Intimately connected with humility, its closest descendent, is obedience.

Taking a clear look at one's own misery, one's own nothingness before God, does not weaken the intellect nor atrophy the energy of one's will.

Not at all! Saint Anthony teaches that humility exercises a strong power over the passions.

The royal functionary, descending at Cafarnao, after having prostrated himself at the feet of Jesus to ask for his son to be healed, did not lose his authority over his servants who came to tell him that his son was healed.

On the contrary, his authority increased, so much so that they, too, joined in his same faith. The saint observes, "You descend, too. Where from? From the mountain to the valley, that is, from arrogance to humility . . . The servants are the five senses of the body, which must be controlled by reason. If you descend, the servants will join you and obey you.

If the heart is humble, the body's senses are obedient. Obedience is born of humility."

One of the pertinent episodes, in which these two virtues shined wonderfully, from the life of Saint Anthony comes to mind. During his stay at Montepaolo, when he realised that the few brothers there did manual labour to procure what was necessary to maintain the community, he did not want to be excused from this work, even though he was a priest. He felt unworthy of the bread he ate if he had not done his share of the work..

Anthony asked the Father Superior if he could wash the monastery's few dishes. With serenity and precision, the saint carried out the chores assigned to him at the hermitage. Not a gesture nor a word that revealed the resources of his soul, the power of his talent nor the erudition of his mind.

But on September 24, 1222, coinciding with the holy ordinations that were being conferred at Forlì, the Lord called Brother Anthony to that apostolate of preaching that perhaps had not been in the saint's plans and that the monks of Montepaolo had not suspected at all.

At the sudden loss of the official orator, Brother Graziano, provincial minister of Romagna, invited Anthony to speak to the convened. Everyone curiously awaited to see how the modest and unprepared monk would do. The obedience of the saint revealed the wisdom assimilated in years of study and meditation, illuminating and fascinating the minds of those present.

Obedience, writes the saint, lifts man above himself and renders the path to sanctity luminous, even though obedience must count "blindness" among its qualities..

Blindness is important in the behaviour of the will when commanded by a superior. But the eyes closed to one's own will, observes Anthony with singular intuition, open by divine grace to the vision of heaven, "You will never see if you are not obedient. If you are deaf to the voice that commands, you will also be blind. Therefore, obey with the affection of the heart, to be able to see with the eye of contemplation . . . God puts an eye in the heart, so that he who obeys will receive the light of contemplation.".

John Rigauld, with his own conciseness, writes about the office of superior held by Brother Anthony, "Raised to the dignity of Father Superior, Anthony was not ambitious, rather he tried to pass as a simple subject. That is why God made him a faithful caretaker of his flock, and he knew how to defend the sheep entrusted to him from the attacks of wolves and serpents."

And with an evident allusion to the Franciscan Order, which cultured people already began to enter, thanks to Saint Francis and his first, simple followers, the saint concluded, "If there are gifted people in a community, God used the simple people to attract them. He chose that which is foolish and base, weak and ignoble, in the world to attract the wise, the strong and the noble, so that no man can glorify himself, but only in he who returned to Nazareth and was subjugated by them.

In the Franciscan writings of the first period, no importance is given to social class nor to the different profession practised by the monks. In the new fraternitas of Saint Francis, social condition and nobility of birth counted for nothing. In that way, the Medieval class mentality, which wanted to base the discrimination of the various states then in existence on the will of God, was torn out at the roots. Just read what Celano writes about the living arrangements of the first monks with Saint Francis. They were radiant with joy "when someone - whoever he might be, apart from his social condition, entrusted, rich, poor, noble or not, of little value, esteemed, prudent, simple, clergy, illiterate, secular - carried by the Holy Spirit, came to wear the robes of the holy Order.".