St. Anthony

Prayer to St. Anthony to Recover Lost Things

O blessed St. Anthony,
the grace of God has made you a powerful advocate
in all our needs and the patron
for the restoring of things lost or stolen.
I turn to you today with childlike love and deep confidence.
You have helped countless children of God
to find the things they have lost,
material things, and, more importantly,
the things of the spirit: faith, hope, and love.
I come to you with confidence;
help me in my present need.
I recommend what I have lost to your care,
in the hope that God will restore it to me,
if it is His holy Will.

Amen.

Have you ever prayed that prayer to St.Anthony or more likely THIS version?:

“Dear St. Anthony, look around, something’s lost and needs to be found.”

Who is St. Anthony>

“Noted by his contemporaries for his powerful preaching, expert knowledge of scripture, and undying love and devotion to the poor and the sick, he was one of the most quickly canonized saints in church history, being canonized less than a year after his death. He was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius XII on 16 January 1946.

Fernando Martins de Bulhões adopted the name “Anthony” after becoming a Franciscan Friar. He joined a small hermitage in Olivais, adopting the name Anthony (from the name of the chapel located there, dedicated to Anthony the Great), by which he was to be known.

The traditional practice of praying for St. Anthony's help in finding lost or stolen things is traced to an incident during his lifetime that occurred in Bologna.

According to the story, Anthony had a book of psalms that was important to him, as it contained his notes and comments for use in teaching his students.

A novice who had chosen to leave the order had taken the psalter with him.

(Prior to the invention of the printing press, any book was hand-copied, and thus, an item of high value; a Franciscan friar in particular, given his vow of poverty, would have found such an item difficult to replace.)

When Anthony realized his psalter was missing, he prayed it would be found or returned, after which the thief was moved to not only return the book to Anthony, but also return to the order. The stolen book is said to be preserved in the Franciscan friary in Bologna. (Wikipedia)

I have been praying to St. Anthony for many years and have had some pretty miraculous things happen to me with regards to the finding of lost objects.

And not just me ….my friend, Jan, jokingly said that he is the ‘patron saint’ of their household…ha ha. My friend, Mary, just had an incredible experience of very clearly hearing his voice telling her where she had lost a precious object and although she’d already looked there, sure enough it WAS there in an obscure place! It was lost ….then it was found!

Years ago, when my friend, Marie, was performing out regularly as a professional singer, she lost some of her jewelry. She called me so upset and I asked her if she had heard of St. Anthony. She said, “No.” Risking a major eye roll from her I told her of him and then asked if she would like me to pray. Upon receiving the affirmative response, I prayed to St. Anthony to help us find the jewelry. (Of course Marie said that she had looked everywhere for it.)

Well, immediately, I got an image in my mind of a boot. That’s right. A boot!

I said, “I know this might seem weird but I just got an image of a boot in my mind.” Marie laughed but said she would go look at her boots. Sure enough, at the end of her gig she had carried her things home and the jewelry had slipped down into the toe of one of her boots! FOUND!

So I have one more story for you.

When I returned from Hawaii I went to find the cards that I normally carry in my wallet that I had removed for the trip as I wouldn’t be using them in the States. I was looking for my Grant MacEwan Pool entrance card, Tim Horton’s cards, health care information papers, Canadian gift certificates and more. I knew that I would have taken them out of my wallet and probably put them on the back counter in a purse I wasn’t taking.

The fruitless search began. I looked in the purses at least 3 times (as one does), looked in my dressers, file cabinet, kitchen drawers, pockets, and every single place that they could possibly and logically be! Nowhere!

It was SO frustrating and maddening and I just couldn’t figure it out. I prayed to St. Anthony. Nothing.

Then, later the next day, I went to put on my “ThinOptics” glasses and THEY were not in my purse. What was going on?

You know what it’s like when you lose something? You can’t stop obsessing about it.

I woke up at 4 in the morning and I started to pray to St. Anthony again. I started going over all the places I had already looked but I asked him for a CLEAR image of where the cards were because I wasn’t ‘hearing’ the message.

Immediately, I saw a picture in my mind of my travel mirror case. Huh? I discarded that thought because I had taken that to Hawaii but I again clearly heard the command to get up and look!

So, I turned on the blinding light in my closet, pulled out the travel mirror case, unzipped it, lifted out the mirror….and lo and behold : all of my missing cards were inside!!!!!! I then ‘sort of’ remembered putting them there for safe keeping but I had no memory at all of bringing them to Kona!

I was SO excited that I couldn’t sleep for the rest of the night.

That morning, being a pool day, I unzipped my bag to put in my wallet and the pool card…..and THERE were the missing glasses! St. Anthony has a great sense of humour, obviously!

I must have dropped them in there when I was looking for the pool card!

It’s sort of tradition that if St. Anthony helps you locate something (or someone) that is lost that you thank him publicly.

Thanks SO much, St. Anthony. The relief I now feel is immense.