Relics of the saint known to help people find lost items will arrive in Chester next month (October) as part of a tour of Britain and Ireland.
A small piece of petrified flesh and layers of cheek skin of St Antony will be at St Francis’s Church in Grosvenor Street on Thursday, October 31.
There will be a mass at noon and 7pm with veneration from 1-6.30pm and 8-9pm.
Padua-based Greyfriar, Fr Mario Conte, editor of the Messenger of Saint Anthony magazine, will accompany the relics on the tour to mark the 750th anniversary of the discovery of St Anthony’s incorrupt tongue by St Bonaventure.
St Anthony died in 1231 and was originally buried at Sancta Maria Mater Domini Church in Padua.
His remains were later moved, in 1263, to the current basilica in the Italian city.
When St Bonaventure, who was head of the Franciscan Order at the time, presided over the opening of Anthony’s coffin, he discovered that the saint’s vocal organs were still intact, including a red and soft tongue.
According to Fr Mario Conte, there is nothing superstitious about relics. He said: “The real meaning of a relic is love – they are a link of love between the person who venerates and the saint.”
Anthony of Padua was a Portuguese Catholic friar belonging to the Franciscan Order. He was born and raised in a wealthy family in Lisbon. Noted by his contemporaries for his forceful preaching and expert knowledge of scripture, he was the fastest canonised saint ever in the church’s history.
He is patron of: Lost people or things; American Indians; animals; infertility; Brazil; the elderly; fishermen; harvests; horses; the oppressed and poor; Portugal; pregnant women; shipwrecks and travellers.
