Denver Newsroom, Oct 7, 2022 / 14:00 pm
Several parishes in Kansas City, Missouri, are set to host traveling relics of St. Anthony of Padua this weekend — and one of the parishes will get the privilege of keeping one of the relics of the famed Franciscan.
St. Anthony Parish in the Scarritt Renaissance neighborhood of Kansas City is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. Father Andres Moreno, the church’s pastor, told CNA that several months ago he asked the Basilica of St. Anthony in Padua, Italy, if their parish community could keep one of St. Anthony’s relics in honor of their anniversary, and the basilica agreed.
Father Mario Conte, OFM Conv., who is bringing the relics from Padua to Kansas City, told CNA that this is his first trip abroad with St. Anthony’s relics post-COVID. Conte is one of the 50 friars who minister in the Basilica of St. Anthony in Padua and the editor of the English edition of The Messenger of St. Anthony magazine. Before COVID, Conte traveled all over the world with St. Anthony’s relics in order to deepen devotion to the saint.
St. Anthony, who is known by many Catholics as the patron saint of lost things, was a 13th-century Franciscan and an associate of St. Francis of Assisi. He is today honored as a doctor of the Church.