Many workers, but few owners: Anthony, Mary, and the Lord’s harvesters

The harvest is great, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.
Lk 10:2

The Memory of Saint Anthony of Padua, celebrated on June 13th, the day of his death in 1231 and officially recognized within a year, honors one of the most beloved figures in Church history. Fernando Martins de Bulhões, born in Lisbon around 1195 to a noble family, was first a canon regular Augustinian in Coimbra, and then a Franciscan friar, moved by the martyrdom of the first Franciscan martyrs in Morocco in 1220. His extraordinary theological talent, unusual for an Order initially skeptical of scholarship, led Francis of Assisi to authorize his theological teaching with the famous letter: “To my brother Anthony, the bishop: I am pleased that you teach sacred theology.”

The Gospel for this feast comes from the dispatch of the seventy-two disciples (Lk 10:1-9): a broader mission organized by Jesus beyond the twelve. The urgency of the harvest, “the harvest is great, but the laborers are few”, justifies the radical style of mission proposed: without purse, bag, or sandals, relying only on God’s providence and the hospitality of homes. Anthony lived this style. Mary, in the Visitation, inaugurated it.

I. Anthony of Padua: The Evangelical Doctor

The title Doctor Evangelicus, “Evangelical Doctor,” given to Saint Anthony is not merely honorific; it describes his specific charism. Anthony was the theologian at the service of evangelization, not evangelization at the service of academic career. His Sermons, which have reached us in critical editions and are studied by theologians and historians of medieval theology, combine impressive erudition (patristic, incipient scholastic, allegorical exegesis) with unprecedented popular communicability. He preached in squares and marketplaces with the same theological depth as others reserved for university chairs.

His devotion to Mary was central to his life and preaching. The Sermons of Anthony contain rich Marian reflections, at a time before scholastic systematization of Mariology. He preached Mary as “Ark of the New Covenant,” as “Star of the Sea,” as “Gate of Heaven,” images preserved in the liturgy and Marian tradition to this day. The most famous iconography of Anthony, with the Child Jesus on his lap, arose from a hagiographic episode but expresses the center of his spirituality: Christ mediated by Mary, the Son whom the mother shows to the world.

## I. The Charism of Anthony as the “Saint of Lost Objects”The charisma of Anthony, known as the “Saint of Lost Objects,” one of the most universal popular devotions in Catholicism, has a theological root that transcends physical objects. In his sermons and pastoral work, Anthony sought and found the “lost sheep” of the Gospel: the sinners who were discarded by religious society of his time, those who were estranged from the Church community, and those living on the margins of the moral and social system. His preaching was renowned for converting even the most hardened individuals. His reputation as a “searcher of the lost” translates, in popular language, a deeply evangelical charisma.## II. The Harvest and the Urgency of MissionThe image of ripe harvest in Luke 10,2 evokes an agricultural urgency that Jesus transfers to mission: the wheat is ready to be harvested immediately or it will be lost. There are people ready to receive the Gospel now, who need laborers now. Jesus’ prayer, “Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send laborers” (Luke 10:2), acknowledges human insufficiency (we do not choose the missionaries; it is the Lord) and calls for availability (those who pray for mission become candidates to be sent).The “Lord of the Harvest” (Kyrios tou therismou) is an image with roots in the Old Testament: Yahweh is the owner of the land and its fruits. In the eschatology of the New Testament, the “harvest of the end times” (Matthew 13:30, 39) is the final judgment where the Lord gathers his chosen people. The sending discourse in Luke 10 fits into this theology: mission is participation in God’s escatological action that gathers His people. Anthony, who preached with eschatological urgency, understood this dimension: the conversion of sinners is not only a work of present mercy but preparation for the final harvest.Anthony’s missionary style, preaching in villages, markets, and public squares throughout northern Italy and southern France, perfectly aligns with Luke 10: mission “on the move,” going where people are, rather than waiting for them to come to the temple. Pope Francis, in his *Evangelii Gaudium* (2013), described the “Church on the Move” using images that Anthony foreshadowed eight centuries earlier: reaching out to existential peripheries, preaching at the “crossroads” of culture, not reserving the Gospel for those already familiar with it.## III. Mary, the First Laborer of the HarvestThe Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth is the archetype of every “sending” mentioned in Luke 10:1. Mary is sent, not explicitly by an angel but driven by love received, to the Judean mountains to serve and, unbeknownst to her, evangelize. She is the first of the “seventy-two”: she goes “with haste” (meta spoudes), without bag or program, relying only on hospitality from her cousin. Her mission is discreet and domestic, yet its effects are extraordinary: John the Baptist’s prenatal sanctification, Mary’s Magnificat, Elizabeth’s recognition of the Theotokos.The logic of the Marian mission, the grace received that overflows into free service to others, is the fundamental law both Luke 10 describes and Anthony lived. Mary did not have an evangelization plan. She had the Son of God in her womb and love in her heart, and this was enough to transform everything she touched. This logic of overflowing grace, the grace that cannot fit within us and overflows to others, is the fundamental law of authentic Christian mission, prior to any pastoral plan or communication strategy.Anthony’s Marian devotion expressed itself concretely in his attention to the poor and marginalized, whom he identified with Mary’s preferred ones (according to the Magnificat: “He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty-handed”). The “harvest” that Jesus speaks of is reaped primarily among the poor and small. Neither Anthony nor Mary directed themselves preferentially to the powerful. The mission both lived, free and to the poor for love, is the criterion Luke 10 proposes for all authentic evangelization.IV. The Saint of the Lost: A Theology of MercyThe popular devotion to Saint Anthony as the “Saint of Lost Objects,” one of the oldest and most universal in Catholic tradition, expresses, in immediate language, a deep theological trust: God, like the father in the parable of the two sons (Luke 15:11-32), never gives up on what is lost. The prayer to Anthony for the “lost” in faith, vices, or relationships is the expression of this confidence: that there is always a “worker” God has sent to find what was lost.This theology of mercy has its ultimate root in Mariology. Mary is, before Anthony, the “searcher of those who are lost” in Catholic tradition. The Salve Regina, probably from the 11th century, invokes Mary as our “advocate,” who intercedes for us who are in danger. And the final supplication, “Show us Jesus, the blessed fruit of thy womb,” is precisely the request to be “found” by the merciful gaze of the Son through the mediation of the Mother. Anthony prolongs, in time and space, this Marian mission of searching for the lost and presenting them to Jesus.Saint Anthony’s feast day is a celebration of grace that seeks before being sought, a mercy that does not wait for the lost to return but goes to find them where they are. This proactive mercy, the “great harvest” the Lord wants to accomplish and for which He sends His workers, has in Mary and Anthony its two most eloquent icons in Western Christian tradition. And Jesus’ commandment remains current: “Pray to the Lord of the harvest that he send laborers into his harvest,” and that we ourselves become the laborers He sends.