Who is St. Antony
St. Antony of Padua is one of the most popular saints of the Catholic Church. The patron saint of lost things, especially lost souls. People pray to him for having lost their faith, having lost hope in life, having lost a sense of purpose in life, Physical and Mental Healing etc.
During his lifetime, he was a great miracle worker. Therefore, with confidence, we can bring any petition to the intercession of St. Antony of Padua.
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Novenas to St. Antony are celebrated in many churches and shrines around the world. Many begin on Tuesdays as Tuesday was the day St.Antony was buried and the miracles at his tomb began.
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The beginning of novenas is linked to a story of a childless couple. After many, many years of longing for a child, the wife took her troubles to St. Antony. He is said to have appeared to her in a dream, telling her, “for nine Tuesdays, one after the other, make visits to the Franciscan chapel and approach the holy sacraments of penance and the altar, then pray, and what you ask, you shall obtain.” the couple soon had a child.
Whatever fact may or may not be behind the legend, in 1898 Pope Leo XIII encouraged the devotion by granting a plenary indulgence to those spending time in devout prayer in honour of St. Antony with the intention of doing so for consecutive Tuesdays.