Posted on 01/16/2010 5:01:39 PM PST by Steelfish
A popular story springs up about St. Anthony, mention of it is made in the official Butler's lives of the Saints. It is the story of St. Anthony's encounter with an Jewish man.
This man contested the "Real Presence of the Eucharist; so one day he approached St. Anthony publicly and after spelling out all of his reasons for not believing in such a "fable" as the Real Presence, he challenged Anthony to a contest. He bet that the Real Presence was a lie, and he proposed to "starve a donkey" for three days---no hay, and see if the donkey would choose to eat hay or preferred the Eucharist.
St. Anthony, being publicly "put on the spot" accepted the challenge. So the wealthy merchant brought out his donkey, publicly hitched him to a post where he could be observed by all; and proceeding to "starve the donkey" for three days. Simultaneously, St. Anthony went into the forest and "fasted" for three days---taking no food.
When the day of trial came, Anthony emerged from the forest and sought out a local Church where he took the Eucharist and returned to the spot where the donkey was tied. Meanwhile, the challenger had placed a large pile of hay about 20 ft away from the donkey. Anthony took out the Eucharist holding it in his hands; the merchant untied the donkey, who needless to say, made a "beeline" for the pile of hay.
Just as the donkey was about to reach the hay, St. Anthony elevated the Eucharist and shouted in a loud voice: "Mule, in the Name of the Lord Our God, I command you to come here and adore your Creator ! " The donkey "reared up" on his hind legs as if someone had pulled him by a bridle;.......
(Excerpt) Read more at catholic-pages.com ...
One of my favorite stories!
Sounds a whole lot more like St. Francis —
Brothers! :-)
And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. “So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.” Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.” And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. “However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”
St. Anthony had faith, fasted and prayed.
Very well put.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.