Why St. Anthony Holds the Child Jesus?
By Fr. Jack Wintz, O.F.M. The child Jesus is a good symbol of what we are celebrating this yearthe 2,000th anniversary of the Incarnation and birth of Jesus. Its the perfect year to explore why the image is so closely associated with St. Anthony of Padua. Next to Mary of Nazareth, the saint most often seen in artwork holding the child Jesus in his arms is St. Anthony of Padua. If there is anything Ive learned from visiting churches and Catholic missions throughout the world, it is that the image of Anthony and the child Jesus is a favorite around the globe. It can be found wherever Catholic missionaries have carried the Good News, even in the most remote regions of the world. Since I grew up in a Franciscan parish (in southern Indiana) and was then educated in the Franciscan seminary system, I was very familiar with that image. How could I avoid it? And yet for most of my life, I seldom asked others or myself: Why is St. Anthony presented that way? For a good part of my life, I did not
