A miracle-working Saint Anthony and other Brazilian saints

Even non-Catholics have heard of Saint Anthony, the miracle-working saint who can help find your lost car keys. Named Fernando Martins de Bulhões at birth, Saint Anthony of Padua (1195-1231) was a Franciscan priest whose simple homilies brimmed with Gospel truth, which later earned him the title of Doctor of the Church. He was famous during his lifetime for living in Franciscan poverty, preaching the Gospel to heretics, and bringing careless Christians to conversion. He was also Portuguese, not a native Italian.

Despite that famous Saint Anthony’s link to Portugal, the Saint Anthony closest to the hearts of many Brazilians is another man: Anthony of St. Ann Galvão. This recently canonized saint, along with the other eighty-seven saints of Brazil, should be better known.

Brazil is the largest country in central and south America and the fifth most-populous country in the world. Portugal began to establish colonies in the region during the sixteenth century, which is why Portuguese is the official language of Brazil and why two-thirds of the country’s residents are Catholic.

Many of the saints and blesseds who died in Brazil were born in other countries. Thirty-nine members of the Jesuit order, now counted as martyrs, were traveling from Portugal to Brazil when they were killed by pirates in 1570. Since that time, many other European Catholics have come to Brazil. For example, Saint Paulina of the Agonizing Heart of Jesus Visintainer came from Austria in the early twentieth century with her new order of religious sisters to serve the poor. Priests such Blessed Eustáquio van Lieshout from the Netherlands have served as missionaries to Brazilian Catholics.

The man known as the Apostle of Brazil, Saint José de Anchieta (d. 1597), was one of the earliest missionaries to the country. José was born in the Canary Islands of Spain, became a Jesuit priest, and first served as a teacher. But he eventually became a great Brazilian linguist and writer. José learned the native Tupí language, wrote a book of grammar explaining it, and became fluent enough to serve as an interpreter. Taken hostage at one point, he used his five months in captivity to compose a lengthy poem in honor of the Blessed Mother, writing out the verses on the sand since he had no paper. Fortunately, he had an excellent memory and wrote down all 5,800 lines of his poem when he was released.

Although Brazil certainly has its share of martyrs who died in defense of the faith, three Brazilian women from the twentieth century are now recognized as martyrs for their defense of their chastity. Blesseds Albertina Berkenbrock and Isabel Cristina were devout young women who died while defending themselves from rapists. Blessed Lindalva Justo de Oliveira was a postulant in a religious order when a mentally unbalanced man became obsessed with her and stabbed her to death. These pious women are a continued reminder of the virtue of purity to our impure world.

Two other blesseds illustrate Brazil’s painful history with respect to slavery. Blessed Francisca de Paula de Jesus (1810-1895) was illegitimate and was born a slave. Her mother died when she was ten years old, shortly after they had been set free. Rather than moving in with a half-brother, “Aunt Francie”, as she was later known, spent her life living among and caring for the poor. Blessed Francisco de Paula Victor (1827-1905), who was also born illegitimate and a slave, knew that God was calling him to be a priest from the time he was small. The fact that he was black and a former slave led many people to mistreat him, both before and after his ordination. Both of these blesseds brought people to repentance simply by imitating our Lord, who turned the other cheek when He was ridiculed.

Some Brazilian saints were famous during their own lifetimes. Blessed Donizetti Tavares de Lima (1882-1961) was a Brazilian-born priest who was widely known for the miracles and healings that resulted from his prayers. Saint Irmã Dulce (1914-1992) was a Franciscan religious sister who spent her life caring for the poorest of the poor in her native Brazil and was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

But the other Saint Anthony, Saint Anthony Galvão (1739-1822), was the first native-born Brazilian to be declared a saint. His family members were prominent leaders in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, yet his parents were deeply religious. His father was a third order Franciscan, and at the time of his mother’s unexpected death, it was discovered that she had given away all her clothing to the poor. Anthony’s family’s great devotion to Saint Ann led him to add her name to his when he became a Franciscan friar.

Anthony had studied at a Franciscan school and was ordained a Franciscan priest at the age of twenty-two. Several years later, he met Sister Helena Maria of the Holy Spirit, a prayerful woman who was a member of the Recollects of Saint Teresa. She shared with him that she had received visions of our Lord and that He had asked her to establish a new order of female recluses who modelled their lives on that of our Lady. After carefully reviewing her messages and consulting with others, Anthony declared the visions to be valid. Together, they founded a religious order under the title of Our Lady of the Conception of Divine Providence, commonly called the Conceptionist nuns. When Sister Helena died suddenly in 1775, Anthony was left to lead the young order.

Anthony’s reputation for holiness caused a tug-of-war between the Franciscans and the Conceptionists. Who needed him more? The Minister Provincial of the Franciscans ultimately gave in and allowed Anthony to dedicate himself to the care of the nuns, although not until the local bishop, who recognized Anthony’s gifts, interceded on their behalf.

But Anthony was also a man of prayer, such deep prayer that witnesses claimed to see him levitate. Others said he seemed able to read their thoughts. Even when government opposition forced the Conceptionist monastery to close for a time, he responded with the utmost peace and trust in God.

People often asked for Anthony’s prayers, and he became famous as a healer after a woman who was about to die in childbirth miraculously recovered. He had given the woman a slip of paper on which he had written the words (in Latin) “After childbirth, thou didst remain a Virgin: O Mother of God, intercede for us.” He asked the woman to eat the piece of paper, and she and her baby survived. The nuns who currently live in the convent where Anthony’s tomb is located, which continues to be a pilgrimage site, still distribute these “paper pills”. (They apparently now use rice paper, although eating the pills is not encouraged.)

The two miracles that caused Anthony to be named a saint by the Church involved those same paper pills. In the first case, a woman with a uterine malformation that was believed to make her incapable of becoming pregnant both conceived and gave birth to a healthy baby after asking for Anthony’s intercession. In the second case, a four-year-old girl suddenly recovered from incurable hepatitis.

But the wellspring of Saint Anthony’s great trust in God was his devotion to the Blessed Mother. He publicly supported the teaching that Mary was immaculately conceived almost a century before the Church formally declared it. Just before ordination, he declared himself a slave and servant of the Blessed Virgin Mary for the rest of his life, a declaration he wrote down and signed in his own blood. He attributed all the miracles and achievements of his life to the patronage of our Lady.

December 23 is the feast day of the Brazilian Saint Anthony, just two days before the celebration of Christ’s birth. It would be fitting to beg the Lord to show us how we can follow in the footsteps of these great Brazilian saints. We can ask them to help us explain the Good News to others, care for the poor, pursue virtue, forgive our persecutors, tend the sick, and deepen our prayer. But we can also ask our Lady and the Brazilian Saint Anthony to help us recover something far more valuable than car keys: all those souls which seem lost to God on Christmas.