St. Anthony of Padua: His Life and Miracles
Step into the thirteenth century and walk beside one of the Church’s most beloved saints in this richly detailed, dramatically told biography of St. Anthony of Padua—the “Hammer of Heretics,” the wonder-worker, and the man Pope Leo XIII called “the saint of the whole world.”
Author Mabel Farnum—a respected Catholic biographer known for her vivid lives of missionary saints—brings thirteenth-century Portugal, Morocco, Italy, and France to life with the texture of a novel while remaining grounded in the historical record. Drawing on the existing scholarship, Farnum carefully separates documented fact from later legend, while never losing the warmth, humor, and tenderness that made Anthony so beloved in his own lifetime and for the eight centuries since.
Across thirteen chapters and an epilogue, readers will encounter:
- The cloistered novice whose early miracles foreshadowed extraordinary holiness
- The Protomartyrs of Morocco and the call to missionary sacrifice
- Anthony’s providential attendance at the Chapter of Mats
- His rise as the Church’s most powerful preacher against heresy
- The famous miracles of healing, restoration, and even the appearance of the Christ Child
- His final years in Padua, his death, and the enduring devotion that followed—including the discovery, centuries later, of his incorrupt tongue, still red and lifelike
Originally published in 1948 with the Imprimatur of Francis Cardinal Spellman, Archbishop of New York, and released the year following Pope Pius XII’s elevation of St. Anthony to Doctor of the Church, this biography captures a moment of renewed devotion to the saint—and remains a moving introduction to his life for modern readers.
Whether you have a personal devotion to St. Anthony, are researching the early Franciscan movement, or simply love a well-told story of sanctity tested by hardship and crowned with miracles, this dramatic biography offers both spiritual nourishment and a vivid window into the world of the early Friars Minor. Written in the tradition of classic Catholic hagiography—reverent, carefully researched, and never dry—it is a fitting tribute to a saint whose intercession is still sought by millions around the world for lost causes, lost objects, and lost souls alike.
A timeless companion for Lenten reading, feast-day reflection (June 13), or anyone seeking to know the man behind one of Christendom’s most universally loved patrons.
