St. Anthony was also a writer.

The "saint of miracles", the popular saint who finds lost things, is above all a great spiritual master, as the title "Evangelical Doctor" attributed to him by the Church indicates.

His spiritual and intellectual personality over the past centuries has been hidden by his strong charismatic personality, which is the root of the phenomenon of popular devotion known world-wide as the "phenomenon of St. Anthony".His teaching is still relevant and valid in this day and age.

What are the Sermones?

There are 53 Sunday Sermones, written in Padua, over the three year period of his service as Minister Provincial of North Italy (1227-1230). To these, a further 4 must be added for the Marian feasts, inserted after the Sermone for the XII Sunday after Pentecost. The Feast-day Sermones, were written towards the end of his life (end of 1230 and January 1231), by order of the Cardinal of Ostia, Rainaldo di Jenne (later Pope Alexander IV); however, he was only able to complete them to the feast of St. Paul (then on 30 June), for a total of 20 Sermones.

Contrary to what the title suggests, Anthony's Sermones have nothing in common with the type of sermons preached to the people, following a lively, pastoral style which spontaneously brings to mind the origins of Franciscanism. The cycle of the Sermones extends the courses which the Saint held for the friars minor, young and not so young, to teach them a meaningful way of preaching.

St. Anthony's Sermone is a learned sermon, written in medieval Latin, filled with erudition. Within it there is a clear examination of the Sacred Scripture, an incredible abundance direct scriptural references (there are over 6.200!), frequent recourse to the Doctrine of the Fathers of the Church, theologians, philosophers and pagan poets, and abundant quotations of experts in natural sciences, especially Aristotle and Solino.

In studying the writing of the Saint, several facts must be considered. Anthony carried out his apostolic activity in the third decade of the XIII century.

He was a man of his time, both in his religious and cultural education. He is tied to patristic thought, which was innovated by luminaries of his time.

In the Middle Ages preaching was based almost entirely on the Sacred Scripture. The sermon was inspired by a biblical quotation, because it was maintained that the Sacred Scripture was the source of every theological or sacred doctrine. The quotation was called "authority", because, as the word of God, it confers the virtue of truth to the teaching given.

St. Anthony also followed this method. His work, the Sermones, deals with the Sacred Scripture. In fact the Saint with his Sermones, intended to explain the whole Scripture in order to extract every ounce of sacred teaching contained in it.

Also of note is the articulation of the sermone, composed of a prologue which very solemnly introduces the main theme, the many subdivisions of the theme considered in all its aspects, and the development of these according to the various ways of interpreting the quotations of the sacred Scripture.

It is still an educational sermon: it is, in fact, intended for both teachers and listeners. The prologue of the Sermones doesn't tend to win the approval of listeners but, its aim is to teach how to give a sermon. The reasoning behind the exposition of the theme is not developed in a syllogistic manner, but rather with quotations taken from many sources: Scripture, the Fathers of the Church, natural sciences. The variety of themes and the concordances which tie them together give the sermone great breadth and variety, making it seem like a commentary.

It is, in fact, a written sermon, and not a spoken one. It gives the impression of being a new version of what the Saint said during his preaching or while instructing friars, and as always is intended for public as well as private use. Thus it isn't a simple sermon, rather it is a treaty of sacred ideas, organised in the form of a homily.

The sermone, from this point of view, is a "literary genre", used in the Saint's day.

In this literary genre the castigatio clericorum, the strict reprimanding of the clergy, can be found. The Saint frequently included this in his Sermones.
In the written sermone this castigatio was not in conflict with pardon or charity; it had a pastoral purpose both in the training of the clergy, so that they might seek refuge from vice, and in the correction of more mature priests, because the Sermones, as material for study, could be used by every category of priest, both those with humble tasks and those with great responsibility, such as, prelates.

St. Anthony himself knows the literary aspect of preaching very well, when he condemns the behaviour of the fastidious people who despite having read a lot, are incapable of true science. The Saint says: "Oh curious one, you bustle about and extend your activity in all directions, go, not to the ant, but to the bee and learn wisdom from him. The bee doesn't settle on lots of different types of flower, etc. Learn from his example not to listen to different flowery words, to various worthless books; and do not leave one flower for another like the fussy people who always skim through books, criticise sermons, weigh words, but who never arrive at true science; instead take from a book that information which is useful for you and keep it in the beehive of your memory" (Sermone for the XI Sunday after Pentecost, n. 13).

It is only right to point out other literary characteristics of the Sermones, such as the exposition of doctrine, and the Saint's manner of expressing himself, the Scriptural comments, the anecdotes, the concluding prayers, the use of direct speech, the introductory formulae, the Latin language.

The Saint isn't always systematic in setting out doctrine, rather he develops various directions as the theme suggests. The Sermone for Septuagesima Sunday is a perfect example. The theme is the six days of creation, to which the seventh day of rest is added. The Saint first expresses the articles of faith, then the virtues of the soul, and thirdly, the rewards in heaven.

Anthony's "Sermone" is still quite far from the educational style of the quaestio, which was in vogue at that time at the University of Paris.

Anthony's style, his way of expressing himself, is practical and not speculative. His style consists of images and characters, from Scripture and his own experience.

Scriptural comments: as we have seen, the structure of the sermone consists of a theme taken from Scripture, its exposition, the definition of any names that might be quoted, the delineation of the various subtopics, the explanation of the spiritual meaning, and the quotation of various Scriptural passages in concordance with the main theme. In all this, he unravels his commentary on the Scripture.

The Sermones are enlivened by frequent examples, anecdotes and tales of various genres. They serve as reminders of various customs and traditions, or to report on historical facts..

The prayers are usually found at the end of the Sermone, or of its various parts or divisions. They are supplications to the Lord, or they are dossologies, concluding prayers praising God, Christ or the Holy Trinity.

Quite often the Saint speaks directly to the readers, or better still to the listeners, since this is a text intended for use by preachers. There is a very meaningful example of this in the first Sermone of the second Sunday of Lent, in the second part of n. 5: "Look, the ladder is upright. Why, therefore, do you not climb up? Why do you continue", etc.

The Sermones were not a great success. But this was not due to the form or content of the Sermones, rather to a change in culture.

Shortly after Saint Anthony's death, the so-called "Scholastica" movement began in Europe, a movement which involved a radical change-evolution in Christian philosophical-theological thought in Europe.

Closely following this doctrinal development, and supported by a cohort of geniuses (Alberto Magno, Thomas Aquinus, St. Bonaventure, John Duns Scottus, to name just a few) there was an equally as radical re-thinking on a pastoral-liturgical level.

People began to think of theology in ways which were completely different from those adopted by Anthony and his cultural environment. In this climate, the Sermones were thought of as a fragrant rose bush in autumn: beautiful and scented, but which blossomed at the beginning of winter. Roses destined to die, one might say. Anthony was a child of the XII century, pre-scholastic philosophy, still solidly tied to the patristic tradition. His work was soon considered to be outdated. The Bible was no longer read in this way, no-one preached in this way any more. Priests had preaching handbooks which were more manageable and practical, in which the sermon was already written, you only needed to glance through it. Anthony appeared too difficult, his language, his approach, required a different type of effort, a different cultural horizon.