Feast of St Anthony

As Italian-Americans, we naturally have a statue of St Anthony in our front yard, but my Irish Grandma Helen, had a devotion to the good saint as well.

She could frequently be found beneath his statue in St. Joseph's Church asking for the good saint's intercession in finding a good Catholic husband for her daughter Eleanor. Below that very statue of St. Anthony, on his lunch hour from the Doubleday Publishers accross Franklin Avenue, came Ralph Crafa, who was studying for his Bachelor's Degree while working. He too was praying for a devout Catholic spouse.

Soon the couple, my parents, were introduced, and married. I owe my very existence to the prayers of St. Anthony. Grazie, or is it obrigado? St. Anthony was Portugese, you know!

So, when, in my late twenties, I was anxious about finding a husband, and approached my confessor, a missionary to Panama, Fr. John Kennedy, he recited the following prayer in Spanish:

"San Antonio, San Antonio, busca me un novio, San Benito, San Benito, que sea bonito. "translation: "St. Anthony, St. Anthony, find me a husband, St. Benedict, St. Benedict, make him handsome. " That prayer, coupled with the incomperable results of the St. Anthony novena of Franciscan University of Steubenville's switchboard operator, I offer you the results here: my handsome husband, Francisco.

Now, many of you pray for St. Anthony's intercession for finding lost objects. I must say, St. Anthony has found me 90% of the items I have begged him to help me find, usually in a state of panic. Couldn't they make car keys that beep when you call them?

Could you join me in prayer for my engagement and wedding rings, as well as that lost letter (now a relic) from Mother Teresa?