Saint Anthony of Padua was a Portuguese, Roman Catholic priest and part of the Franciscan order. He lived from the year 1195 to 1231 and is known as the patron saint of lost things. Our story begins with my experience several years ago.
Some time ago I lost my prescription sunglasses and was going crazy looking everywhere for them. The worst part about it was I had no idea where I lost them. My Catholic friends, who had many lost and found stories about St. Anthony, kept advising me to pray to him. They said that by doing that they usually find what they have lost. I thought that was probably a waste of time, but I had tried everything else, so why not speak with St. Anthony and see if that would help.
Now, I should say right here, that I have been taught to pray directly to God and that we don’t need an intervening saint. But in this case I thought, how could it hurt?
After asking for help, I was totally surprised with what happened. The following day after the glasses had been missing for more than four days, I walked into a room, and my prescription sunglasses were sitting in the middle of the desk all alone. There was no note or explanation … they were just there. Oh my gosh, I don’t know how this happened, but I was so glad to have them back and I gave some credit to St. Anthony, as I thanked him, just in case he had something to do with it.
My friend, whose adventures you have heard about in the past and who will remain nameless, had a very bad experience losing gloves. Actually this was the second set she lost. One set had been a gift and disappeared the day after she got them. She’s not sure how they were lost, but was quite upset because she really liked them.
Fortunately, she was able to replace them, finding the same kind on the Internet. Knowing she might lose these, she ordered two pairs in different colors and now felt relieved. But then bad luck hit again, right after they arrived. The same day as their arrival, one of the pairs disappeared, but this time she knew she had had them in her car.
There was much handwringing over all this as she searched for them and they were nowhere in the car. She literally took it apart and then decided maybe there was something wrong with her. Why did she keep losing these gloves?
She had told me about losing the first pair and said she was reticent to tell me about the second pair. What if something really was wrong with her or what if the car was just eating her gloves!
I recounted my tale about St. Anthony and how my sunglasses reappeared. At that moment I quietly asked him for help with finding her gloves, just in case he could do anything about it.
She decided to call a restaurant where she had been right before the gloves disappeared, and here’s the really wacky part, the person who answered the phone heard her story and quickly said, “We have them.” What? That guy had her gloves, oh my gosh, you should have seen the smile on her face. Even though they were weren’t open yet, he told her to come on over and get them. When was the last time you called a business and the first person you talked to knew what you were talking about and could help you?
Maybe St. Anthony had something to do with it. We don’t know how it all happened, but she got her gloves back.
Later, I’m telling these stories to my daughter-in-law, Jennifer, who is also Catholic. She then began her story about our grandson, Cole, and the loss of the extra key to his car, which had been missing for months and was going to cost a lot to replace. She needed something stored in the cabinet above the refrigerator, and was standing on a chair to reach it. On top of the refrigerator was the lost key and right next to it Cole’s St. Anthony medal! Oh my gosh, what a story!
Thanks to all divine forces that may have intervened in these situations. That should cover everybody.
(Melanie Behrens – melb@marysvillejt.com)