Friar Jacob Polinski is a novice of the Conventual Franciscan Friars’ St. Bonaventure Province. He is currently completing his novitiate year at St. Francis of Assisi Novitiate in Arroyo Grande, California. His article below recreates, in the voice of St. Anthony of Padua, in his encounter with St. Francis, and his response to the news of Francis’ transitus.

My name is Brother Anthony. During my lifetime, the Holy Spirit led me from humble beginnings in Lisbon, Portugal to preaching to vast crowds in Padua, Italy. As a youth, my parents happily entrusted me to a church education. There I developed a deep love for the Holy Scriptures. I then determined that the scripture itself is where one finds the greatest knowledge.
During my studies in Coimbra, the bodies of the Franciscan friar-martyrs who had gone to Morocco to preach to the Saracens were carried through my town on their way back to Assisi. Through that experience, my own fervent desire for martyrdom was inflamed. I was so inspired by their witness that I petitioned and received permission from my religious community, the Augustinian Canons, to join the simple life of Francis and his brothers.
After this, I set off for Morocco for my own martyrdom, but the will of God had other designs for me. As I was ill, I returned to Portugal. Then I found myself being called to the Chapter of Pentecost of 1221, the gathering of brothers in our spiritual home of Assisi. It was there that I first laid eyes on our spiritual father Francis for the first time.
From that large assembly of the brothers, I was sent to the town of Forli for the ordinations of both Dominican friar preachers and our own Lesser Brothers. After some confusion as to who would preach, as the new brother in their midst, I was targeted, and so I unexpectedly found myself on the pulpit. I was told that the assembled brothers were impressed with my words.
That experience revealed to the brothers’ their need for greater theological formation. They asked me to help provide it. With their encouragement, I sought our father Francis’s permission to teach theology so that the brothers would be better prepared to proclaim the Gospel. Francis responded with a letter entrusting to me to teach the borthers, and I soon began my new mission in Bologna.
Later, due to confusion and social disturbances in southern France and northern Italy, I was called to preach throughout those areas. Not long afterwards I was elected provincial minister for the friars in that area. Padua and the surrounding area became my new home. There, however, I continued to preach a message of reconciliation and peace between warring cities. I stressed the need for justice for the poor and socially marginalized.
When I received news of our father Francis’ death, I hurried to the general chapter of Pentecost 1227. His death was a great tragedy for us. On that journey I pondered how Francis lived as a true son of God; how he sought to follow our Lord in all manner of his life.
In my grief and in my gratitude of having met Brother Francis personally, the Scriptures were my consolation. Francis had the meekness of Moses and the wisdom of correction of Elijah. As a spiritual father, he was gentle and motherly to his sons. His life ever remains an invitation to all of us “to follow in the footsteps of Our Lord Jesus Christ.”