Eminent preacher and theology teacher

Alfredo Pescante

The image of Saint Anthony, so dear to popular tradition, is sketched with the lily in his hand and the Child Jesus in his arms. But what does it look like in the first paintings and sculptures? Saint Anthony with the baby in his arms and the lily in his hand? We should not even dream of this image of him, dear to most devotees, in the pictorial or stone representations of the first two centuries after his death. The effigy that recurs is in fact that of a saint with a “book” leaning against his chest with his left hand and blessing with his right. Then the people shaped Saint Anthony according to their ideals: with the attributes of the lily, symbol of purity and thaumaturgy, of the flame and of the heart (representing the burning love and sacrifice to God of his life), of the cross and of the Child Jesus to indicate, in the latter, the appearance of the meekness and sweetness of his person, which allowed the affectionate trust to access him, willing to fulfill the prayers.

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