Our Patron Saint, was born August 15, 1195 to young parents Of Portuguese nobility. In Baptism, he received the name of Ferdinand.

For his early education, Ferdinand's parents placed him in the community of the Canons of the Cathedral of Lisbon. At the age of 15, he entered the Order of Regular Canons of St. Augustine near Lisbon. Two years later he was transferred to the priory of the Holy Cross of the same Order at Coimbra. By the age of 20, Ferdinand gave up all claims to his father's titles and estates and was ordained an Augustinian priest. He remained at Coimbra for eight years where he prayed and studied the Bible in obscurity.

In 1220, the relics of five Franciscan Missionaries, martyred in Morocco while accompanying the Crusades, were sent to his monastery. Ferdinand was inspired to follow in their footsteps of faith. Against much opposition, he finally obtained consent and entered the Franciscan Order, that he too, might preach the Gospel to the Moors. He was admitted in 1221 as Brother Anthony and sent to Morocco. Unfortunately, Anthony soon became very ill. On his return to Spain, contrary winds drove his vessel to Sicily. Later that year, while attending a general chapter of the Order in Assisi, Italy, he met St. Francis.

Assigned to a hermitage of Sao Paolo near Forli, no one knew that the sickly young friar had brilliant intellectual and spiritual gifts. At an ordination ceremony when no one was prepared to preach, Anthony was told to speak whatever the Holy Spirit put in his mouth. His eloquence was thus discovered and he was commissioned to preach throughout northern Italy. Traveling through France, Spain and Italy, he often preached in marketplaces, because churches could not hold the crowds who came to hear him.

Anthony was made a professor of theology, a subject which he later taught at Bologna, Toulouse, Montpellier and Padua. He was the first of his Order appointed to teach theology and was an envoy from the Franciscans to Pope Gregory IX who called him "the Ark of the Testament" for his singular knowledge of the scripture. During his lifetime, he was one of the most knowledgeable persons about the scriptures. '

Many miracles were attributed to St. Anthony and numerous legends grew up around his works; his sermon to the fish at Rimini, the mule that knelt before the Blessed Sacrament, the Psalter that was stolen and returned (because of this he is best known as the patron of lost items), and the story of how his host saw him holding the Child Jesus in his arms when he looked through his window.

When Anthony died on June 13, 1231 at the age of 36, people immediately called for his canonization which occurred within one year after his death.