How did it happen that the city of San Antonio was named after Saint Anthony? Over 300 years ago, in 1691, a small expedition of Spanish explorers traveling north from Mexico advanced some 150 miles into present-day Texas.

On June 13, they stopped to set up camp near an Indian village along the river. The Franciscan chaplain of the small expedition, Father Damien Massanet, suggested that they call the place San Antonio because they had arrived on the feast of Saint Anthony.

Some 27 years passed, however, before another Franciscan friar, Father Antonio Olivares, founded the first Franciscan mission near the village in 1718. The friar named the mission 𝗦𝗮𝗻 𝗔𝗻𝘁𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗼 𝗱𝗲 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗿𝗼 in honor of Saint Anthony and the duke of Valero, a Spanish viceroy.

𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗮𝘀 – “𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗹𝗮𝗺𝗼”

Saint Anthony was born Fernando Martins in Lisbon, Portugal. He was born into a wealthy family and by the age of fifteen asked to be sent to the Abbey of Santa Cruz in Coimbra, the then capital of Portugal.

Fernando eventually received permission to leave the Abbey so he could join a new Franciscan Order, a small hermitage outside Coimbra. When he was admitted, he changed his name to Anthony.

Anthony had a book of psalms that contained notes and comments to help when teaching students and, in a time when a printing press was not yet invented, he greatly valued it.

When a novice decided to leave the hermitage, he stole Anthony’s valuable book. When Anthony discovered it was missing, he prayed it would be found or returned to him. The thief did return the book and in an extra step returned to the Order as well.

ʜᴇ ᴡᴀꜱ ᴏɴʟʏ 35-ʏᴇᴀʀꜱ-ᴏʟᴅ ᴡʜᴇɴ ʜᴇ ᴅɪᴇᴅ and was made a saint less than one year afterward.

Anthony occasionally taught at the universities of Montpellier and Toulouse in southern France, but he performed best in the role of a preacher. So simple and resounding was his teaching of the Catholic Faith, most unlettered and the innocent could understand his messages. It is for this reason he was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius XII in 1946.

St Anthony is venerated all over the world as the Patron Saint for lost articles, and is credited with many miracles involving lost people, lost things and even lost spiritual goods.

He is the patron saint of lost or stolen articles.

His feast day is June 13

For God’s Glory.

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