the Franciscan movement expanded as a result all over Europe. And Francis in the end got to Egypt to speak personally with the Sultan, who then allowed him passage to Acre in the Holy Land, and the Franciscans have had an almost unbroken presence there ever since.
One consequence in the expansion of the Order was St Anthony. Born in Lisbon in 1195, fourteen years after Francis, he was originally an Augustinian Canon until at the age of 19 he encountered Franciscan friars on their way to Morocco to preach to the Muslims, as indeed Francis intended. When they were martyred, Anthony asked to join the friars and to continue their mission. However, falling ill when he arrived, he attempted to return home only for his ship to be blown off course to Sicily. He attended the chapter (meeting) of Franciscans at the Portiuncula in 1221, and may well have met Francis then.
On the motorway, passing Forli, we were reminded that it was here that Anthony was chosen at the last minute to preach at an ordination Mass in 1222. He made an immediate impact and in the year before Francis died he wrote to Anthony commending him to teach and preach as a Franciscan theologian.
We arrived at the pilgrim hotel next to the magnificent Basilica of St Anthony in Padau and had a chance to be overwhelmed at its beauty inside – and of course visit the tomb of St Anthony:
We then celebrated Mass in a chapel by the cloister, in which we also reflected on the popular image of St Anthony with the child Jesus in his arms. This is because of the story of the last few months of Anthony’s life when he became frailer after Lent in 1231. Leaving Padua he joined a couple of friars who lived in the grounds of a castle about 20km north of Padua, and Anthony lived in a small cabin under the branches of a walnut tree. On one occasion the count observed an intense light eminating from the cabin, and on spying he witnessed Anthony with the child Jesus in his arms. He died a few weeks later, aged just 35 years.
In our Mass we were reminded that we are called not just to follow and admire Christ, but to carry Him. And not to make Him too heavy, too cumbersome. Anthony is often attributed as the origin of the phrase: “Actions speak louder than words.”
The bells in Padua certainly speak louder than words!:
To go back to our itinerary click here