The World's Most Mysterious Objects. Lionel and Patricia Fanthorpe

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СКАЧАТЬ tau-cross, and they soon spread across much of western Europe. A part of their ritual consisted of ringing small bells to attract gifts for the Order; these bells were given to those who had helped them and were placed round the necks of their benefactors’ animals with a view to protecting them from disease.

      The Hospitallers also had a rather strange privilege in that their pigs roamed where they wished in the street. Consequently, in the symbols representing Anthony in the later iconography, bells and pigs featured prominently.

      Anthony became widely known and was greatly venerated during the Middle Ages. He became the patron saint of many monastic orders and was believed to be a healer both of animals and human beings. The word “tantony” slipped into the language as a diminutive form of “Saint Anthony” and came to mean — by association with both iconographic bells and pigs — either the smallest bell or the smallest pig. The tantony was simply the tiniest one.

      It was this Anthony of Egypt after whom Anthony of Padua named himself. The newly named Friar Anthony set out for Morocco, where it was his intention to preach Christianity to the Islamic Moors. He was taken ill, however, and was unable to complete the mission on which he had originally set his heart. More problems swiftly followed. The difficulty of the illness that had altered his plans in the first place was now augmented by strong winds blowing in a direction he did not want: they drove his vessel to Messina in Sicily.

      Despite these setbacks, he made his way up to Assisi in 1221, where Francis and Elias were holding a special gathering of the chapter for all Franciscans. After this meeting, Anthony was sent to San Paolo, not far from Forli. Once there, he busied himself— like Martha, the industrious sister of Meditative Mary of Bethany — by washing the Order’s simple cooking utensils after meals.

      Up until this point in his career, it seemed that none of the senior members of the community recognized Anthony’s great intellectual gifts. His remarkable abilities first came to light when he was one of the priests attending an ordination; it transpired that none of the others had been told to prepare the necessary special ordination sermon, due to a failure of communication and some general administrative misunderstandings. The senior priests having all declined because they had nothing ready, young Anthony offered to give the address. He did it with such fervent eloquence and such depth of spiritual knowledge that all who heard him were deeply impressed by the young man’s great ability. He was immediately commissioned as a preacher and sent up to northern Italy and then to France.

      Not only a preacher but also a teacher, he gave lessons in theology at Padua, Montpelier, Toulouse, and Bologna. Just as Saint Francis was said to have preached to the birds, so Saint Anthony of Padua was said to have attracted the fish from the Marecchia river. According to tradition, these remarkably perceptive fish were alleged to have popped their heads out of the water and to have remained in neat rows until he had finished his sermon. Anthony was only thirty-six when he died in Padua in 1231, in a building next to the convent of the Poor Clares at Arcella, just outside the city. An altar was put up at the place where he died, and the room was made into an oratory.

      The cult of Saint Anthony has always been associated with the most extraordinary miracles. He is particularly credited with being the finder of lost articles. This may date back to an occasion when someone borrowed his Psalter without his permission. According to legend, the unauthorized borrower saw a terrifying apparition, which led to the immediate return of the book.

      A far nobler and worthier memorial to him is Saint Anthony’s Bread, a very special charitable fund that helps the necessitous and starving, especially in the developing nations. Just as Anthony of Egypt has pigs and bells for his emblems, so Anthony of Padua has a book and a lily, often with the infant Christ seated on his book. The basis of the inclusion of the infant Christ on Anthony’s book is a remarkable report made by Count Tiso.

      The Count had given the Franciscans a hermitage on property that he owned. When Tiso called to visit them one day, he saw a brilliant light around the edges of the hermitage door. His first thought was that the new building had caught fire and that the Franciscans whom he honoured and revered were in serious danger. Running fearlessly inside to see if he could offer them assistance, Tiso halted in amazement when he saw Anthony sitting in ecstatic rapture with the Holy Child in his arms — just as though he were one of the Magi or shepherds at Bethlehem.

      Within a year of Anthony’s death, the traditional rigorous ecclesiastical examination of his life and works was carried out with meticulous thoroughness, and as a result he was raised to sainthood. It was not until 1946, however, that he was declared to be a Doctor of the Church as well.

      In addition to his special reputation as a recoverer of lost property and missing objects, Anthony is also the patron saint of the poor, the imprisoned, and all who have become despised social outcasts. It was to such people in particular that he gave help during his all too short earthly life.

      Elbart of Temeswar believed that God had given the saint’s relics the power to bring back lost objects because during Anthony’s earthly life he had done everything he could to bring back people who had gone astray.

      Those who had known and admired Anthony during his lifetime were assisted by the citizens of Padua in building a great basilica to him, which was begun within just one year of his death. In 1263, when Bonaventure was in charge of the Franciscans, Anthony’s body was transferred to this new basilica.

      It was for his preaching and teaching in particular that Anthony was so admired, and, according to contemporary records, when the sarcophagus was opened during the transfer, his tongue was found to be uncorrupted. The thoughts of those who performed the transfer were that this was a special sign of the validity and truth of his preaching and teaching.

      His tomb, which nowadays is referred to as the Ark of Saint Anthony, is constructed of fine marble with distinctive green veins, and it is so placed that pilgrims are able to walk all around it. As many as two thousand visitors an hour pass the tomb on peak days. These devout pilgrims usually try to touch the sacred green-veined marble, and the contact of reverent pilgrim hands over the years has worn the back of the tomb completely smooth. Hundreds of letters arrive at the basilica from all over the world each day. Anthony’s original home, Lisbon, Portugal, did not forget him either, and an impressive church was built over the site of his birthplace.

      In 1981, on the 750th anniversary of Saint Anthony’s death, John Paul II gave permission for the tomb to be opened on the sixth of January. In addition to high ranking members of the Church, anthropologists, anatomists, and doctors of medicine attached to the University of Padua were present. Anthony’s remains were found to be enclosed inside two concentric wooden caskets. These sturdy old caskets contained three significant bundles wrapped in red damask and trimmed with gold. In the first bundle was the robe in which Anthony had been buried. The second contained an assortment of his bones, and the third contained his skull.

      The thirteenth-century records of his tongue having been perfectly preserved were augmented by a report from this 1981 ceremony. It was recorded that the pathologists and anatomists present at this 750th anniversary examination commented that Anthony’s vocal cords could still be identified and were as well preserved as the tongue had been centuries before. The same symbolic conclusions were drawn. The vocal cords were removed from their red damask containers and placed in the reliquary chapel alongside the still uncorrupted tongue.

      This reliquary for the tongue and vocal cords is itself a unique and mysterious object. It is fashioned in the form of a silver book with golden letters. Representations of flames made of the same precious metal are constructed so that they seem to be coming up from the book, and the sheath of golden flame supports a hand-shaped crystal container inside which the relics can be seen. The symbolism is plain enough as a memorial for a man whose preaching and teaching were so effective and so well remembered.

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