St. Anthony of Padua
St. Anthony of Padua was a powerful Franciscan preacher and teacher. He is the patron saint of lost and stolen articles, typically portrayed holding the child Jesus—or a lily—or a book—or all three—in his arms. Many people give alms of bread in thanksgiving to God for blessings received through the prayers of St. Anthony. The Church celebrates his feast on June 13.
Listed below are some activities we can do with our kids to explain and show them the significance of this feast.
Story Time: St. Anthony of Padua
Take out time to explain what the feast of St. Anthony of Padua is about. Read the story of St. Anthony from the saints book, or from this link https://catholicsaints.info/stories-of-the-saints-for…/ or a video like this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITw42f17CPU
Activity Time
We can do activities like a scavenger hunt, treasure hunt, hot or cold by hiding a toy. Basically something which involves ‘finding’ to remind us that St. Antony of Padua is the patron saint of lost things. Kids love the anticipation. You could also try painting small flower pots and planting a lily or basil plant is also fun. We tried an Outdoor Scavenger hunt around our locality. A printable of the scavenger hunt can be found in the St. Anthony worksheets
St. Anthony Craft ideas
St. Anthony of Padua was very close to nature and animals, he would even preach to the fish. You can draw some fish and colour or cut them out on coloured paper. Draw St. Anthony near the sea shore and the sea in blue. They can then paste the fish. Another option could be making some origami fish and if you need something more simpler try some magic with permanent markers and water.
Food
The symbolic colour for St. Anthony of Padua is brown. Get chocolate glazed donut, or just bake any cake/buns and let the kids pour chocolate glaze on it. Or make fish cupcakes! Decorate the topping with different colours to look like fish-eyes and mouth. We just got some chocolate glazed donuts and buns.
Do connect with us to share more meaningful ideas to celebrate the feast of St. Anthony of Padua. In order to get our children more acquainted with liturgical living do visit the feasts celebrated in the month of June like
Thanks to the contributions of Jennifer Allen.
