Media Release

Mangaluru, Jun 13: The annual feast of St Antony was celebrated with great devotion at St Anthony’s Ashram in Jeppu on Saturday June 13.

Dr Peter Paul Saldanha, bishop of Mangaluru, offered the Holy Mass on the feast and preached a homily on the life of St Anthony. “St Anthony was raised to the state of sainthood in the shortest time of 11 months after his death. Pope Gregory who canonized him said that ‘he is the arch of the New and Old Testament of the Bible’, which means that he had read and digested the Bible. He was filled with zeal to preach the Word of God. He lived and died for that cause. That is why God has honoured him by preserving his tongue from decay during the past eight centuries. Today is the feast of St Anthony. And this evening, the Holy Masses stopped due to Covid-19 pandemic will restart with the commemoration of precious body and blood of Christ. This may look co-incidence. But in God’s plan St Anthony on his feast leads the devotees to Jesus,” the bishop said in his homily.

During the 13 days of novena in preparation for the feast, special prayers were offered for overcoming Covid-19, for those who are rendering service to the sick, for those who are affected directly and indirectly by the pandemic, for those who are stranded in different places and specially those who are working abroad. Prayers were also offered for various groups of people on each of the days of novena for the farmers, the unemployed, labourers, children, parents, those working abroad, the sick etc.

The devotees were given an opportunity from 9 am to 4 pm to come and pray near St Anthony’s grotto and to light the votive candles while following the instruction given by the government.

Fr Onil D’Souza, the director of the institutes, thanked all those who contributed and cooperated to have a meaningful celebration in the midst of pandemic. Fr Thrishan D’Souza and Fr Roshan D’Souza, assistant directors, were present on the occasion.