Why is Saint Anthony holding the Child
Saint Anthony of Padua is one of the few Saints in the Church who are represented with the baby Jesus in their arms.
The idea has its origin in the Liber miracolorum (c. 1367), integrated into the Chronicle of the XXIV General. This book (22, 1-8), includes a vision in which the Saint welcomed the Child Jesus in his arms.
This is the story corresponding to Italian biographers. In May of 1231, after having preached his last Lent in Padua - he died on June 13 of that year - he moved to Verona and from there to the castle of Camposampiero of Count Tisso, where a community of Franciscan religious lived. In the forest that surrounded the castle, next to a giant walnut tree, the Saint was built a small cabin, where he lived most of the day and night dedicated to meditation and prayer. This is where the vision of the baby Jesus took place. Count Tisso, who frequently visited and spied on his famous guest, witnessed how the Saint had before him, in his arms, the baby Jesus. This was the one who warned him that the Count had witnessed him. The saint forbade the Count to divulge him until he had died.
Known this story, at the end of the fifteenth century began to represent San Antonio with the child Jesus in his arms, as it appears in most of the sculptures that can be seen in the churches and museums. In Seville, he became especially popular in Murillo's painting.
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