St. Anthony
His extraordinary doctrine was accompanied by prodigious prodigies and already in life a halo of miracle he surrounded his person. For everyone it was already Saint
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The resurrected young man
Brother Antonio was able to save his father, falsely accused. While Antonio was in Padua, in the city of Lisbon, at night a young man killed his enemy and buried him in the garden of St. Antonio's father. When the body was found, the owner of the garden was charged with murder. He tried to prove his innocence, but could not. The son, St. Antonio, went to Lisbon and presented himself to the court declaring the innocence of the father, but they would not believe him.
The saint then brought to court the man's body and, between the fear of all, called him back to life and asked him: "was my father to kill you?". The resurrected, sitting on the bed, replied: "No, it was not your father," and fell on his back, returning a corpse. Then the judge, convinced of the innocence of the man, let him go.
The reattached foot.
While he confessed, Antonio got a guy, who, in a moment of anger had kicked his mother. Antonio said that an action so severe would have warranted the amputation of his foot, but seeing him sincerely repentant, he absolved him of his sins. When he got home, the boy took an ax and cut his foot with a loud cry. The mother went up and saw the scene and went to Antonio accusing him of what happened. Anthony then went to the boy's house and reattached his foot to his leg without any visible scar.
The repentant sinner.
One day a great sinner decided to change his life and fix all the evils committed. He knelt at his feet to confess, however, because his emotions, could not open his mouth, tears of repentance streaming down his face. Then the holy monk advised him to retire and write on a sheet his sins. The man obeyed and returned with a long list. Brother Antonio read them aloud, then handed back the sheet to the penitent who was on his knees. The wonder of the repentant sinner was immense, when he saw the sheet perfectly clean! The sins were gone from the soul of the sinner as well as from the paper.
The miser's heart.
While Brother Antonio preached in Florence, a very rich man, who had refused to listen to the exhortations of the Saint, died. The relatives of the deceased who wanted the funeral to be grand invited Fray Antonio to deliver the eulogy. Great was their outrage when they heard the holy friar comment on the words of the Gospel: "Where your treasure is, there is your heart" (Mt 6:21), meaning that the dead man had been a miser and a usurer. To respond to the wrath of the family and friends he said, "Go and and look in the jewelry chest and you will find the heart." And they went, and, to their great astonishment, they found it still beating among money and jewelry. They also called a surgeon to open the chest of the dead man. He came, did as he was told and found no heart. Faced with such a prodigy, several greedy usurers were converted and tried to repair the harm done. Seek not after riches that make man a slave and put him in danger of being lost, but the virtue, only thing acceptable to God. For this reason, the people, enthusiastically, praised God and his Saint. And the dead man was not laid in the tomb prepared for him, but dragged like a donkey on an embankment and buried there.
The infant who speaks.
In Ferrara there was a knight extremely jealous of his wife, who possessed an innate grace and sweetness. Pregnant, unjustly accused of adultery, once the baby was born, being of a dark complexion, her husband was convinced even more that she had betrayed him. At the baptism of the child, while the procession went to church with his father, relatives and friends, Antonio passed by and, knowing of the allegations of the knight, he named the baby Jesus asking him who his father was. The child,recently born, pointed to the knight, and then, with a clear voice, said, "this is my father", The wonder was immense, and especially that of the knight who withdrew all charges against the wife and lived with her happily.
The poisoned food.
The great number of listeners who flocked to the sermons of brother Antonio and the conversions that he obtained, more and more filled with hate the heretics of Rimini, who decided to poison him. One day they pretended to want to discuss with him some points of the catechism and invited him to lunch. Our friar, who did not want to miss the opportunity to do good, accepted the invitation. At some point he was served some poisoned food. Brother Antonio, inspired by God, saw it, and rebuked them, saying: "Why have you done this?". "To see - they answered - if true are the words that Jesus said to the Apostles:" You will drink the poison and it will not hurt you". Friar Antonio gathered in prayer, he drew the Holy Cross on the food and then ate peacefully, without suffering any damage. Confused and repented of their evil deed, the heretics asked for forgiveness, promising to convert.
