Maria Oliva Benedicta: a Reflection on the Mariology of Anthony of Padua/Lisbon

Chapter 2 Maria Oliva Benedicta: A Reflection on the Mariology of Anthony of Padua/Lisbon

Luciano Bertazzo

The opportune appearance of the critical edition of St. Anthony’s Sermones, published in 1979,1 has allowed us to delve deeper into and construct—on the foundation of a secure text—the thinking of the ‘first master’ of the Francis- can Order, as he is called in his thirteenth-century biography, commonly called Benignitas.2 A single text, the Sermones, which Anthony himself defines as his work of evangelization (opus evangeliorum), was intended for the formation of friars who were increasingly engaged in the ministry of preaching, and not just penitential preaching that Francis of Assisi called for in the Franciscan Rule. The Antonian sermons, a total of seventy-seven, are divided into two parts. The first part, the Sunday Sermons (Sermones dominicales), constitute an en- tire cycle of biblical reading (lectio) based on the readings for each Sunday of the liturgical year. This cycle was based on the system in use until the liturgical reform of Vatican ii, beginning with Septuagesima Sunday, continuing through the whole annual cycle, until the Third Sunday after the Octave of the Epiphany. The second part, the Marian and Feast Day Sermons (Sermones mariani et festivi), ended at the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June) and were never completed, since in his last stay in Padua Anthony was seized by a ‘burning desire’ for preaching, and so never finished the festivi, as he had been asked to do by Rainaldo of Jenne, Bishop of Ostia.3 It is based on these premises that the primitive Franciscan itinerant preacher, Brother Anthony, used texts belonging to different liturgical traditions, depending on where they were composed.4

1 Sancti Antonii Patavini, Sermones dominicales et festivi, ed. B. Costa, L. Frasson, I. Luisetto, with the help of P. Marangon, i–iii (Padua, 1979). There is an English translation based on the critical Latin edition: Sermons for Sundays and Festivals, trans. Paul Spilsbury, i–iv (Padua, 2007–2010). This article was translated by Nancy Celaschi, osf, with the assistance of Steven J. McMichael. 2 Vita del Dialogus e Benignitas, 13, 1–2, ed. Vergilio Gamboso (Fonti agiografiche antoniane) 3 (Padua, 1986). 3 Vita Prima o Assidua, 11, 4–6, ed. Vergilio Gamboso (Padua, 1995). 4 F. Costa, ‘Relazione dei sermoni antoniani con i libri liturgici,’ in Le fonti e la teologia dei sermoni antoniani, ed. A. Poppi, (Padova, 1982), 109–144 (= Il Santo. Rivista antoniana di

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Perhaps we should note that the word sermones does not mean homilies were written or handed down through the reportationes given by Brother An- thony. They are rather lectiones which he himself composed for the formation of the friars, in accord with the task he was assigned by Brother Francis in the letter in which the saint charged him with teaching theology to the friars.5 The aim of this task was to prepare the friars for a preaching ministry that could no longer be merely exhortational-penitential, but would have a solid theological foundation, as was asked by Canon X of the Fourth Lateran Coun- cil.6 They are texts that still reflect a system typical of the monastic tradition, soon destined to be overtaken by the ‘new’ scholastic thought.7 This explains the lack of reference made to them throughout the centuries, except in rare cases.8 The structure of Anthony’s sermons is characteristically in the form of a quadriga (chariot), the result of an interweaving of a lectio in four parts: The Old Testament passage from the Divine Office, the Introit, Epistle, and Gospel of the Mass of the Sunday or feast.9 All of these texts are brought into a type of concordance with an explanation in which Scripture is elucidated by Scripture itself through internal references. The result is, in the words of the author himself, a ‘chariot-throne …, so that in it, with Elijah, the soul may be lifted up from earthly things and borne away into the heaven of celestial conversation,’ with a surprising way of harmonizing the Scriptures, citing almost all its books.10

storia dottrina arte, 22 [1982], 109–144); F. Costa, ‘Sulla natura e la cronologia dei sermoni di s. Antonio di Padova,’ in Il Santo. Rivista francescana di storia dottrina arte 39 (1999), 29–69 (= Il Santo). 5 Francisi Assisiensis Scripta, critical edition by Carolus Paolazzi (Grottaferrata, 2010), 170–171. 6 L. Bertazzo, ‘Il servizio della parola,’ in La Regola di frate Francesco. Eredità e sfida, ed. P. Maranesi e F. Accrocca (Padua, 2012), 471–504. 7 J. Leclercq, ‘La spiritualità dei “Sermones” antoniani e la sua connessione e dipendenza dalla spiritualità monastica-canonicale,’ in Le fonti e la teologia dei sermoni antoniani, 203–216 (note 4); J. Châtillon, ‘Saint Antoine de Padoue et les Victorins,’ in Le fonti e la teologia dei sermoni antoniani, 171–202. 8 A. Rigon, ‘La fortuna dei “Sermones” nel Duecento,’ in Rigon, Dal Libro alla folla. Antonio di Padova e il francescanesimo medioevale (Rome, 2002), 69–88. It is interesting to note that excerpts from Anthony’s sermons can be found in the recently discovered codex of the Vita beati patris nostri Francisci, which dates back to the period from 1232 to 1239; see A. Postec, ‘Un nouveau témoin des Sermons d’Antoine de Padoue,’ in Il Santo 56 (2016) 231–246. 9 J.G. Bougerol, ‘La struttura del “sermo” antoniano,’ in Le fonti e la teologia dei sermoni antoniani, 93–108 (note 4). 10 ‘Quadriga fabricavimus, ut in ipsa cum Elia a terrenis anima elevetur et in caelum cae- lesti conversatione deferatur’ (Prologue, 5). On Anthony’s use of scriptures, see B. Smal- ley, ‘The Use of Scripture in St. Anthony’s “Sermones”,’ in Le fonti e la teologia dei sermoni