Exulta Lusitania felix

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Exult, happy Lusitania, jump for joy, happy Padua, because you fathered a man for earth and heaven, who can well be compared to a shining star, since shining, not only for the sanctity of his life and glorious fame of his miracles, but also for the splendor that his heavenly doctrine spreads everywhere, illuminated, and still continues to illuminate, the entire world with a most dazzling light.

Born in Lisbon, the main city of Lusitania, of Christian parents and illustrious by their lineage, many and undoubted signs made it understood, almost from the dawn of his life, that Almighty God had sown in his heart abundant seeds of innocence and wisdom. He was a teenager when he wore the humble habit of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine, among whom for eleven years he strove, with the greatest diligence, to enrich his soul with religious virtues and fill his spirit with the treasures of heavenly doctrines. Later elevated to priestly dignity by divine grace, he yearned for a more perfect way of life, when the five fellow Franciscan Protomartyrs stained with their blood, in the holy missions of Morocco, the red dawns of the Seraphic Order. Antonio, full of joy for the glorious triumph of the Christian faith, was inflamed with intense desire for martyrdom and embarked full of joy towards Morocco, happily reaching the distant African beaches.

Shortly after, affected by a serious illness, he was forced to re-embark back to his homeland. The very strong storm, which made the sea rage and shook the ship from one side to the other with the force of the wind and the unleashed waves, finally launched it, by the will of God, to the shores of Italy. There he was a stranger to everyone and he himself knew no one, so he thought of directing his steps to the city of Assisi, where many friars and masters of his Order were then going to meet. Arrived there, he had the joy of meeting Father Saint Francis, whose sweet presence filled his soul with such gentleness that it inflamed it with the most ardent breath of the seraphic spirit.

As the fame of Antonio's celestial wisdom spread everywhere and the Seraphic Patriarch knew of it, he wanted to entrust him with the task of teaching the friars, with those very soft words that he wrote to him: "Fray Francisco to Fray Antonio, my bishop: greetings . I am pleased that you teach sacred theology to the friars, provided that, in their study, you do not extinguish the spirit of prayer and devotion, as contained in the Rule». Antonio faithfully fulfilled the office of his teaching, being constituted as the first Reader of the Order. He taught in the city of Bologna, which was then the main seat of studies; then he taught in Toulouse and, finally, in Montpellier, both cities famous for their studies. Antonio taught the friars and reaped abundant fruits without undermining the spirit of prayer, as the Seraphic Patriarch had entrusted him, rather the Saint of Padua instructed his students not only with the teaching of the word but also with the example of his life most holy, cultivating and defending the candid lily of purity.

God often showed him how much he was esteemed by the spotless Lamb, Jesus Christ. Many times, when Antonio was in his silent cell dedicated to prayer, gently raising his eyes and his heart to heaven, Jesus himself would suddenly appear to him, as a small child, wrapped in a radiant light, and throwing himself on the neck of the The young Franciscan embraced him and showered the Saint with tender childish caresses, who, ecstatic and turned from a man into an angel, "grazed among the lilies" (Cant 2,16) in the company of the angels and the Lamb.

The contemporary authors of the Saint unanimously ponder, and with them the most recent, the abundant light that Saint Anthony spread everywhere, both through teaching and through the preaching of the word of God, and they praise his wisdom with great praise and extol the virtue of his eloquence. Whoever carefully reads the "Sermons" will find Antonio a very expert exegete in the Holy Scriptures and an eminent theologian when analyzing dogmatic truths, a distinguished doctor and teacher in the way of treating ascetic and mystical doctrines. All these things can be of no small help, especially to the preachers of the Gospel, if they consider them as a treasure of the divine art of eloquence, since they form a kind of abundant reserve from which especially the sacred orators can draw, without exhausting it, vigorous arguments to defend the truth, refute errors, refute heresies and return to the right path the hearts of men astray.

As Antonio used, frequently, the texts and sentences taken from the Gospel, with all justice and right he deserves to be called "Evangelical Doctor". Indeed, not a few Doctors, Theologians and Preachers of the word of God drank from his writings, as from a perennial source of living water, and still drink widely today, precisely because they consider Antonio a teacher and have him as a Doctor of the Holy Mother. Church. The Roman Pontiffs themselves are the first to have come forward in pronouncing such a judgment and by their own example. Indeed, Sixtus IV in his Apostolic Letter Immensa, of March 12, 1472, writes: «The Blessed Antonio de Padua, as a star in the sky, spread the brilliance of his most splendid light, since he is the one who illustrated, adorned and he consolidated our Orthodox faith and the Catholic Church with the extensive prerogatives of his merits and virtues, with his profound wisdom and doctrine of divine things, and his most fervent preaching». Likewise, Sixtus V, in his Apostolic Letter sealed with his lead seal on January 14, 1586, wrote: «The blessed Antonio de Lisboa was a man of exemplary holiness..., and also imbued with divine wisdom» .

And our immediate Predecessor, Pope Pius XI, of happy memory, in his Apostolic Epistle Antoniana sollemnia published on March 1, 1931 on the occasion of the seventh centenary of the happy death of blessed Antonio, addressed to the Hon. Father Elias dalla Costa, then Bishop of Padua and now Cardinal Archbishop of Florence, celebrated the divine wisdom with which this great Franciscan apostle was so abundantly adorned and with which he dedicated himself to restoring the holiness and integrity of the Gospel. From said Epistle of our Predecessor we reproduce these invaluable words: «The miracle worker of Padua filled with light with his Christian wisdom and impregnated with the soft perfume of his virtues the turbulent society of his time, completely infected by his debased customs... Above all In Italy the vigor of his apostolic tasks became famous, because here he carried out such overwhelming fatigue.

But also in many provinces of France, because Antonio without making any distinction of nation or lineage covered everyone with his active dedication, the Portuguese, his countrymen, the Africans, Italians, French, whoever he perceived were in need of the truth. Catholic. As for the heretics, Albigensians, Cathars and Patarenes, who swarmed almost everywhere and then tried to extinguish the light of true faith in the hearts of faithful believers, he combated them with such effort and success that he deserved to be called "hammer of the heretics."

We cannot omit here, due to the magnitude of its weight and its importance, the grandiose praise that Pope Gregory IX paid to the Saint of Padua after hearing Antony preach and verifying his admirable vital behavior, calling him "Ark of the Testament" and "Arch of the of the Holy Scriptures". It is equally worth remembering that on the same day, May 30, 1232, on which the Paduan thaumaturge was inscribed in the catalog of Saints, almost eleven months after his happy death, at the end of the solemn pontifical rite of his Canonization , Pope Gregory himself intoned with his own voice the antiphon proper to the Doctors of the Church: «O Doctor optimal, Ecclesiae Sanctae lumen, beate Antoni, divinae legis amator, deprecare pro nobis Filium Dei!» ("Oh, excellent Doctor, light of the Holy Church, blessed Antonio, lover of divine law, pray for us to the Son of God!"). From this it turned out that from the earliest times the proper cult of the liturgy of the Holy Doctors of the Church began to be paid to Blessed Antonio, including, in his honor, the Mass of the Doctors in the Missal "according to the custom of the Curia Roman". This Mass, even after the correction of the Calendar ordered by Pope Pius V in 1570, has never ceased to be celebrated to this day within the different Franciscan Families and among both clergy of the Dioceses of Padua, Portugal and Brazil.

As a consequence of all that we have listed, shortly after having proclaimed the honors of Antonio among the saints of heaven, they began to paint and sculpt images and propose them to the veneration of the piety of the Christian faithful in which the great apostle appears figured Franciscan with an open book in one of his hands, or nearby, a symbol of his wisdom and doctrine, and in the other a flame, a symbol of the ardor of his faith. Therefore, it is not surprising that many, and not only of the Seraphic Order, which already in its General Chapters many times expressed their desires, but also many illustrious people of all classes and conditions have not hesitated to express these lively desires, that it be confirmed and extended to the universal Church, the cult of Doctor secularly tributed to the Holy Thaumaturge of Padua.

Such wishes, intensified to the highest degree on the occasion of the seventh centenary of the death and canonization of Blessed Anthony, the Order of Friars Minor reiterated with petitions and ardent supplications, first to our Predecessor, of happy memory, Pius XI, and then to Ourselves, so that we could officially place Antonio in the number of the Holy Doctors of the Church. As, in addition, such wishes had been endorsed and increased by the requests and supplications of the Cardinal Fathers of the Holy Roman Church and of many Archbishops, Bishops and Prelates of the Religious Orders and Congregations and of many other illustrious people, both from the clergy and of the faithful people and of the Universities, Institutes and Associations, We deem it opportune to entrust to the Sacred Roman Congregation of Rites the examination of a matter of such importance, to know its vote.

This Sacred Congregation, obeying our mandate with the diligence that characterizes it, chose a group of suitable people to carefully examine the case. Once their votes and opinions had been requested from the Commission, obtained separately, and subsequently made known by the press, the only thing left to do was ask the members who preside over the Sacred Congregation if they judged that Saint Anthony of Padua could be declared as Doctor of the Universal Church, once the three requirements that Pope Benedict XIV, our Predecessor of happy memory, usually require have been met: distinguished sanctity of life, eminent heavenly doctrine, and the declaration of the Supreme Pontiff. In the Ordinary session held in the Vatican on June 12, 1945, the Eminent Cardinals, in charge of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, gave their consent once the due account of the cause had been made by our beloved son Rafael Carlos, Cardinal Priest of the Holy Roman Church, Secretary of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation and rapporteur of this cause, also hearing the opinion of our beloved son Salvador Natucci, General Promoter of the Faith.

With things being this way, We, willingly seconding the wishes and requests of the Franciscan Order and of the other applicants mentioned above, in accordance with these Letters, with our certain knowledge and mature deliberation and full apostolic power, constitute and declare Saint Antonio de Padua, Confessor, Doctor of the Universal Church, without any obstacle in the Constitutions and Apostolic Ordinances and other other documents that could be adduced against him. We establish and promulgate these provisions, decreeing that these Letters always remain firm, valid and effective, that they reach and produce their full and entire effects and thus must be legitimately judged and defined; and that from now on everything that could in any way attempt, knowingly or through ignorance, on the part of anyone or any authority, against such provisions, be invalidated and null.

Given in Rome, in San Pedro, under the ring of the Fisherman, on January 16, the feast of the Franciscan Protomartyrs, in the year 1946, the seventh of our Pontificate.