Feastday: June 13th

Patron Saint of the Illiterate, the poor,the finder of lost things, and small requests. 

There is perhaps no more loved and admired saint in the Catholic Church than Saint Anthony of Padua, a Doctor of the Church. Though his work was in Italy, he was born in Portugal. He first joined the Augustinian Order and then left it and joined the Franciscan Order, when he was 26 years old. St. Anthony became a Franciscan in the hope of shedding his own blood and becoming a martyr. He died only ten years after joining the Franciscan Order. Saint Anthony was canonized (declared a saint) less than one year after his death.