Chaplet of St. Anthony
http://prayers.viarosa.com/StAnthony.html
St Anthony of Padua was born to a wealth, but for the sake of Christ
he became a poor Franciscan priest. A gifted speaker, he attracted
crowds everywhere he went, speaking in multiple tongues; legend says
that even the fish loved to listen. One of the most beloved of
saints, his images and statues are found everywhere. He died in 1231,
was canonized in 1232, and on January 16, 1946, he was proclaimed a
Doctor of the Church. His memorial day is June 13.
St. Anthony is known as a patron of the poor, and the patron saint of
seekers of lost articles, travelers, and Portugal.
This chaplet is composed of thirteen sets of three beads each.
For each set, on the first bead, say Our Father, on the second, pray
Hail Mary, and on the third, pray the Gloria.
On the medal, recite the Miraculous Responsory .
St. Anthony Chaplet, with meditations on his 13 virtues
The cross reads, on one side,
Blessing of St. Anthony of Padua
also known as St. Anthony's Brief ):
Behold the Cross of the Lord!
Fly Ye Evil Power!
The Lion of the Tribe of Judah,
The Root of David has Conquered!
Alleluia! Alleluia!
On the other side,
the Blessing of St. Francis of Assisi:
The Lord Bless Thee and Keep Thee,
May He Show His Face to Thee and have Pity on Thee,
May He Reach His Countenance Toward Thee and Give Thee Peace,
The Lord Bless Thee.
The Miraculous Responsory
If you seek for miracles,
Death, error, all calamities,
The demons fly, and leprosy,
And health succeeds infirmities.
The sea obeys and fetters break,
And lifeless limbs thou dost restore;
Whilst treasures lost are found again,
When young and old thine aid implore.
All dangers vanish at thy prayer,
The direst need doth quickly flee.
Let those who know thy power proclaim,
Let Paduans say these are of thee.
The sea obeys and fetters break,
And lifeless limbs thou dost restore;
Whilst treasures lost are found again,
When young and old thine aid implore.
To Father, Son may glory be
And Holy Ghost eternally.
The sea obeys and fetters break,
And lifeless limbs thou dost restore;
Whilst treasures lost are found again,
When young and old thine aid implore.
V. Pray for us, blessed Anthony,
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us Pray
O God, let the votive commemoration of Blessed Anthony, Thy
confessor, be a source of joy in Thy Church, that she may always be
fortified with spiritual assistance, and may deserve to possess eternal joy.
Through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
This powerful and highly indulgenced prayer, sometimes known as the
si quideris from the first words of the Latin translation, is
generally attributed to St Bonaventure, and is considered to have
been composed by him on the occasion of the discovery of the
incorrupt tongue of St Anthony. This remarkable discovery was made in
the year 1263, when the saint's relics were transferred to the
magnificent basilica that had been built in his honor in Padua. When
the tomb was opened it was found that the flesh was crumbled in dust
but that the tongue was intact and had the appearance of the tongue
of a living man.
Alternate Form
Another method of saying the chaplet includes meditating on each of
the thirteen petitions of the Miraculous Responsory:
1. St. Anthony who raiseth the dead, pray for those Christians now in
their agony and for our dear departed.
2. St. Anthony, zealous preacher of the Gospel, fortify us against
the errors of the enemies of God, and pray for the Pope and the Church.
3. St. Anthony, powerful with the Heart of Jesus, preserve us from
the calamities which threaten us on account of our sins.
4. St. Anthony, who drivest away devils, make us triumph over their snares.
5. St. Anthony, lily of heavenly purity, purify us from the stains of
the soul, and preserve our bodies from all dangers.
6. St. Anthony, healer of the sick, cure our diseases and preserve us
in health.
7. St. Anthony guide of travellers, bring to safe harbour those who
are in danger of perishing, and calm the troubled waves of passion
which agitate our souls.
8. St. Anthony, liberator of captives, deliver us from the captivity of evil.
9. St. Anthony, who restorest to young and old the use of their
limbs, obtain for us the perfect use of the senses of our body, and
the faculties of our soul.
10. St. Anthony finder of lost things, help us to find all that we
have lost in the spiritual and in the temporal order.
11. St. Anthony, protected by Mary, avert the dangers which threaten
our body and our soul.
12. St. Anthony, helper of the poor, help us in our needs and give
bread and work to those who ask.
13. St. Anthony, we thankfully proclaim thy miraculous power, and we
beseech thee to protect us all the days of our life.
Popular Devotions in Honor of St Anthony
The Devotions of the Nine Tuesdays
On the Tuesday following the death of St Anthony the people of Padua
carried his body to its last resting place in the Church of Our
Blessed Lady, which was attached to the Franciscan Friary at Padua.
The occasion was marked by great splendour and enthusiasm, and the
cortege moved through the city to the music of bells and joyous
hymns. The day was marked, too, by an extraordinary number of
miracles. The biographers of the Saint tell us that "the blind
regained their sight, the deaf their hearing, and the lame the use of
their limbs. Every grace and favour asked for in faith and confidence
was granted." The people were so impressed by the wonderful things
they had witnessed that they began to observe Tuesdays as days of
special devotion in honour of their saint. However, as time went on,
the practice fell into disuse until, in 1616, St Anthony himself
revived it in the form of a novena of nine consecutive Tuesdays.
In that year 1616 "there lived at Bologna a noble and pious couple
who, after twenty two years of married life, were childless. One day
the lonely wife, kneeling before the altar of St Anthony in the
Franciscan church, laid before the saint the sorrow of her life and
begged his intercession. And see! The saint himself appeared before
her and bade her visit his altar and pray before it on nine
consecutive Tuesdays. This she did and in course of time became a
mother. But to the bitter disappointment of the parents, the infant
was found to be horribly deformed. This new sorrow, however, proved
to be but a further trial of their faith. The mother brought the babe
to the altar of the saint, and on touching it to the stone, all
traces of the deformity immediately disappeared. "Franciscan Almanac"
The grateful parents spread everywhere the news of the miracle and
very soon the Devotion of the Nine Tuesdays became very popular
throughout Europe. Today it is practiced universally throughout the
world. It has always proved to be a marvelously efficacious means of
winning St Anthony's assistance.
The following plan is suggested for making the Novena:
(i) Receive, if possible, the Sacraments of Penance and Holy
Eucharist on nine consecutive Tuesdays. This may be done in any church.
(ii) On each of the Tuesdays visit a church, Franciscan if possible,
and before a statue or relic of St Anthony, recite appropriate
prayers. If the church cannot be visited, the prayers may be said at
home before an image of the saint.
(iii) To gain a plenary indulgence on each Tuesday of the Novena,
receive the Sacraments, visit a Franciscan church during the
exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and there pray for the intentions
of the Supreme Pontiff. (This indulgence can be gained on each
Tuesday of the year on these same conditions.)
No particular prayers are prescribed for the Novena, but the
following are commonly used.
Prayers for the Devotion of the Nine Tuesdays
O Jesus my Saviour! Who vouchsafed to appear to St Anthony in the
form of an infant, I implore you, through the love you bore to this
saint when he dwelt on earth and which you now bear to him in heaven,
graciously hear my prayer and assist me in my necessities, who live
and reign, world without end. Amen.
O glorious St Anthony, safe refuge of all the afflicted and
distressed, who have revealed that all who piously invoke you at your
altar on nine consecutive Tuesdays shall experience the power of your
intercession. Encouraged by your promise, and by the knowledge of the
wonderful favours and graces which God bestows on those who piously
invoke your intercession, I come to you, O powerful Saint, and with a
firm hope I implore your aid, your protection, your counsel, and your
blessing. Obtain for me, I beseech you my request. (Pause here and
make your request). But if it should be opposed to the Will of God
and the welfare of my soul, obtain for me such other graces as shall
be conducive to my salvation. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
Then say one Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be, followed by the Responsory.
For Seeking a Lost Article
Dear St. Anthony, you are the patron of the poor and the helper of
all who seek lost articles. Help me to find the object I have lost so
that I will be able to make better use of the time that I will gain
for God's greater honor and glory. Grant your gracious aid to all
people who seek what they have lost ? especially those who seek to
regain God's grace. Amen.
Briefly the story of St Anthony's life is this: He was born in
Lisbon, Portugal, in the year 1195. At the age of fifteen he entered
the community of the Canons Regular of St Augustine. Two years later
he was sent to the convent of the Augustinians in Coimbra. It was
there that he met five Franciscans who were destined to become the
first martyrs amongst the sons of St Francis of Assisi. They came to
the convent one night begging hospitality, and were welcomed by the
Canons who were even more kind when they heard that the Friars were
on their way to Morocco to preach the Gospel to the Saracens. Anthony
listened with rapt attention to the guests, and in his capacity of
guest-master, tirelessly ministered to their every need. When they
had set out on their journey again, they left behind in the heart of
Anthony a great desire to follow them and to give his life to God in
the foreign missions. Only five months later the five Friars were
martyred and their bodies were brought back to Coimbra. This event
decided Anthony and he asked to be allowed to transfer to the
Franciscan Order so that he might realize his heroic ambition. This
request was granted and a few months later we find him on his way to
the Mohammedan Mission of Morocco in quest of souls and martyrdom.
However, the hour when he seemed to have reached his goal was the
prelude to deep disappointment. No sooner had landed than he was
stricken down with fever and there was nothing for him to do but to
return home. But God had great works in store for him and gave him,
through his superiors, an outlet for his missionary zeal in Italy and France.
Everywhere he went he lit the flame of fervour in the hearts of the
thousands of people who flocked to hear him, and very soon his
preaching, together with the miracles that he worked constantly, made
the name of Anthony a household word. He set himself to combat the
heresies of the Manichees and the Albigenses. His success in this
conflict was enormous and the heretics returned in great numbers to
the Faith, the shackles that bound their souls smashed by this
powerful "Hammer of Heresies."
In 1228 Anthony was sent to Padua the city which has claimed him as
its own and has guarded proudly and affectionately his name and fame.
There it was that he spent the last years of his all-too-short life,
and there it was that he died on June 13th 1231. Less than a year
later, on May 30th 1232, he was solemnly canonized by by Pope Gregory
IX, who decreed that his Feast should be celebrated each year on the
anniversary of his death.
The eight centuries, almost, have passed since his death have
witnessed a remarkable devotion to the glorious saint so
outstanding, indeed, that Pope Leo XIII would have him called "the
saint of the whole world." He has won this honour first of all
because of the astonishing way in which God has honoured him and the
strong appeal that his beautiful heroic life must make to all who
read about him. But he has won this devotion also because of the
all-embracing power he has shown to help us in our many needs, both
spiritual and temporal. If Anthony was a wonder-worker in life he has
earned a far greater right to that title since his entrance to
eternal life. It almost seems as though God's beautiful gesture in
coming to rest as the Divine infant in the arms of Anthony was a
symbol of the way in which he was to put His choicest gifts and
graces into the arms of the saint ever stretched out through the
centuries, pleading in our name. To borrow the words of the
Bollandists: "It is impossible to describe adequately the marvels and
wonders with which God has deigned to glorify His servant. The
miracles of Anthony are so constant and so numerous as to appear to
constitute one great unceasing miracle; and it would be a greater
miracle still if he ceased to work them. So famous have they rendered
him in the eyes of all people that one is often tempted to remark
that Almighty God plays with him as he did with his holy father, St
Francis, in granting him the power to work wonders, not so much for
the needs of souls as for the pleasure it gives Him to rejoice our
hearts through His servant, Anthony."
In Latin countries (Portugal, Italy, Spain, France) Saint Anthony is
the patron of sailors and fishermen. They place his statue in a
little shrine on the ship's mast, pray to him in storms and dangers,
and even "scold" him if he does not answer their petitions for help
speedily enough. In all Catholic countries Saint Anthony holds a
special place in the hearts of women. They turn to him with their
problems of love and espousal, happiness in married life, fertility,
good and healthy children. This patronage was doubtless occasioned by
his great kindness and goodness to all, and by the fact that images
show him with the Holy Child held tenderly in his arms. Girls go to
his shrines to pray for a husband. They light candles before his
image and drink from the fountain in the churchyard (Anthony's Well).
In Spain he is called Santo Casamentero (the Holy Matchmaker). The
Basque girls make a pilgrimage on his feast day to the town of
Durango in Biscaya, where they climb a high mountain and pray there
in the shrine "for a good boy." Sometimes their prayers are answered
immediately; for the young Basque men have the habit of making the
same journey, waiting outside the church and asking the girls to
dance after their devotions. Saint Anthony's best-known gift,
however, is his power of restoring all manner of lost things. In
little matters and great, he is prayed to constantly by millions of
people, and like Saint Christopher, is often invoked by non-Catholics
as well. There is no particular event in his life, nor any legend,
that would explain the origin of this patronage. In fact, many
explanations have been attempted, and most of them are quite unsatisfactory.
The most logical seems to be the report in an ancient Portuguese book
(the event might well be historical) that a man had stolen a valuable
volume of chants from a monastery. Some time afterward, when praying
to Saint Anthony, he not only felt sorry for the theft but was also
inspired with a great urge to return the book. He did so revealing
that the Saint had made him restore the "lost" volume; whereupon
people began to invoke Saint Anthony on similar occasions when
something belonging to them was lost.68 The custom of praying to the
Saint for lost articles actually started in Portugal and spread from
there to the rest of Europe, whence immigrants brought it with them to America.
Tuesday is devoted in a particular way to the veneration of Saint
Anthony because he was buried on Tuesday, June 17, 1231. In the
seventeenth century the practice began of holding weekly devotions to
him; and even today, most "perpetual novenas" to Saint Anthony are
held on Tuesdays. Portugal and Italy, where the Saint was born and
where he died, honor his feast day with unusual festive splendor and
great devotion. In Portugal the epithet "of Padua" is never used, for
to the Portuguese he remains "Anthony of Lisbon" or "of Alfama" (the
district of Lisbon where he was born). There every house on June 13
displays, among other decorations, a shrine with a statue of the saint.
St. Anthony's Brief
"Behold the Cross of the Lord! Begone you enemy powers! The lion of
the tribe of Judah, the root of David has conquered, Alleluia!"
are words that Pope Sixtus V had inscribed on the obelisk he erected
in the quadrangle in front of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. They are
also words attributed to St. Anthony known as the Brief (or letter)
of St. Anthony. Some people carry the words with them asking for
protection against the devil.
The custom of carrying and praying the words comes from the story of
a woman in Portugal tempted by the devil and obsessed with thoughts
of suicide. As the story is related, she was on her way to drown
herself but stopped off at a Franciscan chapel to pray before a
statue of St. Anthony. During her prayer she fell asleep and saw St.
Anthony, who released her from her disturbed state of mind.
When she woke up she found a letter (brief) given to her by St.
Anthony with the words quoted above of what we call St. Anthony's
brief. It has been written that the original letter was preserved
with the crown jewels of Portugal. The practice may also be rooted in
a story about Anthony's own struggle with the devil, who was trying
to choke him. Anthony, says the early account by a contemporary
friar, put the devil to flight by invoking Mary's help and making the
Sign of the Cross.
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Lord, may everything we do begin with Your inspiration and continue
with Your help,
so that all our prayers and works may begin in You and by You be happily ended.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
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