The last few kilometers in Lazio in these days for the pilgrims of Saint Anthony who walk along the peninsula carrying a relic of the holy miracle worker in their backpack. The relay will be joined by Fra Massimiliano Patassini from Rieti, director in charge of the “Messenger of Saint Anthony” and of the “Messenger of the Boys”, who will accompany the pilgrims to Assisi. Monday 29 August the group, which will leave at 6.30 from the sanctuary of Greccio, will pass in Umbria with a stop in Terni, at the basilica of the Protomartyrs, around 14.30 (at 18.30 Holy Mass with exhibition of the relic and testimony of pilgrims). The whole of Umbria will then be crossed from south to north along the Via di San Francesco, to then enter Tuscany on Tuesday 13 September.
In Umbria the relay will touch via via Macenano (where the Antonian vigil will be held on Wednesday 30 August at 9 pm in the church of S. Maria in Ferentillo), Spoleto, Trevi, Spello, Assisi, where the group will arrive on Saturday 3 September, first in Santa Maria degli Angeli, in the morning, and then to the basilica of San Francesco in Assisi, for solemn Vespers at 7 pm. The next day, Sunday 4 September, will be entirely dedicated to the city of St. upper basilica presided over by fra Antonio Ramina, rector of the Pontifical Basilica of Sant’Antonio in Padua and exceptionally pilgrim on foot from Trevi to Assisi.
Afterwards, the relay that started in June from Sicily will be in Valfrabbrica, Eremo San Pietro di Vigneto, in Gubbio, Pietralunga, Pieve de ‘Saddi, Città di Castello, Citerna, then passing on 13 September in Tuscany, and precisely at the Franciscan hermitage. of Montecasale in the municipality of Sansepolcro (Arezzo).
The most evocative part of this stretch on Antonio’s steps of 800 years ago is certainly the part that coincides with the so-called “Path of Francis”, which from Assisi, the Umbrian town that gave birth to the Poverello, passing through Gubbio, famous for the episode of the meeting of St. Francis with the Wolf, arrives at the sanctuary of La Verna, where Francis received the Sacre Stigmata. It is a journey of the spirit immersed in nature that touches symbolic places of Franciscan devotion. Assisi is certainly also a turning point of Antonian spirituality. On 30 May 1221 the young Portuguese friar Antonio, who had been shipwrecked on the Sicilian coast a few months earlier, together with other brothers reached Assisi to participate in the great assembly of the so-called “Chapter of the mats”. There he was able to see the minister of order, friar Francesco, already very ill, and hear his words which became an interior fire for Antonio. Between the end of 1223 and the beginning of 1224, Francis sent Antonio a note, in which he authorized him to teach theology to the friars, as long as he did not neglect prayer.
In the approximately 250 kilometers that will be covered in Umbria, as usual, the relic of Saint Anthony will “walk” together with the pilgrims in a special backpack that holds it.
The Way from Capo Milazzo to Padua was promoted by the Antonio 20-22 Project, an expression of the Conventual Friars Minor of the Italian Province of St. Anthony of Padua, and was wanted and conceived – together with lay collaborators – by some of the main realities of the Antonian family: Pontifical Basilica of St. Anthony in Padua, Messenger of St. Anthony, The Way of St. Anthony, Association of St. Anthony’s Way, Franciscan Youth Center – Northern Italy, Peregrinatio Antoniana, Caritas Sant’Antonio.
