A cornucopia of St Anthonys

The subject of saints' days has come up in a post of Richard's. Recalling that there are more than just one St Anthony, I decided to look into the matter further and have found that I actually have 34 to choose from!

I'm not going to go into details here, save to say that an inordinate number of them were Japanese martyrs, put to death in the late 16th/early 17th century in a variety of ways (burning alive seems to have been a favourite), invariably in Nagasaki. A few more Asians crop up (Vietnam and Korea both figure), but otherwise it's mostly Italian clerics with a smattering of Englishmen, interestingly enough (martyrs of the Tudor period), and founders of various minor orders.

There are two particularly memorable St Anthonys: the Franciscan monk from Padua known to have preached to the fishes when the heretics would not listen to him and St Anthony the Abbot, the Egyptian who followed Matthew 19:21 to the letter - go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come and follow me. Known for his reverence towards God rather than any writings or wisdom, he nonetheless founded two monasteries on the Nile but increasingly shunned society as he grew older. The last years of his long life (he died in 356, aged 105) were spent in the desert, essentially living the life of a hermit.

On a lighter note, my grandmother would have been thrilled to know he is the patron saint of swineherds (pigs were a favourite animal of hers), even if the association - he intervened in the treatment of skin conditions, for which pork fat was commonly used - is now recognised as somewhat spurious.