Fr. Colin’s St. Anthony story

Fr. Colin King holds up the St. Anthony of Padua relic on the Feast Day at the St. Anthony Shrine

Remember the Wonder Worker

I have a confession to make: last year, I was fortunate enough to travel from my assignment in Jamaica to help at the National Shrine of St. Anthony during the Feast Day.

Fr. Colin King, OFM

My flight left Jamaica late in the afternoon, and I arrived in Cincinnati in the very early hours of the morning of the Feast Day itself. Once I arrived at the shrine, I noticed that my cell phone was nowhere to be found. This cell phone literally has everything I do in my life recorded and saved on it. Needless to say, I did not sleep at all in the few hours before the start of the Feast Day Activities. I was up looking through all of my luggage and bags, trying to find this lost cell phone.

It was not until breakfast with many of my Franciscan brothers, that one of them asked if I had prayed and asked St. Anthony to help find this lost cell phone. Now, here I was, up from Jamaica to help on the Feast Day  to celebrate Mass and preach on the “Wonder Worker”.  Can you believe that I did not think to pray for his intercession to find the lost phone?

So right there, around the breakfast table and in front of all the brothers I prayed for St. Anthony to help me find this cell phone. And of course, shortly after this prayer, the taxi driver who carried us from the airport to the Shrine called the friary land line and said that he had found the cell phone in his car and that I could collect it from him later in the day.

Peace and all good!

(Fr. Colin King, OFM, is a missionary in Negril, Jamaica. Watch the video, “Missionary in Jamaica: A friar life”)

We’d love to hear your St. Anthony story too.  Use our Contact Page or Email: shrine@franciscan.org or Call Colleen Cushard at: 513-721-4700.  Share your prayers with us and our online community at our Prayer Page.  You can donate to St. Anthony Bread or any of our ministries at our Donation Page.