As I arrived at Padua, I felt reliesed because one of the reasons of my trip to Italy was to visit Padua, the home of St. Anthony. St. Anthony was the name that I invoked every day when I worked for St. Anthony church in Parma, Cleveland from 2007 to 2009. Before going to St. Anthony parish, I was unfamiliar with one of the most beloved saints in Italy and the world.
Padua used to be a wealthy city competing against Rome. Located between Florence and Venecia, Padua has developed its unique characteristics. The main plaza is as vast as a corn field and the buildings are antique as well as elegant. Walking in downtown is enjoyable to see the combination of the past and the present—young people shopping, tourists visiting historic places, and vendors selling jeweries. The university of Padua is well known and Galileo taught science there. The masterpiece of Giotto, the famous painter before Renaissance, blossomed in the chapel of Scrovegni in Padua. Only twenty five visitors are allowed to enter the chapel and see the frescoes for fifteen minutes at a time. When I slipped into Giotto’s creation, I found myself surrounded by the lives of the Blessed Virgin and Jesus Christ. The expressions of each figures are so distinctive that Giotto himself seemed to read the scriptural stories for the visitors. Scrovegni’s father was a notorious usurer and his son dedicated the chapel to the Holy Virgin for the soul of his father. In accordance with the medival tradition, Scrovegni was depicted in the fresco of the Last Judgment on the wall over the entrance dedicating the chapel. Giotto’s realism affected many painters in the Renaissance, including Michaelangelo.
Most people come to Padua to visit St. Anthony’s tomb and to see his relics of tongue and jaw in the basilica built a year after the death of the great Franciscan in 1232 (500,000 visitors a year!). However, few know about the tombs of St. Luke the Envalgelist and St. Mattiah the Apostle in the basilica of St. Justina. I stayed in the Benedicine monastery of St. Justina where I felt being at home with the simple and hospitable Benedictines. On the feast of St. John the Apostle, I concelebrated with the Benedictines in the crypt where St. Justina was buried. For the Christmas Octive, the monks enjoyed good meals with fine wine and whisky. The table conversation was pleasant and the night prayer before the historical icon that was burned and damaged in the six century was unforgettable. A Korean Benedictine who studies in Rome was visiting the monastery and gave us a guided tour. Two unknown tombs of two great saints in the basilica—St. Luke the Evangelist and St. Mattiah the Apostle are laid on the both sides of the sanctuary. According to the history, two bodies were brought to there during the crusade. Unprepared gratitude before the tombs was a gift.
St. Anthony’s tomb is as magnificant as a royal palace’s. People are in the long line to touch and pray before the saint. I thanked St. Anthony for his special fellowship to me and asked him to guide me to be a preacher on fire. The saint’s relic of tongue is perculiar as well as impressive because people remember him whose mouth was heavenly gifted. I took part in a daily mass in the basilica. I was so tried that I dosed during the homily. On the way out, one icon captured my eye—the Madonna with the infant Jesus. The smiling Madonna and Jesus were gently sending me forth to the world that I was to challenge with the Word of God, that is, St. Anthony’s passion.