Writing the Sermons

HOW DID Saint Anthony come to write the great Commentary on the Sunday Gospels which we know more familiarly as his ‘Sermons’? To answer that, we must look at his whole life beforehand, and especially at his education. Anthony was born in Lisbon around 1190, a generation after that city’s liberation from Moorish (Islamic) rule. His grandfather could easily have been one of the crusader-knights who took part in the campaign, and was rewarded with land in and around the city. Living near the newly-built Cathedral, the young Fernando (his Baptismal name) began his schooling under the auspices of the Cathedral clergy, and we may conclude from his later achievements that he was a studious boy, eager to learn. No wonder that in his late teens he joined the Augustinian canons of St. Vincent’s Abbey, on the further side of the Cathedral from his home, and just outside the city.

The earliest sources say that the young canon was troubled by too-frequent visits from family and friends, and asked to be transferred to the mother-house, the Abbey of Holy Cross at Coimbra. This was still the royal capital, and soon to be the seat of a university. The Abbey was home to several noted scholars, and this too may have been an attraction to a young man who wanted to increase his knowledge of theology. During his years at Holy Cross he would have learned to study in a systematic way, because his Paris-trained teachers would have followed the methods of the great Hugh of St Victor, an Augustinian who had written much on educational theory, and especially on techniques of memory-training. That Fernando benefited from this is shown by his later reputation for having memorised the whole Bible, and much more besides. As an itinerant friar, without constant access to libraries, this ability would serve him well.

A Church council

As well as the Scriptures themselves, it is clear that he studied the great Doctors Augustine and Gregory, whom he quotes frequently, as well as a more modern guide, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, whose Cistercian monks had been invited by the Portuguese king to farm the lands regained from the Moors. In 1215, while Fernando was a student, Pope Innocent III summoned the Fourth Lateran Council to meet the challenges of the day – the advance of Islam and of heresy, and various moral abuses among clergy and laity. The Bishop of Coimbra took some of the Holy Cross canons as his ‘experts’, and it is easy to imagine the interest their students took in their reports when they returned. I well remember the atmosphere at the time of the Second Vatican Council, with its promise of ‘aggiornamento’.

Among the new movements favoured by the Pope was that recently founded by Francis of Assisi. The first Franciscans came to Portugal at this time, and were granted the use of a small church outside Coimbra. They came to Holy Cross to seek alms, and Fernando was responsible for dealing with their requests. He was greatly impressed by their simple way of life, and when a group of friars suffered martyrdom in Morocco in 1220, and their bodies were brought back to Coimbra for a State Funeral in the Abbey, this was the final impetus for him to ask permission to join the new Order. He took the name of Anthony, patron of the friars’ church.

Preaching & teaching

Providence did not allow Anthony to fulfil his ambition of being a missionary in Morocco. Instead he came to Italy, and for a time enjoyed living the obscure life of a simple friar. However, his learning and his gift for preaching, the fruit of his Augustinian training, could not be long concealed. By 1222 his abilities had come to the notice of the Minister General, Brother Elias (St. Francis had retired from the day-to-day direction of the Order). He was given a mission to preach the Gospel to the people.

Preaching was one of the crying needs of the time, and of great concern to the Church. Although Francis was reluctant to encourage his friars to study, in case it led them to arrogance, he was under great pressure from the Church authorities to allow this. Cardinal Ugolino, nephew of Pope Innocent, and later Pope Gregory IX, had great influence on him. We do not know entirely how it came about, or who took the initiative, but Francis wrote to Anthony, permitting him “to read theology to the brothers, as long as it does not hinder the spirit of prayer, according to the Rule.” This is a reference to the Rule of 1223, promulgated by Pope Honorius III. We may safely say, then, that Francis’s commission was given in that year. But how was Anthony to fulfil it?

Later writers suggest that he gave courses of University lectures in Bologna, Montpelier, Toulouse and elsewhere, but this is an anachronism. In any case, the time available is not enough for such formal activities. While he assuredly did speak to gatherings of friars, in Chapter and at other times, he will have realised very soon that he could only reach the friars, now so widely scattered, by writing them a text-book. This could be copied and distributed to Franciscan communities and preachers wherever they were. The ‘Sunday Sermons’ is the main fruit of his work over the next five years.

Work of the Gospels

How should we picture Anthony at work? In reference to his follow-up work, for the festivals of Saints, we are told that he spent the winter of 1230/31 composing it. It remained unfinished when he died in June 1231. This gives us an important clue. Anthony was a notable preacher, and travelled widely, but the main opportunity for both outdoor preaching and travel was during the spring, summer and autumn. The hours of daylight were longer, the roads were drier. I think that it was during the winter months, over several years, that Anthony gave himself to the work of writing. He may well have stayed at monasteries and abbeys where he could find libraries and other resources. Changes in style suggest that the ‘Sunday Work’ or ‘Work of the Gospels’ (his own names for it) was not composed at a single stretch, but in several sections, separated perhaps by months of other activity. We can also assume that Anthony had the help of at least one secretary, and maybe more, taking dictation. This would be in line with the custom of the period.

I think it most probable that Anthony began the first part of the work while he was regional superior (Custos) at Limoges, in central France. Saint Francis died in October 1226, and Anthony would have then returned to Italy for the Chapter of 1227, at which he was made a Minister Provincial. During this period he completed the work, at Padua, before resigning his ministry in 1230. He returned to Padua, probably as Guardian, to begin his second work, never finished.

The ‘Sermons’

How are the ‘Sermons’ constructed? Remember their purpose. The work was written for friars who, while lacking theological training, were not unintelligent. In the conditions then prevailing, they were supposed to confine their preaching to moral exhortation – vice and virtue, punishment and glory, as the Rule puts it. They were not to deal with theological speculation. For that reason, Anthony’s teaching is very much directed to topics of conversion and moral renewal. He was concerned about the abuses of the time, such as extortionate money-lending, and clergy litigation over money and property. Like our own society, that of the Middle Ages was plagued by problems of debt and litigiousness.

Anthony knew that his readers would not usually have access to books other than those they used for Mass and Office. He turned this into an advantage, building his Commentaries on the Mass and Office readings. He shows the friars how to make the most of what they had. The main work is set out according to the Sundays of the year, beginning with Septuagesima, when the Bible Readings started with the Book of Genesis. Each Sunday is based principally upon the Gospel of the day, usually subdivided into three or four ‘clauses’ (sometimes fewer, sometimes more). In each ‘clause’ he explains the Gospel by means of illustrations drawn from the Office readings or elsewhere. These vary enormously, from the stories of the Patriarchs or the Prophets, to parables and proverbs in the Wisdom books. At the end of each clause he relates the corresponding part of the Epistle to the Gospel.

Regularly, throughout the work, Anthony also illustrates his points from the ‘Book of Nature’. Francis loved all God’s creatures, but Anthony shows himself to have been a keen natural historian, well-read in the literature available to him. He knows about the habits of birds and beasts and insects, relying on ancient scientific writers such as Aristotle. Some of his information seems to be ‘travellers’ tales’, but is no less entertaining for that.

Using the Sermons

In a kind of ‘index’, Anthony suggests how sections of his work might be used by preachers on different occasions, or for different kinds of audience. Here is a sermon for Christmas, there for Passiontide – irrespective of the Sunday they are found in. Here is material suitable for preaching to a monastic audience, here for bishops and prelates, there for ordinary lay-people. It is in this sense that his Commentary can be called “sermons”. He does not present model sermons, to be copied slavishly. He suggests ways of approach, which preachers should apply in their own way.

Modern readers may find Anthony’s approach disconcerting at first, especially if they are expecting to find his own ‘sermons’ in the usual sense. Alas! No tape-recorder existed in his day, and what we have is not even the verbatim report of what he spoke. That is lost to us, apart from the accounts of his effect upon the crowds. But persevere! What his book does (I believe) is to encourage us to soak ourselves in the Scriptures, to meditate upon the images they present to us: and to find Jesus Christ in his Gospel.