Fernando Martin de Bulhöes AKA St-Anthony of Padua

On Saturday afternoon I went to visit the Basilica of the Saint as it is known in Padua, with its many domes and cone like central dome with the giant gold statue of the Archangel Gabriel trumpeting into space. St-Anthony was Portuguese from Lisbon and was well educated, he came from an affluent family. His name at birth was Fernando Martin, he took the name Antonio upon ordination. 

Early morning light around 8am in Padua.


The basilica is part of a Franciscan Abbey and cloister. There is also a Chapel to St-George which is the funerary chapel to Raimondo Lupi whose family were Knights of St-George, next to it is the Scuola or Confraternity of St-Anthony, it is an order somewhat like the Knights of Columbus but more along the lines of the Rotary Club, a typical Italian concept.

As an aside, when you have a Franciscan Abbey, the Benedictine monks are never far. They have in Padua, an equally large basilica and cloister, the tomb of St-Justine and St-Luke the Evangelist with a beautiful Icon of the Madonna of Constantinople and the tomb of St-Mathias. It is sort of a rivalry between the two monk orders. 

So there I was visiting the Basilica of the Saint, while I visited, I noticed how this building resembles the Agia Sophia in Istanbul, in its architecture, it has a balcony level just under the domes with passageways between the arches, the height is dizzying. The floor is inlaid coloured marble each of the massive columns is surrounded with either an altar or a funeral monument to some noble person of the area. Side chapels are also ornate. The chapel dedicated to St-Anthony (1195-1231) is all in white marble and occupies a very large area to the left of the central main Altar, the visitors can walk around the altar, at the back is the tomb of St-Anthony marked by a large green marble slab that has been polished by the thousands of hands of the faithful who will touch it as they walk around. The walls of the shrine are sculpted marble scenes of the life of the Saint who died of dropsy at the age of 36 in Arcella near Verona. The main Altar of the church is also spectacular surrounded on 3 sides by sculpted walls of red granite in the style of the Ara Pacis of Augustus in Rome. At the very back of the church is the room of relics of the Saint, containing his original pine wood coffin with the original small tombstone, some of his priestly vestments and his cassock in which he was buried are on display. It has that pagan look about it the Catholic Church is so good at. 

The chapel to Saint Anthony all white marble, he is entombed behind the altar. Very far from what St-Anthony would have wanted for himself.

In the Basilica religious services are continuous with a 5 minute interval between masses to allow one group of faithful to leave while another group comes in, the services are packed. Organ music is continuous from service to service and this goes on from early morning to evening, with bells ringing etc. Given the enormous size of the Basilica it is very impressive to see so many people present and the continuous flow of the faithful and pilgrims, St-Anthony remains very popular. I have seen lots of Cathedrals, Basilicas and churches of all styles and am not a religious person but this sight really overwhelmed me.

St-Anthony of Padua, is my mother’s favorite Saint with Saint Francis of Assisi and she mentioned St-Anthony a lot usually referring to the little bread of the poor he is associated with. It remains one of my early childhood memories, les petits pains de Saint-Antoine. I was thinking of her while visiting and think that she would have liked to have seen his church in Padua. We returned on Sunday morning for a walk through again and I was as impressed with it if not more so.  We also visited Assisi this year but it is completely different and I did not have the same feeling at seeing St-Francis tomb, the setting is very different, though the two men lived at the same period and knew of each other since St-Anthony was also a Franciscan. Strange what will strike you sometimes.