Efficacious Prayer to Saint Anthony

Great Saint Anthony, I congratulate thee on all the prerogatives with which God has favored thee, beyond all His saints. By thy power death is disarmed, and by thy light error is dissipated; they whom malice strives to crush receive by thy assistance that solace so much desired; the lepers, the sick, and the lame obtain complete health by thy power; storms and tempests are appeased at thy command; the captives’ chains are broken by thy authority; through thy care things lost are found; all who invoke thee with confidence are freed from the evils under which they suffer and from the perils which threaten them; in a word, there is no difficulty over which thy power and bounty do not extend. Saint Anthony, powerful intercessor, by all these graces which heaven has given thee I supplicate thee to take paternal care of my soul, my body, of my affairs, and of my whole life, being assured that there is noth* ing in the world that can injure me, so long as I shall be under the safeguard of such a patron and protector. Present my needs and desires to the Father of mercies, to the God of every consolation, that by thy merits He may deign to strengthen me in His service, console me in afflictions, deliver me from evils, or at least give me strength to bear them for my greater sanctification. I ask these graces for myself and for those who are in the same dangers. O perfect imitator of Jesus, who hast received the special privilege of restoring lost things, I ask of you that I may find which has been lost, if such is the will of God, or at least I ask quiet of mind and peace of conscience, the deprivation of which has afflicted me more sensibly than the loss of everything in the world. To these favors add another, which is to keep me faithful in the possession of the true goods, in a word, that no hostile force can make me lose or separate me from my God, to whom be honor and thanksgiving now and forever. Amen. (Five Our Fathers and Hail Marys.)

text from Saint Anthony – The Saint of the Whole World, by Father Thomas F Ward, 1898