St. Anthony of Padua is known around the Catholic world as a miracle-worker. Some even invoke him under the name, “St. Anthony, Performer of Miracles.”
One of the reasons for this appellation is because thousands of people have asked his intercession over the centuries and have received a miraculous response to their prayers.
Read more:
Prayer to St. Anthony to find an item that was lost
However, it is important to remember that God is the author of the miracle, while St. Anthony is simply an intercessor. God’s response may not always be what we expected or wanted, but he always grants us exactly what we need, and sometimes in a miraculous way.
Here is a popular prayer to St. Anthony that is called by many the “Miracle Prayer.”
Dear St. Anthony, your prayers obtained miracles during your lifetime. You still seem to move at ease in the realm of minor and major miracles. St. Anthony, Performer of Miracles, please obtain for me the blessings God holds in reserve who serve Him. Pray that I may be worthy of the promises my Lord Jesus attaches to confident prayer.
Popular tradition holds that St. Anthony taught a prayer to a poor woman who sought help against the temptations of the devil. The Franciscan Pope Sixtus V had the prayer — also called “the motto of St. Anthony” — engraved into the base of the obelisk erected in St. Peter’s Square in Rome.
In the original Latin, the prayer says
Ecce Crucem Domini! Fugite partes adversae! Vicit Leo de tribu Juda, Radix David! Alleluia!
Behold, the Cross of the Lord! Begone, all evil powers! The Lion of the tribe of Judah, The Root of David, has conquered! Alleluia, Alleluia!
This short prayer has the flavor of a small exorcism. We can use it too — both in Latin and in English — to be able to overcome all the temptations we face. Make sure to visit the slideshow below to discover some short exorcism prayers that can be repeated throughout the day to overcome temptation.
And today we celebrate...