The Feast of St. Anthony is celebrated at Kochchikade Church on June 13.
People all over the world love Saint Anthony for he seems to have unlimited access to the treasures of god's graces and blessings. He reclaims lost sums of money, he heals the wounds of the body, as well as the festering sores of sin in the soul, he advances the temporal and, still more, the eternal interests of his devout clients.
In Sri Lanka, St. Anthony has a vast following and over the years hundreds of churches have been erected in his honour throughout the country. Perhaps the most popular of them all, is the one in the heart of the city of Colombo at Kochichikade which daily attracts people of all walks of life from all corners of the island.
In the annual Liturgical Calendar of the church, the feast of St. Anthony is celebrated on the 13th June.
Among the many saints of the church there is scarcely anyone so well-known, so honoured, so popular all over the world and so powerful in answering all types of supplications as St. Anthony of Padua.
As his great client Pope Leo XIII has acclaimed, St. Anthony is not only the Saint of Padua but in truth the saint of the whole world. One has only to visit this hallowed shrine on any Tuesday of the year, to see the thousands who flock to pray to St. Anthony, to ask his help in some anxiety, to fulfill promises made, or to thank him for the answers to their requests and to show their love and respect.
Saint Anthony was born in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1195. The room in which he was born is now a tiny chapel beneath the Church of St. Anthony in Lisbon, near the cathedral. It was in the cathedral that he was baptized and received the name of Fernando. At the age of fifteen he consecrated himself to the religious life in the convent of the Canons Regular of Saint Augustine at Lisbon. A year or two later he was sent to the Holy Cross monastery at Coimbra, where he made giant strides in the ways of science and sanctity.
It was here he received his vocation to the Franciscan order. The remains of the first five Franciscan martyrs of Morocco were brought to Coimbra for interment. Inflamed with the desire for a similar martyrdom, Fernando obtained leave to join the Franciscan order. At his reception, he was given the name of Anthony. This was in July of the year 1220. He was then twenty five. At his request he was sent to Morocco in November of that same year, hoping to share in the honours of martyrdom. But that was not his destiny. Afflicted with serious illness, he was forced to return home. But a fierce storm drove his ship from its course, so that it came ashore on the coast of Sicily. Thus God led him to the land which he was to glorify by his holy and miraculous life.
In Italy Anthony's great learning and holiness were unknown at first. He lived the retired life of a lay brother until 1222. Divine Providence then made him celebrated. For nearly ten years he gave himself up to the sacred ministry without rest or relaxation, traversing Italy and France. He preached with untiring zeal and with a heart steeled against sin, but full of tenderness for the repentant sinner. Saint Anthony was an orator of great power, and such a successful opponent of the then prevailing heresies that people called him the Hammer of Heretics.
He distinguished himself above all for his preaching and work in defense of the needy and oppressed. In 1228 he was sent to Padua, where he spent the last few years of his blessed life. With this city his name has been associated for over seven centuries.
This most eventful and fruitful life came to a close in his thirty sixth year, in the hospital adjoining the convent of the Poor Clares of Arcella, outside the city gates of Padua with his favourite hymn to Our Lady O glorious domino on his life. The Friars kept the news of his death from the people, but the little children ran through the streets of the city crying out aloud: The Saint is dead, Saint Anthony is dead
Countless are the miracles by which God glorified his faithful servant especially after his holy death. So stupendous and numerous were the miracles occurring through the intercession of Saint Anthony, that in less than a year after his death he was canonized by Pope Gregory IX. From the miracles performed during the year following his death not less than fifty were introduced in the acts of his canonization.
St. Bona venture says Saint Anthony possessed the science of the angels, the faith of the patriarchs the foreknowledge of the prophets, the zeal of the apostles and the heroism of martyrs. The Dominican Saint Antonine, archbishop of Florence, declared, "He was a vessel of election, an eagle in knowledge, a wonderworker beyond compare."
In the year 1263, the tomb of the saint was opened, in order that his remains might be transferred to the new sanctuary built in his honour. On opening the coffin it was found that the flesh had fallen into dust, but the tongue had remained fresh and ruddy like that of a living person. St. Bona venture, then minister general of the order, was present. When he saw the miracle, he reverently took the tongue in his hands, kissed it and exclaimed: O blessed! tongue, that never ceased to praise God and always taught others to bless him, now we plainly see how precious you are in his sight.
With the permission of Pope John Paul II, a canonical recognition of the body of St. Anthony was conducted in 1981. Thus, 750 years after his death, the Saint's mortal remains were examined for the second time and measures were taken to conserve them for future generations. For more than a month (January 6 - March 1), countless people venerated the exposed relics. This recognition revealed that the Saint's body, enclosed in a small box within the coffin in which he had been originally buried, was in an excellent state of preservation. The careful analysis of the holy relics by doctors and historians permitted them to reconstruct St. Anthony's physical appearance - 1, 7 meters (5 ft. 7 in.) in height, not exceptionally healthy, a noble profile with a fine narrow face, deepset eyes, and graceful hands with long fingers. He was about forty years old when he died. To the surprise of the experts, Anthony's vocal apparatus was found to be intact. This complemented St. Bonaventure's discovery of the Saint's incorrupt tongue during the first recognition in 1263. Today, the vocal apparatus, habit, two coffins, and precious cloths are kept in the Chapel of the Treasury or Relics. Enclosed in a hermetically sealed urn, the holy relics of St. Anthony were again placed in his altar-tomb on March 1, 1981.
Saint Anthony died on Friday, June 13, 1231. He was buried on the following Tuesday, June 17, No miracle had occurred during the interval, but on that Tuesday his funeral procession was changed into a continuous triumphal ovation on account of the number and greatness of the miracles occurring. The blind saw, the deaf heard, the dumb spoke and the lame walked again. On that day no one invoked the aid of the saint without obtaining relief. From then on the gratitude of the people consecrated Tuesday to the honour of the saint. Crowds gathered at his tomb on that day by preference, and it was and still is the general belief in Padua that one can obtain on this day whatever is asked of God through saint Anthony.
This practice, which had spread far and wide, received a new impetus centuries afterwards. A noble lady in Bologna, in 1617, besought a favour of Saint Anthony with much fervour. For twenty two years she had vainly desired that her marriage might be blessed with offspring. One night she saw the saint in a dream. He said to her: Visit my shrine in the church of the Franciscans for nine Tuesdays, and your prayers will be heard. The pious woman gladly obeyed the direction of the saint and obtained the favour she so ardently desired.
This happy response to prayer was soon noised abroad, and the devotion of the nine Tuesdays began to be practiced by countless souls. The fervour of the faithful, however, was not satisfied with devoting only nine Tuesdays in honour of Saint Anthony, but gradually the number of Tuesdays was increased to thirteen, in remembrance of the date of his blessed death, or rather the date of his birth into eternal glory, which was June 13, 1231.
(The story of St. Anthony's Kochchikade as handed down by tradition is that in the 18th Century it began when Catholicism was still a proscribed religion and priests could not exercise their ministry. The Dutch were persecuting the Catholics but the Portuguese descendants preferred to be degraded, Impoverished and ridiculed rather than give up their faith such shrines as Madhu. Talawila and Kochchikade are souvenirs of the dark days of persecution. A few Oratorians, from Goa, visited the faithful in Ceylon at the cost of their lives. Fr. Jerome Gonsalves, the Superior of the Oratorians, who is affectionately remembered in Ceylon as the Father of Sinhala Catholic literature lamented the fact that the Catholics of Colombo had no resident priest. A zealous priest, Fr. Antonio disguised as a merchant took up his abode in a house in Maliban Street close to St. Philip Neri's Church - (The old Church faced the road). The Dutch discovered the hiding place and Fr. Antonio, disguised, fled towards Mutwal. He met some fishermen who knowing him and his reputation for sanctity volunteered to protect him from the Dutch provided he obtained from God the favour they wanted vi the stoppage of sea erosion. When the pursuers arrived, the fishermen refused to surrender Fr. Antonio until they had seen the result of their request. Returning to his quarters in Maliban Street Fr. Antonio came to the shore, clad in his priestly garments, and with a large wooden cross in his hand. Planting the Cross at the spot most threatened by the advancing sea, he prayed to God to manifest His Glory, by working this miracle. On the third day the waves receded and an extensive sand bank was exposed to the view of all.
The Dutch Government appreciated this favour and offered a reward to the people's benefactor. The humble priest asked only to live and die near the Cross he had planted. This was granted and the priest built a Chapel with mud in honour of his patron St. Anthony of Padua. When he died after many years he was buried there.
The little mud chapel was enlarged in 1806. In 1822 one of the members of the congregation went to Goa and brought a statue of St. Anthony, and it was solemnly placed on the altar of the small Church. This is the very image that is to this day held in great veneration in St. Anthony's Church, and the side altar on which it rests is the altar of the ancient Church, and stands on the very spot sanctified by the miraculous event to which the origin of the sanctuary is due.
A tiny piece of the incorrupt tongue of St. Anthony which is in Padua is enshrined in a special Reliquary and placed in one of the glass cases with a statue of the Saint, at the entrance to the Church.
Soon after the arrival of the statue the work of building a large Church was begun and the Church was completed in 1828. The blessing of the new Church took place on Sunday the 1st June 1834. Presided over by the Vicar General Very Rev. Fr. Caefano Antonio. It would appear that people of all creeds, Government and Military authorities lent their support towards the erection of this Church which continues to be a centre of deep devotion to the wonder-worker.
The miraculous statue of St. Anthony at the side altar has now been installed in a bullet proof glass case to ensure its protection and safety. An iron safe has been installed beneath the statue.
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