Interview in L’Osservatore Romano with Father Ramina, rector of the basilica, vacation spot of tens of millions of pilgrims: “A common individuals is dedicated to the Saint. He conquers so many individuals as a result of he is aware of the right way to welcome and take heed to everybody, with out excluding anybody.”
Alvise Sperandio – Vatican Metropolis
Tens of millions of individuals flock to the tomb of Saint Anthony of Padua yearly, lining as much as pray and contact the tombstone. And on June 13, a liturgical reminiscence devoted to him (anniversary of his dying), the pilgrimage is renewed incessantly with 1000’s of visits from daybreak to nightfall on one of many brightest days of the yr. Antonio (Lisbon, 1195 – Padua, 1231), Franciscan priest and Physician of the Church canonized in 1232, is among the most beloved saints on this planet, “the Saint” par excellence, simply as Padua is recognized within the collective creativeness as “the town of the Saint.” Within the pontifical basilica, ruled for 3 years by Father Antonio Ramina, a 54-year-old Vincentian, of the Franciscan order of the Minor Conventual Brothers, every thing is prepared for the occasion, anticipated by the celebration of the “Tredicina” (the 13 previous Tuesdays). Tomorrow this system will probably be intense: within the morning, lots with the pontifical delegate, Archbishop Diego Giovanni Ravelli, and the bishop of Padua, Claudio Cipolla; within the afternoon, that of the provincial minister of the Minor Conventual Brothers, Father Roberto Brandinelli, adopted by the solemn procession by the streets of the town filled with trustworthy following the picket statue and the relics of the saint.
Father Ramina, who’s Antonio for you?
It was not a right away discovery. I entered the convent extra impressed by the determine of Saint Francis than by the rest. I got here to know Saint Anthony, who, as we all know, knew the Poverello of Assisi as an authentic interpreter of Franciscanism. He fascinated me for 2 causes: his love for the phrase of God, with nice emphasis on silence, meditation and prayer, and the extraordinary energy of his preaching at all times in favor of the poor.
Why is that this saint so revered?
It’s kind of of a thriller: there are various “good” saints who’re near individuals. I imagine that Saint Anthony conquers so many individuals as a result of he is aware of the right way to welcome and take heed to everybody, with out excluding anybody. And since he transmits to everybody the emotional dimension of religion.
Who’re the devotees of Saint Anthony of Padua?
It’s a common individuals: there are women and men, younger and previous, wealthy and poor, sick and wholesome, individuals with excessive {qualifications} or not. Not essentially believers, quite the opposite. The friars who guard the basilica see how everybody actually approaches his tomb as a result of his name has no boundaries or variations.
What are individuals on the lookout for in San Antonio?
Above all consolation and assist. Saint Anthony is a touring companion, a good friend on the non-public path of every of us. Many will ask for his intercession for well being issues, asking for therapeutic, miracles, thanks. On this sense, the quite a few ex-voto pictures displayed close to the tomb are a strong testimony and present the common face of the Church. Gratitude for the items acquired can also be very robust.
What’s there within the gesture of touching the tombstone?
It isn’t magic or superstition, but it surely reminds us that our life of religion can not solely be thought, feeling, good intention, however it is usually coming into right into a lived life, right into a concrete story. This steady pilgrimage helps us re-motivate ourselves on our journey of religion.
Each query of well being at all times implies a query of salvation.
When an individual approaches the tomb due to an sickness, he rightly asks for therapeutic. However the true miracle, as additionally occurs in Lourdes, is that different areas open up in prayer. The evangelical “ask and it is going to be given to you” is excellent, however we should not overlook that it doesn’t essentially arrive. What counts is to entrust ourselves to God who’s there, at our aspect, with our wounds and fatigue and by no means abandons us.
What’s the relevance of the saint in immediately’s opulent and super-technological society?
He meditated quite a bit and spoke forcefully. Antonio is the saint of interiority. He by no means fearful about displaying off or displaying who is aware of what. Being and showing in him go collectively. “I’m what I appear,” he appreciated to say. Let’s all study it.
What’s the level of contact with Saint Francis of Assisi?
Each weren’t fascinated by exegesis or tradition itself, however quite that the voice of the Lord, the decision to the vocation, be acknowledged within the phrase of God. There’s a profoundly correct saying: “let phrases stop and deeds communicate.”
The procession by Padua is an indication of religion and testimony in an more and more de-Christianized “civis.”
It’s to the extent that it is aware of the right way to generate hyperlinks. Those that stroll behind the statue are an ecclesial group that finds and acknowledges itself in religion in God by the intercession of Saint Anthony, and at all times to the extent that it depends on mediation, even when it isn’t absolutely understood.
In these instances of battle, how can San Antonio assist peace?
Within the Antonian manifesto for the month of June, the saint is seen going through the tyrant asking him to resign violence: he doesn’t succeed, however his braveness to specific compelling causes in favor of peace is prodigious. He’s a bit just like the Pope who incessantly, every time, invokes peace, however he doesn’t appear to be listened to. Antonio teaches us not to surrender in our efforts and to advertise a peace that, to begin with, should spring from our hearts and our each day lives. We’re all known as to conversion. Peace on this planet will depend on the highly effective of the earth, but additionally on our private dedication.
His greeting “Peace and Good” is a hymn to life.
Peace is the will that nobody ever really feel so removed from God that they can’t start once more, and even get well after the falls prompted, within the first place, by our sins. Whereas kindness means on the lookout for lovely relationships, maybe easy however genuine, the one ones which are worthwhile in life.
