Day 7: Patron of the Poor

The seventh day of the Saint Anthony Novena turns to one of the saint's most enduring patronages: he is the patron of the poor. The Franciscan charism of poverty (treated more fully in Saint Francis of Assisi) was at the heart of Anthony's religious life, and the Catholic devotion to him has long included the charitable practice known as Saint Anthony's Bread in the saint's name.

Today's invocation

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

Today's meditation

The traditional origin of the Saint Anthony's Bread devotion is preserved in a particular incident: a young child in Padua had drowned in a well, and the desperate parents prayed to Saint Anthony for the child's recovery. The mother promised that, if the child were restored to her, she would give to the poor an amount of bread equal to the child's weight. The child was restored. The promised bread was given to the poor of Padua. The Catholic devotional tradition adopted the practice as a particular form of charitable petition to Saint Anthony.

The modern Saint Anthony's Bread devotion takes various forms across the Catholic world. In many Catholic parishes (particularly Franciscan parishes and parishes named for Saint Anthony), a small alms-box marked Saint Anthony's Bread is kept near the saint's image; the Catholic faithful drop a small offering into the box when they ask Saint Anthony's intercession or when their petitions are answered. The collected funds are used for the parish food pantry, for hunger relief, or for the poor of the diocese. The traditional form is to make the offering equal in monetary value to the bread the saint's intercession was being asked for; many Catholic faithful give simply a token amount as a symbolic continuation of the tradition.

The Catholic patronage of Saint Anthony for the poor is deeper than the Bread tradition. The saint's preaching consistently emphasized the Lord's special concern for the poor, drawing on the Sermon on the Mount and the parable of the Good Samaritan. His miracles were often performed for the poor: the recovery of stolen tools, the healing of sick children in poor families, the restoration of property unjustly taken. The Catholic faithful who pray to him in financial difficulty, in poverty, or in the long uncertainty of unemployment are participating in this consistent Catholic tradition of his patronage.¹

Today's intention

Today, in addition to your principal intention, consider the poor of your own community. Saint Anthony, who loved the poor and through whose Bread devotion the Catholic faithful have fed the poor for eight centuries, intercede for the poor of my own city. Move me to undertake some specific act of charity in your name during this novena.

A practical Catholic action that flows from this meditation: identify, in the days of the novena, one concrete act of almsgiving that you can undertake in Saint Anthony's name. The act may be:

• A monetary contribution to your parish food pantry, with the intention noted as in honor of Saint Anthony.
• The purchase of a meal for a homeless person you encounter regularly in your community.
• A donation to a Catholic charitable organization (the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, the Catholic Relief Services, a local Catholic Worker house, or the Franciscan friars' missions).
• The renewed commitment to a regular monthly almsgiving as a personal Catholic discipline.

Reflection

The Catholic spiritual tradition has long observed that almsgiving is one of the three principal disciplines of the Catholic life (with prayer and fasting). The Lord Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount addresses all three: "Beware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them; for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus, when you give alms, sound no trumpet before you..." (Matthew 6:1-2). Almsgiving is, in this Catholic understanding, not principally a means of helping the poor (though it does help them) but principally a means of forming the soul of the giver in the love of the Lord. The soul that gives regularly is gradually freed from the disordered attachment to wealth that the modern Catholic world has made one of the principal obstacles to holiness.

The Saint Anthony Novena, with its emphasis on almsgiving on the seventh day, is a fitting Catholic occasion to renew or to begin the discipline.

Closing prayers

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

Saint Anthony of Padua, patron of the poor, intercede for us and for the poor we serve.

Footnotes

1. The Saint Anthony's Bread devotion is documented in the Franciscan devotional tradition. The principal contemporary administering organization is the Franciscan friars at the Basilica of Saint Anthony in Padua, where the formal Saint Anthony's Bread fund supports charitable works around the world. Available at the basilica's official website. ↩