If there is any commonly known saint in this world, it is definitely St. Anthony.  Y’know, he’s the saint you cry out to when you’ve misplaced something and you need it right now.  “Tony, Tony, please come ’round, something’s been lost that must be found!” is one of the (many) catchy invocations of his patronage.  He is the patron saint for the recovery of lost items (I’m telling you, if you need a cause, the Catholic Church has a saint for that!), but he also holds the title “Hammer of Heretics” and “Professor of Miracles.”  If anyone ever tries to tell you Franciscans are boring or hippy-dippy, just point ’em at the Evangelical Doctor!

He also “holds the record” of second-fastest canonized saint, being canonized around 11 months after his death.  (The fastest-canonized saint, unsurprisingly, goes to one of my more favorite saints, the Dominican St. Peter of Verona, also known as St. Peter Martyr, aka the saint with a hatchet in his head – who also wrote out Credo in Unum Deum in his own blood after having been attacked by assassins.)

Reading the prayer for Divine Protection on this card, it looks like we can definitely pray this for our country, especially as we head into Super Tuesday tomorrow…

St. Anthony, pray for us!