Why Catholics pray to St. Anthony for lost keys: a kitchen friar, a surprise sermon, and the preacher who became a Doctor of the Church.

Looking for the story behind the St. Anthony prayer for lost things? In this episode of Everyday Saints, we trace the church history behind one of the most beloved lives of the saints: St. Anthony of Padua, born Fernando in Lisbon around 1195, an Augustinian canon in Coimbra who joined the Franciscans after five friars were martyred in Morocco. He got sick on the way there, was blown off course to Sicily, and ended up in a hermitage near Forlì, where the friars knew him for scrubbing pots and pans, until a stalled ordination in 1222 forced someone to preach.

Then we follow him across Northern Italy and southern France: the legend of preaching to the fish at Rimini and what the earliest sources actually say, Pope Gregory IX calling him the Ark of the Testament, the Lent of 1231 when his preaching helped push Padua to end debtors' prison, and his death on June 13, 1231, followed by one of the fastest canonizations in church history. We also cover his 1946 title as Doctor of the Church, the tongue relic at the Basilica of Saint Anthony in Padua, and what scientists found when his tomb was opened in 1981.

Finally, the part you came for: the psalter story behind praying to St. Anthony for lost keys, the hymn by Julian of Speyer, the rhyme "Tony, Tony, look around, something's lost and must be found," and what a saint who was lost three times can say to the rest of us. Plus a Back on the Porch reflection and a closing prayer. We sort out what comes from early sources, what showed up centuries later, and where the sources disagree.

Anthony is the patron saint of lost things, travelers, the poor, and Portugal, and his feast day is June 13. New to the show? The Franciscans come from St. Francis of Assisi (episode 3), and the rule the canons followed comes from St. Augustine (episode 5). Next week: a saint born into a banking fortune who spent nearly all of it on schools.

Everyday Saints tells the true stories of Catholic saints, separating verified church history from centuries of pious legend — one ordinary saint at a time.

New saint episodes every Thursday. Questions or ideas for a future special? Email EverydaySaintsShow@gmail.com or find us on X @EvryDaySaint. More at EverydaySaintsPodcast.com