Born at Lisbon in Portugal, St. Anthony became first a canon regular, then a Franciscan, and preached the Gospel everywhere in Portugal and Italy. Both as a theologian and as a popular preacher he fought vigorously against heresy. His preaching was inspired by the love of God and of souls and had an extraordinary power of conviction; it was filled with the penetrating power of the Bible, so that Gregory IX, who heard him preach, called him during his lifetime the “Arca Testamenti,” meaning, “the living repository of the Holy Scriptures.” Pius XII, when he proclaimed him a Doctor of the Church, declared that he based all that he said on the texts of the Gospels, and could justly be called the Evangelical Doctor. He lived for a time in France, but chiefly in Italy, and died at Padua in 1231 aged 35, with the reputation of great sanctity. From the day of his death innumerable miracles caused the faithful to invoke him as a wonderworker of untiring benevolence.