Thursday, May 6
Freaky Fresco
The week after Spring Break, I was on vacation in Italy and we stopped in Padua to see St. Anthony's old hangouts. St. Anthony spent some time just before his death in a castle in Camposampiero, a small town outside Padua. He lived in a small cell in a hermitage of the castle and it was there that the Child Jesus appeared to him. A church has since been built over and around what is left of the hermitage. In this church, Shrine of the Vision, I turned the corner and found this painted on one of the original walls of the hermitage.
I asked the local guide and it turns out that St. Anthony of Padua's patron was none other than St. Flutius. So great was Anthony's devotion to Flutius, that he asked Count Tiso IV, who ruled Camposampiero at the time, to commemorate this fresco in honor of the great bishop. Here, Flutius is depicted healing the left ankle of Vigius. In fact, this most famous miracle of St. Flutius mirrors one of St. Anthony. A young man, Leonardo by name, kicked his own mother out of anger. Upon hearing St. Anthony preach on Christ's words in Mark, "And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life crippled than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna." Leonardo promptly ran home and cut off his foot. Learning of this, Saint Anthony took the amputated member of the unfortunate youth and miraculously rejoined it. An amazing resemblance spanning centuries between two holy men.
Of course, my battery died as soon as I got my camera out, so my mom had to take the picture for me. That's why it has taken so long for me to get it scanned.
![[SMMMHDH]](http://www.mgilleland.com/music/smmmhdh.png){kind=small}
