Saint of Miracles

 

“It was Truly a Miracle!”

St. Anthony, gentlest of Saints, your love for God and charity for his creatures, made you worthy, when on earth, to possess miraculous powers. Miracles waited on your word, which you were ready to offer on behalf of those in need. Encouraged by this, I ask you to hear my prayers.

 

“My wife has suffered with breast cancer and further complications for the past four years. Shortly after she got her diagnosis we received in the mail a beautiful St. Anthony prayer card and medal. My middle name is Anthony and my wife’s father’s name is Anthony. She commented on the fact that now she had three Anthonys looking out for her. She has had the medal with her every day and we have prayed from the prayer card every day since receiving them. It seems there may be a happy ending soon as the last series of tests have come back clean and several of the complications, including diabetes, are manageable.”

“In April, my mother was diagnosed with renal failure. She is 89 and frail from years of illness. The doctor advised to begin treatment with morphine and plan funeral arrangements. I could not bear it. My brother asked me if I was hoping for a miracle. When I said yes, the doctor assured us that it would indeed take a miracle for my mother to survive. When I got home from the hospital, a beautiful prayer card and St. Anthony medal were in my mailbox. The prayers were so encouraging that I went back to the hospital and brought the medal to my mother, putting it under her pillow. Within 24 hours her kidneys began to work on their own, within the week, she was doing well enough to be moved back to the nursing home—where she remains with her kidney function improving.”

“I am very grateful for St. Anthony’s intercession. When a beautiful healing card arrived in the mail, I sent it to a friend. As an afterthought, I asked St. Anthony to help find a tenant for an apartment I had that had been vacant for over a year. A few weeks later a friend asked me if I still had that apartment. She said she knew someone who was desperately seeking a new place to live. Three weeks later my new tenant moved in! Thank you St. Anthony for finding my tenant!”

“Thank you Friars for bringing St. Anthony into my life. The beautiful medal and prayer card you sent me arrived exactly when I needed them. My job was unbearable! My boss was going through a lot of personal stress and seemed to take it out on us employees. The night I received the novena, I prayed to St. Anthony to help me endure and intercede to improve the situation. Two days later my boss was reassigned to a new Office and I was promoted to supervisor—something I would never have imagined happening. It was truly a miracle from St. Anthony!”

“I am very grateful for St. Anthony. My husband had lost his job and I asked him to do St. Anthony’s Novenas. After the fourth Novena, he got a call for a job and by the end of the 13th Novena, he started working. So I am very thankful.” — Veronica

“My husband had gone out to apply for a job, and after the interview, he called and told me ‘I liked the people there and I think they will offer me the position if I want it.’ I told him that I had received a St. Anthony Prayer card from the friars and had been praying to St. Anthony every morning on the train on my way to work that he would find a job where he was needed and could be happy. He got a call at 9:00 a.m. the next morning and they offered him the position. We both believe that this is no coincidence.” — Beth L.

"I had two perfectly good brains back then, twenty years ago --- I could hold my own in a lively scientific discussion while examining tissue through a microscope and taking measurements and writing down notes, not switching from one task to another but doing all at once --- but out in the side yard to the house, while cutting grass one Saturday, the electric mower seemed to throw me backwards flat onto the ground, and I looked down from the mossy lawn, which had become a ceiling, at the tip of the tall blue spruce and the garage roof's peak, my arms flung to each side, and clutched the lawn with all my strength so as not to fall into the blue and empty sky."

"For nearly two years after that, I wore cardigan sweaters to work, the ones with a pocket on each side, and in one pocket I kept a small, cheap notebook from the drugstore and a pencil. I wrote down the reason I was walking from one room to another or what I had to do in the next few minutes. When a page was filled on both sides with these reminders I would tear it out. Three or four of these convenient notebooks got used up every week. I worked quite hard to regain one brain, and where that brain and in particular my memory might need support, I filed and organized."

"Everything but everything had to have its place. I would say, "If something's not in the first place I look for it, then it can be anywhere in the galaxy, because more than likely I won't have even a faint clue about where else to find it."

"I retired, wrote a book, met a woman wise in the ways of the spirit, wrote another book and then another. I started yet another book, an intricate historical novel requiring many notes --- timelines, maps, biographies, and such --- and then moved house. When I turned to pick up the writing once again, my notes had disappeared."

"If they're not in the first place I look, they could be anywhere at all."
The vertigo and near-panic of those years after I lost one brain lashed me, made me desperate, caused firm ground to seem like brittle ice."

"Promise something to Saint Anthony," the woman said. I did, and also looked and looked and looked again, and one day, there they were: the notes, ready to be put in the first place I would look for them again."

"But this month, Raffy disappeared, and that was worse. Our cats stay indoors and in the catpen: they never roam outside. Raffy is a prince of cats, "the world's best possible cat", I tell him. I was not even aware of having been careless, but he must have slipped out when I had the porch door open."

"The wise woman cried but had no words for me this time. I said inwardly, "Saint Anthony, if Raffy reappears and comes inside, this time, rather than contribute money, I will do something nice in your honor."

"Raffy did reappear, and we hugged him and asked him never to go away like that again. How much more terrible it is, the woman said, to have a cat disappear than get sick and die, because when it dies, you know its suffering has ended and it has gone to Heaven, but if it disappears, it may be cold, hungry and unloved, lonely and in pain, wandering outside for years and years. But Saint Anthony, again, was merciful and eased our lives, and so I write this in his honor." — Eben

“I am writing to say thank you for sending St. Anthony to us when we needed him most, and to ask if you could send us a few more prayer cards. I’m sure you can understand that ours is quite worn by this time. Thank you Friars for all you do for all of us in need. God will surely bless you with great eternal reward.” —Wayne Anthony