The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1897-08-14
what made his eloquence and his ar
guments so potential was the JUNCTION

what made his eloquence and his ar
guments so potential was the JUNCTION
with which he spoke. He fearlessly
denounced the fashionable vices ano
heresies of the epoch; and touched the
hearts of the most obstinate heretics
and hardened sinners. Pope Gregory
TX, hearing him preach at Rome in
1927, in his surprise called him fgura-
lively 1.-THE Ark of the Covenant" He
preached in France, Spain and Italy.
Once when he had begun to preach in
the fields in France, the sky suddenly
became overcast, and peals of thunder
presaging a speedy downfall of rain
broke over their heads. The people
began to disperse and run to the neigh
boring city. But the saint encouraged
them to stay, and by his prayers OBJ
tanned that the audience felt not drop
OF the dreadful shower of rain and hail
which presently deluged the fields and
roads. The saint was as powerful in
the confessional and in the private 6i-
rection of souls as in the pulpit or in
the open air preaching. Wherever his
influence was exercised, dissensions
ceased, usurers restored their unjust
gains, and sinners were melted into tears
by his words. In Lombardy he inter
posed between oppressor and oppressed
and dared the infamous tyrant Ezzelno,
who had put himself at the head OF
Ghibellines, made himself master of
Verona Padua, and several other cities
where he established a reign of terror
for forty years, despite the anathemas
of Gregory IX. Innocent w., and Alex.
onder w. Hearing that the Padauns
had revolted against his tyrannical rule
he put twelve thousand persons in that
country to death in one day. The saint
at the risk of his life bearded the lion
IN his den at Verona, where the tyrant
was surrounded by his hired assassins
ready at a sign to do his murdernus
bidding. Antony, undismayed, told him
to his face that his murders, sacrilegcs
and robberies cried to Heaven for ven
geance, and that the souls of those
whom he had slain were witnesses
against him before God. To the sur
prise of his myrmidons, he descended
from his throne pale and trembling and
putting his girdle around his neck like
a halter, cast himself at the feet of the
Franciscan Friar, begging him with
tears to intercede with God for the for
giveness of his sins. The saint raised
him up and advised him to do penance
Some time after he sent valuable
present to Antony, which he refused
saying that the only acceptable present
he could make would be to restore tc
the poor what he had unjustly taken
from them. Ezzelino appeared for
time to be changed man, but after ST.
Antony's death relapsed, was taken
prisoner by the Confederate princes Of
Lombardy in 1859, and died distracted in
close confinement. When after the
death of st. Francis in 1926, Friar Elias
of Cortona, the minister-general in
troduced laxity and innovations in the
order. st. Anthony and an English
friar named Adam opposed and con-
demned these departures from the
primitive observance and had to fly to
escape perpetual imprisonment in their
cells, which the innovating general and
the provincials who seeded with him
decreed against them. They appealed
to Pope Gregory TX, who summoned
Elias to Rome and deposed him.
Antony having obtained the pope's
permission to resign the provincialate
of Romangna, retired first to Mount AL
vernia, where st. Francis had received
the stigmata, and then to Padua. Feel
ing his health declining very fast ow
ing to an inward decay, he withdrew to
solitary place called Campietro, or
Field of Peter, taking with him two
companions. His condition becoming
worse, he wished to be carried back to
his convent at Padua; but the crowds OF
people who came to kiss the hem of his
habit were so great that he had to stop
in the suburbs, and was laid in the
room Of the director Of the nuns of Ar
celia, where, having received the viatl-
cum and devoutly recited the seven
pcnitential psalms and the hymn in
honor of the Blessed Virgin. 20,
gloriosa Domina,'' he passed away on
the 18th day of June, 1881, having lived
36 years, ten of which he had passed in
the Order of St. Francis. Innumerable
miracles testified to his sancitity, and he
was canonized in 1882 by Pope Gregory
TX, then at Spoleto.
Welded by Swift.
Dean Swift was walking on the Phoe-
nix road, Dublin, when thunderstorm