48 Anthony of Padua, Saint
Anthony of Padua, Saint(1195–1231)Franciscan
friar, theologian, and preacher
Anthony of Padua was born Fernando de Bouillon in LIS-
BON,PORTUGAL, on August 15, 1195, to a wealthy and
socially prominent family. His father, Martin de Bouillon,
claimed to be a descendant of GODFREYde Bouillon, a
commander of the First CRUSADE. Martin worked as a
revenue officer and was a knight of the court of King
Alfonso II (ca. 1183–1223). His mother, Theresa Tavejra,
was said to be a descendant of a king of ASTURIAS.
Anthony was educated at the Cathedral School of
Saint Mary near his home. His teachers suggested that he
become a knight but, somewhat contrary to conventual
parental ideas and desires, Anthony’s father objected. He
argued that his son was not strong enough to become a
knight, that he was better suited for intellectual pursuits.
However, Anthony was to help with the family’s estate
and stay a noble layman. To his father’s great dismay,
Anthony decided to join the AUGUSTINIAN CANONSat the
age of 15. He entered Saint Vincent’s Convent of LISBON
in 1210. During his first two years there, he was visited
often by family and friends, who encouraged him to
rethink his vocation. Distracted, Anthony sought to be
transferred to Holy Cross Monastery in Coimbra, then
the capital of Portugal.
Anthony spent eight years studying theology in
Coimbra and was ordained a priest around 1219 or 1220.
Prompted by the example of the martyrdom of friars in
Islamic MOROCCO, he switched his allegiance to join the
new Order of Friars Minor, the FRANCISCANS. Failing to
reach Morocco to be martyred, he was shipwrecked in
SICILY. He first stayed with the Franciscans of Messina but
soon moved near Forlì in central Italy.
Anthony lived a life of solitude until his gift for
preaching was discovered when he by chance replaced a
preacher. SAINTFRANCISquickly appointed him the first
theology teacher of the new order and sent him to travel
throughout ITA LY preaching. Called the “Hammer of
Heretics,” he traveled extensively in Italy and FRANCE,
lecturing to people directly about their sins without
regard to their social standing and prestige. He set the
model for Franciscan preaching. Shaping moreover the
development of Franciscan theology, Anthony in 1223
founded what became the school for theology at the Uni-
versity of BOLOGNA. He died in Arcella at a Franciscan
monastery near Padua on June 13, 1231, at the age of 35.
He was canonized by Pope GREGORYIX on May 30, 1232.
Further reading:Anthony of Padua, Sermons for the
Easter Cycle,trans. and ed. George Marcil (St. Bonaven-
ture, N.Y.: The Franciscan Institute, 1994); John Moor-
man, A History of the Franciscan Order from Its Origins to
the Year 1517(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968).
Antichrist Using biblical predictions the Antichrist is
prophecized as the leader of the forces of evil arranged
against the forces of Christ during the tribulations at the
end of time. Medieval exegesis continued the tradition
of early Christianity about this eschatological figure.
Biblical texts can be read to show that he will appear
some time soon and before the Second Coming of
Christ. He will deceive the church and Christians about
his mission and good faith. According to the APOCA-
LYPSEand the book of Daniel, he will set himself against
GODand be worshiped in God’s place. He will persecute
Christians but will eventually be destroyed by Christ or
his agent. His symbol is the beast with seven heads ris-
ing from the sea.NONBIBLICAL SOURCES
There are nonbiblical sources for this tradition,
including unaccepted biblical books, the APOCRYPHA; the
sibylline oracles of the classical tradition that also
predict Christ; and the seventh-century Description of
the Last Timesby Pseudo-Methodius. More conservative
readings followed AUGUSTINE and JEROMEand placed
his coming immediately before the Second Coming of
Christ and the LAST JUDGMENT.ISIDORE of Seville
and the Venerable BEDEposited a sixth age, the age of
the church, at whose end he would appear. Adso of
Montier-en-Der (930–992) drew these stories together
in a biography, The Book of the Antichrist,in the 10th
century. The ideas of this work were augmented
throughout the rest of the Middle Ages and beyond. In
it the Antichrist appears as a tyrant and as a false Christ
figure, actually parodying Christ. One orthodox reading
of the biblical tradition in the 12th century insisted on
the imminence of the end with the expected violence of
the Antichrist.
JOACHIMof Fiore, however, posited several comings
of the Antichrist. His “great Antichrist,” was to appear at
the beginning of a spiritual era. His popular conception
was employed in numerous political and religious
polemics on political figures from the 13th to the 15th
century, especially about Emperor FREDERICKII in the
early 13th century and Pope BONIFACEVIII in the early
14th century. Their enemies tried to identify them as the
Antichrist. The Antichrist appeared at the same time in
many types of literature and in many iconographical
compositions within artistic works. The extreme popular-
ity of the Antichrist rested mainly on the expected actual
event, the vivid and dramatic opportunities the tradition
offered to authors and artists, and the ease of interpreting
as signs contemporary tragic events such as the Black
Death and the spread of warfare.
Further reading:Marc Boilloux and Claude Carozzi,
“Antichrist,” EMA, 1.73–74; Richard K. Emmerson,
Antichrist in the Middle Ages: A Study of Medieval Apoca-
lypticism in Art and Literature (Seattle: University of
Washington Press, 1981); Bernard McGinn, Anti-Christ:
Two Thousand Years of the Human Fascination with Evil
(New York: HarperCollins, 1994).