AS YOU KNOW, dear readers, 2013 is a special year for us because we are celebrating the 750th Anniversary of the Discovery of the relics of St. Anthony by St. Bonaventure of Bagnoregio.
Naturally here in Padua a year-long series of events have been planned to mark the occasion, and we friars of the Basilica have been given permission to take some of his most important relics abroad so that the celebration can be extended to people throughout the world.
Fr. Enzo Poiana, Rector of the Basilica, took a relic to Sri Lanka this January; this month two friars are travelling to Canada and Australia with two separate relics, and in the course of the rest of the year, other friars will take other relics to various sites in Italy and Europe. For my part, I took two relics to the New York City tri-state area last February, and in April I had the opportunity to take our dear Saint to California (see article on p.17). By the time you read this editorial, I will be in Wisconsin or in Illinois for another visit of the relics on American soil.
I can assure you, dear readers, that travelling with relics is by no means an easy matter, especially when passing through customs. These priceless relics are always with me as hand baggage, and they are always kept in elegant, velvet lined leather containers. Naturally they are immediately detected by X-ray scanners, so every time I go through customs I have the difficult task of explaining to the security guards that they are dealing with something which is, one could say, unique. I always bring documents and photos of the relics with me which prove that they belong to the Basilica in Padua and explain why I am travelling with them. Unfortunately you cannot always expect the customs officials and guards to be sympathetic, and sometimes they get quite suspicious and set about inspecting the containers down to the finest detail, along with my normal baggage, in the hope of finding some illegal drug or object. Sometimes the guards eye me with contempt, as though I were some nut case, but most of the times they are courteous, and on some occasions some of them have even asked me to pray to St. Anthony for them or their loved ones.
I have had the chance of travelling with St. Anthony in many countries, especially in 1995 on the occasion of the 8th centenary of his birth. And I can assure you that every trip I have made with our Saint so far has held some wonderful surprise for me: in India a procession with an elephant; in Sumatra there were dancers in traditional costumes during the offertory; at Timor East there were warriors on ponies doing a military salute because they saw the Saint as their lieutenant colonel; at the Pala Indian Reservation the Native Americans sang and played their drums during the Eucharistic celebrations…
However, it is actually the feeling of being the travelling companion of a spiritual giant like Anthony that is so thrilling; the fact that he is loved by millions of people who see him as a friend, almost as a member of their own family… as a brother. And so I meet Susan, who embraces me in tears and asks me to pray for her mother who is gravely ill, or Anita who conveys her gratitude to me for the Saint because her daughter was almost dead, and now is well again thanks to him. And then there is Beth, who had lost her job but is now working again and wants to make an offering for the poor, or there is Sam who lost his daughter and his two grand-children when his daughter’s jealous husband killed all of them and himself – he asks for the strength to go on, for the strength to forgive. All these people turn to Anthony with confidence and familiarity because they feel he is close to them and attentive to their needs. And so every trip I make with St. Anthony becomes a powerful human and spiritual experience for me in which I receive proof that our dear Saint is as alive as ever.
Some years ago I was in Ireland and there were so many people who had come to venerate the relics of St. Anthony that a television crew and a journalist had come to interview the faithful. The journalist turned to an elderly woman and asked her, “Why are you here today?” “I have come to be with my friend Anthony,” the woman said. “But don’t you realise,” the journalist continued, “that he died over 800 hundred years ago?” Smiling, the woman answered, “I know, but love still goes on.” She had really understood the essence of it all.
A blessed June 13 Feast, dear readers.
Updated on October 06 2016