THE CHILD JESUS, THE BOOK AND THE LILY

Editorial Staff

Many statues and images depict saint Anthony as tall and thin, with a sweet face and light complexion: more probably he was of medium height, with a sturdy build and dark hair. They all have in common some clear symbols; let us discover together their meaning.

In the most usual representations we see him wearing the Franciscan habit (he joined the followers of Francis in 1220), the cord with three knots (symbol of the vows of consecration: obedience, poverty, chastity), the Child Jesus in his arms, holding a lily in his hand. In others he holds a book, a flame or bread in his hand. The presence of the lily means the purity of the Saint, but also his thaumaturgical power (working miracles!).

The Child refers to a vision, one of the most famous episodes in the life of the Saint. The Liber miraculorum tells us that while preaching in a city (in Camposampiero, according to tradition), Antony is hosted by a local nobleman (Count Tiso). While the Saint is secluded in prayer, from a window the nobleman sees him with a smiling child in his arms, embraced by a light. “That child was the Lord Jesus... After the long prayer, after the vision disappeared, the Saint called Count Tiso and forbade him to reveal to anyone, as long as he lived, what he had seen.

After the passing of the holy father, that man told the episode with tears, swearing on the Bible that he was telling the truth”. The bread recalls the Saint’s charity towards the poor (this is the origin of the Bread for the Poor Charity Institution. There is an episode in his life that links him to this symbol: the miracle of Tommasino, a 20 month old child who lived with his parents in Padua at the time of the construction of the Basilica of Saint Anthony. His mother had left him playing in the kitchen, where there was a large pot on the fire with boiling water in it. He fell into the boiling water and when the mother came back he was already dead.

The poor mother began to pray loudly for Saint Anthony’s help, promising to donate her child’s weight in bread to the poor if he was brought back to life. Tommasino miraculously came back to life and his mother kept her promise. In 1946 Pope Pius XII officially declared Anthony a “Doctor of the Church”. Anthony is not only the simple friar we know: he was also a refined theologian and this is demonstrated by his Sermons, real theological treatises.

This is the meaning of the book in his hand: it is the symbol of his science, of his wisdom, of his doctrine, of his preaching and of his teaching always inspired by the Book of the Books, the Bible.