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June 5, 2007
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St. Anthony and the Tree of Life by Friar Jack Wintz, O.F.M.
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Q U I C K S C A N |
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| The feast of St. Anthony (June 13) grows near, and I return in memory to Padua, where I had the good fortune of spending several days last October (2006). There I enjoyed the gracious hospitality of the Conventual Franciscan friars who run the magnificent Basilica of St. Anthony. In this grand structure sits Anthony’s tomb, which thousands of pilgrims visit and touch with their hands each week. Since I was a guest at the large Franciscan friary, which is part of the Basilica complex, I was able to visit Anthony’s tomb every day. It was an awesome experience for me.
One morning, a friar who lived there offered to drive me to the small town of Camposampiero 30 miles north of Padua. Camposampiero is where St. Anthony requested to go to take a break from his tiring schedule and to have more time dedicated to God alone. No doubt the saint also sensed that his short life was coming to a close, though he was only about 36 at the time. There a benefactor of the friars built Anthony a solitary hut—something like a small tree house—in the branches of a walnut tree. The tree was not far from the Franciscan hermitage where he would sleep at night. The saint spent a good part of the last months of his life praying in that tree hut. One day, however, when Anthony came down from the tree to have lunch with the other friars he became deathly ill. He asked his brothers to take him back to Padua in an oxcart. When the group arrived on the outskirts of Padua near the Franciscan friary in Arcella, they saw that Anthony’s condition was much worse and they decided to stop. It was here that the saint would take his last breath. As he was about to die, Anthony began staring in front of himself for a long time. The friar who was supporting him asked, “What do you see?” Anthony responded, “I see my Lord!” And the saint’s journey thus came to a glorious end. It was June 13, 1231. The symbolism of the walnut tree Today a quaint chapel stands over the place where St. Anthony’s tree house once stood. In this chapel, known as the Shrine of the Walnut Tree, there is a beautiful painting (seen above) by Bonafacio De Pitata (1536). It depicts Anthony preaching from the tree’s branches to the faithful gathered below. Visitors approach this chapel by driving or walking down a lovely road lined on each side by a long row of walnut trees.
Because of his great knowledge of Scripture, Anthony would have surely been well aware of the symbolism of his spending his last months in a hut or cell built into the branches of a giant walnut tree. And this symbolism was not lost on the artist who painted the picture of Anthony in the tree. The saint is shown in the tree halfway between earth and heaven. He has left his earthly concerns below in order to seek the face of God in holy contemplation and to share with the people his yearning to be with God in glory soon. The painter seems to be aware of what St. Anthony’s first biographer wrote in 1232 (within a year of the saint's death): “By climbing into it [Anthony] showed that he was drawing near to heaven.” St. Anthony would have also been well aware of another symbol, the tree of life in the garden of Eden in Chapter 2 of Genesis. God had wanted this tree to be the source of ongoing life to those who ate its fruit. There was a river welling up in the garden, too, bringing water to the whole garden. We rightly identify this tree and this water with God, who is the source and fountain of all life. The two images are repeated in various ways throughout the Bible. In Psalm 1:3, for example, we read of the person who “delights in the law of the Lord” and “is like a tree planted near running water that yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade.” When Anthony, whose knowledge of Scripture was profound, chose to live and pray in a tree during his last days on earth, he was very likely aware of the rich biblical meaning of his choice. Adam and Eve had spurned the tree of life in the Garden of Eden, rejecting God’s plan and eating instead the fruit of the forbidden tree. Anthony was well aware that Christ had lovingly embraced God’s will in the Garden of Gethsemane while praying under an olive tree. Thus Jesus himself became the tree of life and fountain of life, which bring about the salvation of the whole world. This he did through the wood of a cross, which can also be identified as the “tree of life” by which we are saved. And even here the tree image is linked with the image of the “stream of water”—the water and blood flowing from the side of the crucified Jesus for the healing of the world.
If you look at the sculpture (right), you will see that it suggests a similar meaning. This is one of several works of sculpture that sit close to the Shrine of the Walnut Tree in Camposampiero. St. Anthony is comforting Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Anthony is not like the disciples who fell asleep and left Jesus praying all alone. In solidarity with Christ, Anthony prays in a similar spirit of submission in anticipation of his own death. The artist suggests here that Christ is the tree of life by the cruciform shape you can see in the tree. Surely, the artist assumed that Anthony saw spiritual symbolism in the walnut tree. To find out more about the life and times of St. Anthony, check out our special offer on Anthony of Padua: Saint of the People. Friar Jack will be chaplain on a 12-day pilgrimage in southern Italy, Nov. 26-Dec. 7, 2007, with stops in Rome, Assisi, Loreto and then south to San Giovanni Rotondo (near the Adriatic Sea). There the group will visit the former home of St. Padre Pio and other shrines associated with his life. The trip also includes two days in Sorrento and a visit to Pompeii on our way back to Rome. For more information, call Pentecost Tours at 1-800-713-9800 or email them at travel@pentecosttours.com (address: P.O. Box 280, Batesville, IN 47006-0280). Request a free brochure with full itinerary and details from Pentecost Tours or from Friar Jack. (See ad at top right.) Click here for a .pdf of the itinerary/brochure.
Dear Friar Jim: Thank you for the article on meditation. I use a guided meditation in class with my sixth and seventh graders once a week. (If I can fit it into the lesson plan.) If I have to skip it, the students are sad and miss it. Meditation at this age is excellent for teaching silence in prayer. Everything is noise to adolescents, and visualizing Scripture stories and other nature scenes is a comfort to them. I do hope that this will carry over to their personal lives and that they will continue meditating on their own. Thanks for your inspiration. Margaret Dear Friar Jim: Thank you very much for the article on meditation. For many years now, the bishop and priests here at the Catholic Church in Kuwait have been emphasizing to the congregation the importance of meditation over other forms of prayer like singing. The problem was that I really didn't know how to meditate and so found that part of prayer (like during the night vigil) very boring and would usually feel very sleepy. I have been trying to find what exactly is done during meditation, and your article could not have come at a better time. As mentioned therein, I guess there were times when I was already meditating and didn't even realize it! Thank you once again for the insight, and I hope it will help many others! Juliana Dear Juliana: Isn’t it amazing how the Lord leads us to meditation even though we may not know what to call it by name. And when you think of children’s imaginations and their love for Jesus, you can see why they would find it so appealing. Thanks for your kind words. Friar Jim Send your feedback to friarjack@americancatholic.org.  |
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A Message From Friar Jack
Welcome! I hope you’ll enjoy all of the news about what’s
happening at AmericanCatholic.org, as well as my “musings.” By the way, I am
a real Franciscan friar, as is my coworker, Friar Jim. You
can find out more about us here.
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