From April 14 through April 21, 2013, two precious relics of St. Anthony will be brought to California from the Basilica of St. Anthony in Padua, to mark the 750th. Anniversary of the Discovery of St. Anthony’s relics by Saint Bonaventure in 1263. The Franciscan Friars invite you to join them in the following places:
SUNDAY, APRIL 14
SAN DIEGO
Good Shepherd Parish
8200 Gold Coast Drive, CA 92126
12:15 PM Mass
MONDAY, APRIL 15
LOS ANGELES
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
555 W Temple St., CA 90012
11:00 AM Veneration
12:10 PM Mass followed by Veneration
TUESDAY, APRIL 16
LOS ANGELES
St. Peter’s Italian Church
1039 N Broadway, CA 90012
6:00 PM Mass
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17
SANTA BARBARA
St. Barbara Parish
2201 Laguna Street, CA 93105
7:00 PM Mass
THURSDAY, APRIL 18
MANHATTAN BEACH
American Martyrs Church
624 15th St., CA 90266
5:00 PM Mass
FRIDAY, APRIL 19
TORRANCE
St. Francis Korean Catholic Church
2040 Artesia Blvd, CA 90504
7:30 PM Mass
SATURDAY, APRIL 20
HERMOSA BEACH
Our Lady of Guadalupe Church
244 Prospect Avenue, CA 90254
5:00 PM Vigil Mass
SUNDAY, APRIL 21
GARDENA
St. Anthony of Padua Church
1050 West 163rd St., CA 90247
11:00 AM Mass
I have way too many stories! Stories upon stories! St. Anthony never left me unaided, personally speaking.
My recent story was that I lost my wedding ring for over a week. I thought it was lost in a parking lot somewhere and in these difficult financial times that someone would take it and cash it in. I got that ring at 21 and am 26 years into marriage in a time when 50 percent of everyone divorces. It held no monetary value to me, just pure sentimental and it was blessed at my Church wedding. I appealed to St. Anthony and resigned to never seeing it again unless a miracle. Within a day or two, my husband found the ring on the floor to our home at the entrance (we certainly would have seen it for the over week it was missing and we were looking!) right underneath a picture bunch that I have on our entrance wall that is full of ALL our family wedding pictures, way back to my great-great-grandparents. They are all in black and white and none have ever been divorced thus far. In the middle is a frame that has in calligraphy "Families are Forever." RIGHT under this "shrine to marriage" you can call it, was my wedding
band. Thank you, St. Anthony! :)
Thank you K.P. for sharing your heartning St. Anthony story with us. Have a St. Anthony story of your own to share? Email it to us and we will share it on the blog~
My wife was sitting on the sofa when her engagement ring got caught in the sofa cover. The diamond had gotten lost from the ring leaving only the protruding fingers. We had no idea how long the diamond had been missing. Needless to say, she was very upset and wanted me to find it.
I knew that it was not possible. We didn't know when it was lost or where, but to console her I got a flashlight and suggested she pray to St. Anthony, while I searched for something impossible to find. She finally said she remembered bumping her hand against a door frame and maybe that's when it happened. So I searched around all the doors and wanted to give up many times, but when I got to the garage door where we have a freezer, I shined the flashlight behind the freezer where there was a lot of dust and dead leaves and a slight sparkle of the diamond.
I was the doubting Thomas but St. Anthony came through anyway.
Thank you E.K. for sharing your amazing St. Anthony story with us~
I have always had a terrible sense of direction and over the years I have always prayed to St. Anthony to help me find my way when I get lost. You see as a young girl I equated lost to meaning not only items, but me losing my way as well.
Here are a couple of my favorite times that St. Anthony assisted me when I was lost while traveling. These times took place before the electronic navigation devices existed. On one journey I was taking my daughter and some of her friends to an away football game that was 2 hours from our home. The directions were on paper and given to us by her teacher. I thought I followed them perfectly, but we could not find the high school where the football game was to be played. It was getting close to the time of the game to start and we had ridden around for a few minutes when I told the girls to join me in our prayer to St. Anthony. We all prayed and at the end of the prayer I saw a shoe store and I decided to run in and see if anyone has heard of this school where the football game was to be played. A woman in the store said she was actually going to the game and we could follow her. We ended up following her for at least a half hour. I must have really been lost and I would have never found this school. What was the chance of finding someone going to the game at that very moment? We ended up at the game in plenty of time.
The second one was some years prior to this time. My daughter and I flew half way across the country to attend a friend’s ordination. My husband was away in the military and could not attend so we decided my young 7 year old daughter and I would go alone. When we got there I had quite a hard time trying to find my way around with maps and written directions. On the morning of the ordination I really got lost and my daughter and I stopped and prayed to St. Anthony again. I told her we can run into this small store and see if anyone knew where the Cathedral was located. Sure enough there was a man there and he too was attending the ordination. He offered to have us follow him. We did and made the ordination in plenty of time.
There are countless other times that good St. Anthony has come to my assistance, but there is so another amazing thing that happened to me in 2000 when I went on a family trip to visit Italy for the first time. My mother had given each of us this special trip as a present a year after my father passed away. I was a little sad when I saw the itinerary and knew that we would not visit Padua to see the place that St. Anthony had been laid to rest. Imagine my surprise when along our tour we were told there was an adjustment to our itinerary and sure enough we were in fact going to Padua. I was able to visit St. Anthony’s resting place after all. I considered this another answer to one of my St. Anthony petitions. I had prayed and asked if he could assist me in visiting his home while I was in Italy.
Thank you for allowing me to tell you of my great love of St. Anthony and how he really does come to the assistance of anyone who calls upon him to help them.
Thank you J.S. for sharing your inspiring lost and found stories with us. Have a story of your own to share? Email it to us and we will post it on the blog~
I lost my very small medal of St Anthony when I was 24 years old in my front garden, near the footpath, whilst gardening. It was a particularly small, elaborately worked gold medal and on a very fine chain and sent to me from Italy as a special gift, as I am Christened Antonietta after San Antonio. I was devastated and looked for hours and even weeks afterwards for this unique medal. Every time I did gardening or walked to the front garden, I hoped and indeed, I searched for weeks. I had saved the chain as it broke but the medal flew off to unknown destinations. I prayed to St. Anthony and in the end, I gave up and prayed that St. Anthony would bless the finder. About 6 years later, whilst gardening out the front (again), I saw something glisten and shine, right in my eye, on the footpath outside my home. I investigated and found a very small, delicate, gold medal of St. Anthony lying on the footpath next to a little solid gold, 3 dimensional heart. It was not my medal but equally beautiful and valuable. I could not find the owner and investigated the lost and found papers for a couple of weeks before I decided that somehow, someway, St. Anthony got back to me with even more than I had asked for.
Imagine, in front of my house, a different medal plus a lovely little heart, in broad daylight. What are the odds? I love St Anthony for many things and for his wonderful example of a well spent life. I am 80 years old in two months and I still remember that glistening gift on my footpath as though it were yesterday.
Thank you to A.D for emailing us this amazing St. Anthony story. Have your own testimony to share about St. Anthony and answered prayer? Email us to have it posted on our blog~
