San Antonio de Padua, an aristocrat by birth, was a Franciscan priest
and an advocate for the poor and downtrodden. According to legend,
the host of a house where Saint Anthony was lodging saw a radiant
light pouring from under the door of the saint's room. Peering
through the keyhole, he discovered that the source of light was Christ
as a Child seated in the saint's arms.
The motif illustrated is one of the most commonly used in retablo art
to portray Saint Anthony. The saint appears as a pleasant young man,
holding the Child, a lily, and occasionally a book. The blue robe
shown in these retablos is not unusual in paintings of Franciscans at
this time. Spanish Franciscans commonly adopted blue robes for their
singular devotion to the immaculateness of the Virgin, and not until
after the papal decree in 1897 did brown become the universal color
for Franciscan habits.
A scholar having no living rival as a biblical expert, he was adopted
by the illiterate to become the finder of lost trifles and the saint
of trivial appeals. He is also sought to find husbands for unmarried
girls and by married women for fertility.