Day 5: The Christ Child

The fifth day of the Saint Anthony Novena, the midpoint, turns to the iconography that has made Saint Anthony immediately recognizable in Catholic art across the centuries: the saint holding the Infant Jesus in his arms, often with a lily of purity in his hand. The image is drawn from a particular incident in Anthony's life and expresses the central Catholic theology of his sanctity.

Today's invocation

O glorious Saint Anthony of Padua... (the full opening prayer)

Today's meditation

The traditional source for the iconographic image is preserved in the early Franciscan hagiographical tradition. According to the standard account, Saint Anthony was lodging in the home of a wealthy Franciscan benefactor named Count Tiso in northern Italy, in the late 1220s. Late one night, the host noticed an unusual light from under the door of Anthony's room. Looking through the keyhole, the host saw Anthony in prayer, holding a small child in his arms, who was bathed in light and appeared to be the Christ Child. The host kept silent about what he had seen until after Anthony's death, when he told the Franciscans of the friary, who preserved the testimony.

The Catholic devotional tradition has read this incident as the central iconographic image of Saint Anthony's sanctity: he was a saint to whom the Lord Jesus came in the form of a small child, and through whom the Lord continues to come to the Catholic faithful in the persons of the small and the lost. The image of Saint Anthony holding the Christ Child is, in this Catholic reading, the visual articulation of the saint's intercession: he holds the Lord, and through his hands, the Lord comes to those who pray to him.

The iconographic image has additional symbolic elements that the Catholic tradition has developed:

• The lily in Saint Anthony's hand represents the purity of his religious life, particularly his Franciscan vow of chastity.
• The book (often included in the iconography) represents both the Sacred Scriptures (which Saint Anthony preached extensively) and the saint's own Sermons (preserved in the medieval Latin tradition and now available in modern English critical editions).
• The Franciscan habit (the brown tunic with the cord of three knots representing the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience) places the saint in his proper religious context.

Today's intention

Today, in addition to your principal intention, contemplate the image of Saint Anthony with the Christ Child. Saint Anthony, holding the Lord Jesus in your arms, hold me also in your prayer. Let the Lord come to me through your hands as He came to you in the night.

If you have a Catholic image of Saint Anthony in your home (a holy card, a small statue, a printed image), place it in a visible place during the rest of the novena. The Catholic tradition has long observed that visual images are themselves a means of grace: the soul that looks daily at an image of Saint Anthony with the Christ Child is gradually formed in the Catholic disposition of trust in his intercession.

Reflection

The Catholic iconographic tradition is one of the great gifts of the Catholic Church. Unlike the iconoclastic Protestant traditions of the sixteenth century, the Catholic Church has consistently maintained the use of sacred images as legitimate aids to Catholic devotion (the Second Council of Nicaea in 787 definitively defined this Catholic doctrine against the iconoclasts of the eastern empire). The image of Saint Anthony with the Christ Child is one of the most beloved Catholic images of the medieval and modern eras, found in every Franciscan church, in many parish churches, and in countless Catholic homes.

The Catholic devotion to the Christ Child held by Saint Anthony also connects this novena to other Catholic Infant Jesus devotions: the Infant of Prague, the Santo Niño tradition of the Spanish-speaking Catholic world, and the Christmas crèche tradition initiated by Saint Francis of Assisi. Each is a Catholic development of the same fundamental devotion to the Lord present as a small child in the arms of those who love Him.

Closing prayers

Conclude with the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Glory Be.

Saint Anthony of Padua, who held the Christ Child in your arms, intercede for us. Let the Lord come to us through your hands.