St. Anthony of Padua honored through bread blessing

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Jun 18, 2025
Father Chien “Andrew” Nguyen blesses bread brought up by Melissa and Da Gama and Hans Michel, parishioners of St. James Cathedral. The tradition honors St. Anthony of Padua, as a symbol of alms given to the poor in thanksgiving for the blessings received from God.

ORLANDO | To honor the feast day of St. Anthony of Padua, Mari Da Gama, her daughter, Melissa, and son-in-law, Hans Michel, brought two baskets of bread to be blessed and shared with the people at St. James Cathedral, June 13.

“This is a tradition we always practiced in Miami,” explained Melissa. The family moved to Orlando one year ago, but her mother has been following the custom since her youth in Venezuela.

“We thank St. Anthony of Padua for his intercession and especially God for our daily bread,” Melissa said. “This is simply a way of remembering.” The family handed out prayer cards in the hopes of spreading love for St. Anthony.

Although several stories revolve around the legend of “St. Anthony’s Bread,” the most common is that a child drowned near the Paduan Basilica of St. Anthony in 1263. According to the Franciscan Friars website, his mother prayed, if God brought her son back to life, she promised “to the poor an amount of corn equal to the child’s weight.” The boy was revived, and she kept her promise.

Then in 1888, Louise Bouffier managed a bakery. Doing everything possible to open the bakery door one day, the locksmith informed her he would have to break it. She prayed to St. Anthony asking it open without force. If he granted her prayer, she would feed the poor of Toulon, France. When the door opened with the key on the last try, she honored her pledge. Others around town followed her example.

St. Anthony is known as the patron saint of the poor, sailors, fishermen, priests, and travelers. Born in Lisbon, Portugal 13 years after St. Francis of Assisi, in 1195, he entered the Order of St. Augustine at age 15. When the first five Franciscan martyrs died 10 years later, and their bodies were brought to the monastery where he lived, St. Anthony was inspired to become Franciscan. He too wanted to give his life for Christ. But it was not meant to be.

He became well known for his preaching, sometimes to crowds of up to 30,000 and for caring for the poor. According to the Franciscan Friars of Atonement website, a year after his death “his friend, Pope Gregory IX, moved by the many miracles attributed to him during his life and that occurred at his tomb, declared him a saint. In 1946, Pope Pius XII officially declared St. Anthony a doctor of the church.”

Staff Report, June 18, 2025