Bread of Saint Anthony: Franciscan Custodian of the Holy Land explains its meaning

The Franciscan Custos of the Holy Land, Fr. Francesco Patton, offered a reflection on the deep spiritual meaning of the traditional “bread of Saint Anthony”, which is blessed and distributed in different places around the world, such as the Basilica of Saint Anthony in Padua ( Italy) on June 13, the day of the feast of the so-called “saint of the world.”

In his homily this June 12, published in the website of the Franciscan Custody, the prelate highlighted that “the bread of Saint Anthony is not a bread that we ask of Saint Anthony, but it is a bread that we give with a grateful heart.”

This “because we recognize that the Lord continues to grant us grace throughout our lives, through the intercession of this Saint who dedicated himself intensely to the poor, cared for them, defended them and evangelized them.”

In that sense, the Franciscan friar continued, “with a heart full of gratitude to God who works through his saints, having recognized the benefits received, we put this bread in the hands of Antonio, so that it becomes food and support of life. for the poorest.”

The deep meaning of San Antonio bread

“What then is the deepest meaning of this gesture?” the Custos asked himself and responded: “to recognize that everything we are and everything we have is a gift from God, and that if we have received so much we must learn to share.” what we have received, like Jesus Christ.”

Brother Francesco Patton also recalls that “in the sermon of the Gospel of the Wedding at Cana, Saint Anthony lists the various penitential works that purify our conscience before God and among them he includes almsgiving, that is, that type of mercy and compassion that leads to share one’s own goods.

For this reason, the Franciscan Custos asks “that the Lord also grant us the grace to recognize the benefits received and to share everything we are and everything we have, so that – as Saint Francis himself suggests – we do not retain anything of what we have. that we have for ourselves, so that He who offers himself entirely to us can welcome us all and totally.”

“I believe that this initiative has spread and taken root in the hearts of Christians from all latitudes because it is a simple and fundamental gesture, very similar to the most important gesture of Jesus: that of giving himself to us as the Bread of Life in the Eucharist” , highlighted the Custodian.

San Antonio bread has its origin in one of the saint’s miracles that involved Tomasito, a 20-month-old boy who drowned in a water well.

The desperate mother invoked the help of the saint and made a promise: if she obtained grace she would give the poor the same weight in bread as the weight of the child. And the little boy miraculously came back to life.

The miracle gave rise to two works of charity: 1.- the Work of the Bread of the Poor, the Antonian organization that in Padua brings food and basic necessities and assistance to the most needy; and 2.- Cáritas Antoniana Onlus, the charitable entity of the saint’s friars who have supported hundreds of development projects in dozens of countries.