Miraculous statue of St.Antony
St. Antony is certainly one of the most popular saints of the Church. All over the world, St. Antony attracts devotees from Catholics and from all other faiths as well.
There is an interesting story behind the miraculous statue of St. Antony, venerated at St. Mary’s Co-Cathedral. It is believed that in 1929, a group of Goan sailors were caught in a storm that endangered their life. In such great distress, they pledged to present a statue of St. Antony to the nearest church from their point of landing if they were rescued. They were miraculously saved and true to their promise, they commissioned some artists in Goa to make the statue.
“Why is this statue of St. Antony wearing a beard? Ask people who have seen other statues or pictures of St. Antony clean shaven.
Presumably because artists who made the statue had no models for inspiration and since they had seen all the Franciscan Missionaries wore beards, they assumed St. Antony too to be bearded. The statue was presented to the Parish Priest of St. Mary’s Church. The Parish priest handed it over to the Catechist of Park Town parish finding no place in the church. The Catechist placed the statue on a side altar and forgot about it.
Later on, the statue was shifted to the chapel of St. Patrick’s cemetery where people began to notice the presence of the statue and began to offer prayers to St. Antony. The number of devotees began to increase day by day as the number of miracles spread. Yet, the church authorities were blind over the devotion until there was a fight between the cemetery watchman and the catechist of Park Town Parish over the collection of offering money. It was brought to the notice of His Grace Archbishop Louis Mathias, who ordered the assistant Parish Priest of St. Mary’s Church, Rev. Fr. Schupp, to remove the statue from the cemetery and bring it to the parish house. The ardent devotees of St. Antony’s statue at St. Patrick’s cemetery Chapel, came in search for their favourite saint to Very Rev. Fr. Mora, SDB, the Vicar General to whom the request to reinstate the statue was made. Their request was granted and the statue was brought back to St. Mary’s Church.
The veneration for this particular statue, “The bearded St. Antony” spread like wildfire and the people of all faiths flocked with prayers and petitions especially on Tuesdays, a day dedicated to the saint. The devotion continues to grow to this day. Countless number of his faithful devotees bear witness to the miracles and wonders their beloved saint works in response to their prayers.
Apart from devotion to St. Antony, the devotion to Our Lady of Perpetual Help also flourished side by side at St, Mary’s Co-Cathedral. The Co-Cathedral regularly conducts Novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help, twice a week on Wednesdays in English and on Saturdays in Tamil. Both novenas are well-attended by all faithful. St. Antony clean shaven.