An Overlooked Doctor of the Church

By Casey Chalk. When we think of the doctors of the Church - those great saints especially recognized for their contributions to Catholic theology or doctrine - we think of figures such as St. Augustine and his prolific theological output; St. Thomas and his foundational Summa Theologiae; or the sophisticated mysticism of St. Teresa of Avila. Most Catholics have at least some passing knowledge of them, and perhaps even one of their texts on the bookshelf. Far fewer, I'd speculate, possess something written by St. Anthony of Padua. To my shame, I didn't even realize St. Anthony was a doctor of the Church until reading Valentin Strappazzon's biography, Anthony of Padua: Franciscan, Preacher, Teacher, Saint. He's known as an intercessor for those who have lost something important, an unexpected preaching prodigy whose gifts were revealed at a meeting of Franciscans and Dominicans, and - of course - a favorite namesake for generations of Italian-Americans. But why Doctor Evangelicus, as Pope Pius XII declared almost eighty years ago? In his 1946 Apostolic Letter Exulta, Lusitania felix, Pius XII praised not only the "sanctity of his [St. Anthony's] life and the glorious fame of his miracles but also for the splendor that his heavenly doctrine spreads everywhere, he illuminated, and still continues to illuminate, the entire world with a most brilliant light." Yet unlike many other doctors of the Church, St. Anthony left us no spiritual autobiography or extended theological treatises. All we have are about 77 relatively short texts (almost 60 are sermons). As even Strappazon acknowledges, these sermons can seem "somewhat opaque" due to their structure, as well as "using a vocabulary abounding in etymologies and symbols that are no longer evocative for readers today." Thus, for example, St. Anthony would preach his sermons by systematically working through the clauses and sentences of a Biblical text, explaining each in turn. This, admittedly, is not a method that conforms to modern Biblical exegesis or homiletics. Nevertheless, St. Anthony drew from both the Western Fathers - such as St. Augustine, St. Gregory the Great, St. Isidore, and St. Bernard of Clairvaux - as well as the Cappadocian Fathers and other great spirits. "Whoever reads the sermons carefully," writes Pius XII, "will find Anthony an expert exegete of the Holy Scriptures and an outstanding theologian in his analysis of dogmatic truths, a distinguished doctor and teacher in the treatment of ascetic and mystical doctrines." Indeed, as the medieval text Assidua notes, St. Anthony's contemporary Pope Gregory IX was stupefied by the Franciscan's "ability to draw from the Scriptures original and profound meanings," labeling him "an ark, a treasure-house, of the Testament." The sermons, says Strappazon, cover "not only theology, ethics, and spirituality, but also the natural sciences, philosophy, psychology, physiology, medicine, the arts, and the animal world." For example, in one sermon St. Anthony affirms the goodness of the natural order in language that resembles that of St. Thomas in the Summa: "God, sovereign from whom comes all that is good, extends his goodness to all things that exist." In a reflection on Ecclesiastes 12:5, describing the grasshopper growing fat, St. Anthony compares the grasshopper to the poor, because both "burrow in the hedges when it is cold." A reflection on Luke 6:36 ("Be merciful as your Father is merciful") explains how the merciful is one who "suffers with," and empathizes with the other in compassion, making the "heart sad (cor miserum) when it suffers because of the misery of another." Yet my favorite example is St. Anthony's analysis of Ecclesiastes 12:1-2 and 6-7, particularly his reflection on the phrase "before the bad times come and the years about which you will say: 'I do not like them.'" The great Franciscan preacher explains: "But days will come which will not please you. You have pleased yourself but you have displeased God...