A Saint Anthony Story


Loretta O'Donovan

All my life, I've had a devotion to Saint Anthony. As a child I would often pray to him for lost articles. I had a medal of Saint Anthony that I wore around my neck. I lost my medal one year on our last visit to the family cottage. I prayed and prayed to him that I would find it. But the time came for us to leave and I still couldn't find my medal. Over the winter I forgot about it, but on our first visit in the spring, there was my medal on a dirt road among the stones!

The most humorous story I ever heard regarding Saint Anthony was told by my mother. She had an aunt who prayed to Saint Anthony for many years. Every night she knelt before her statue of Saint Anthony and asked him to find her a husband. She prayed and prayed faithfully, but her prayers just weren't being answered. Finally one day, feeling discouraged and angry that Saint Anthony wasn't answering her prayers, she took the statue and threw it out the window. It flew out of her apartment window and bonked an pedestrian on the head. The man saw which window the statue had come from, and returned it to her.

They married shortly after. I'm sure the bump had healed by then.

Saint Anthony definitely sees the humorous side of things. I'm sure there are many times that we all need a whack on the head before we can see God's will for our lives.

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