St Antoninus

Antoninus wanted to become a priest even as a young boy. When he was 15 years old he asked his parish priest if he could join the Dominican Order. Since he was so young and not very healthy, the priest told him that he had to learn the Canon law of the Church first. The Canon law of the Church is very complicated and hundreds of pages long, but Antoninus was determined to become a priest. One year later Antoninus returned to his parish priest with the Canon Law memorized. Amazed by Antoninus’ desire to be a priest, he allowed him to join at 16 years old. Fr. Antoninus was such a good priest and he was given many important jobs to do: he became Bishop of the Dominicans, he had the gift of healing people, he was a teacher of the faith and was also made the Archbishop of Florence, Italy. He was also called “The father of the Poor” because he always helped those in need. He would give whatever he had, even his clothes, shoes, furniture and his only mule. He gave his mule away many times to poor people and rich people kept buying it back for him, so he would keep giving it away to whoever needed it.