I grew up with a family friend that I called Auntie Rosie. She was too old to call by her first name and such a close friend that she was family.
Aunt Rosie was a faithful client of St. Anthony. She had such a great devotion to him and had recourse to him in everything. I admired her love for him because she did not just call on him for the usual lost keys or book, but had a profound trust in the prayers of St. Anthony before God.
She grew up in Tucson Arizona and was part German and part Native American just like my mother. She told me that as a young lady she had been very ill. When the doctors came up with the cause of her illness they diagnosed her with a serious heart condition and told her that she most likely would not live into her thirties.
Aunt Rosie told me she was devastated by the news and decided to ask St. Anthony for his intercession. As a sign of her confidence in his help she went to a silversmith there in Tucson and had a small heart fashioned and took it to a statue shrine there. She offered this small token to the dear Saint of Padua and begged his prayers not so much for herself but for her small children. She felt that St. Anthony had successfully interceded for her cure since her symptoms had vanished.
This made her a lifelong devotee of St. Anthony. She moved to California and had other children and lived into her nineties! She moved near the San Antonio Mission in Jolon California and would take frequent day trips to make a mini pilgrimage to pray, light candles and sit in the silence that the Mission affords even to this day.
She used to tell of the time that she and her family went to Lake San Antonio for a day of recreation. They had not planned a stop at the Mission but circumstances changed their plans. Her son-in-law was driving and when the family got to the lake they went swimming in the lake and had a picnic and when it was already late afternoon they packed up to return home. When they could not find the keys to their vehicle, they looked everywhere and retraced their steps and still no keys. They feared that they were lost at the bottom of the lake. Her son-in-law looked in his pockets again and again and when asked to look one more time he pulled the pockets of his pants inside out to make sure no one would not ask him again.
My aunt then proclaimed that she would ask St. Anthony and he would bring them the keys but they had to promise no matter how late it was to go to the San Antonio Mission and light some candles in thanksgiving once the keys were discovered. They promised and she told them to retrace their steps and diplomatically asked "everyone" to check their pockets and when her son-in-law did once again the keys were there!
St. Anthony came through once again. They fulfilled their promise immediately and with a new found faith and devotion.
Remember to give to one of the Charities of St. Anthony when you receive your graces too. I encourage you to give to San Antonio Mission in Jolon California they need it.
St. Anthony of Padua, pray for us.
Mark
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