St. Anthony's Bread for the Poor

A  pious young woman of Toulon, Louise Bouffier, came to her little store one morning in March, 1809.  On her arrival she found, after repeated efforts, that the door of her shop

could not be opened.  The safety lock seemed broken and she called a locksmith.  He tried all his keys and then gave up in despair, saying that nothing remained to do but force

the door.   The pious young woman immediately thought of Saint Anthony and prayed fervently to him, promising that if her door should be opened without breaking the lock,

she would distribute a certain number of loaves to the poor in his honor.  She then begged the locksmith to make another attempt.  He tried a key at random, and the door

immediately flew open.

"From that day," as she herself tells us, "all my friends pray with me to the good saint, and all our troubles are commended to him with a promise of bread for his poor.  We are

astonished at the graces thus received.  One of my most intimate friends promised a certain amount of bread every day of her life, if a member of her family would be cured

of a fault that had caused her great grief for twenty-three years, and the prayer has been granted.  In thanksgiving, she bought a little statue of Saint Anthony and we have put

it up in a corner where we require a big lamp to see it, and now my bake shop is filled all day with people in fervent prayer, some asking for cures in sickness, others for success

in their undertakings, others for employment, others again for the conversion of some dying friend or relative, and all these petitions are accompanied by promises of alms for

the poor if they be granted."

This is the origin of St. Anthony's Bread for the Poor.  To illustrate the rapid growth of this devotion:  in the year 1894, only four years after its beginning, more than one hundred

thousand francs were received at this little shrine of Saint Anthony alone for favors granted.  The alms offered as St. Anthony's Bread are very commonly used for the education

of poor students for the priesthood.