To enter religious life in the early twenty-first century, one has to pass a relatively mild battery of psychological and physical exams. To enter religious life in the early fifteenth century, St. Antoninus had to memorize the Decretals of Gratian. It took him a year to do it, but a successful examination, and the mercy of his superiors, afforded him entrance into the Order.

As a boy in Florence, Antoninus, literally “Little Anthony,” spent an hour in prayer each day in the Chapel of St. Michael, and he loved to hear the Dominicans preach at Santa Maria Novella. There was one friar in particular who fascinated him. His name was Giovanni Dominici, whom we know today as St. John Dominic. When Antoninus came of age and decided to become a Dominican, he approached John Dominic, not at Santa Maria Novella, but in Fiesole, just outside of Florence, where his future mentor was establishing a new reform priory. John wanted the strongest and brightest for his new foundation, and this explains the odd test he gave Antoninus of memorizing the Decretals. Already interested in canon law, however, Antoninus succeeded at the task and soon after received the white habit. With John Dominic, Antoninus became a key figure in the Italian Dominican reform movement of the fifteenth century. Of that first group gathered at Fiesole, seven have been either canonized or beatified. Among this number is the well known Fra Angelico.

After serving as prior in Naples, Gaeta, Siena, and Rome, Antoninus was elected vicar-provincial of the Lombard Reform Province. At the end of his term, he was then chosen as the first prior of San Marco, the new reform priory in Florence, famous today for its frescoes by Fra Angelico. Because of its discipline, the priory became a center of spiritual renewal in the city, and in those early days of the Renaissance, benefactors showered the poor but scholarly friars with books and manuscripts, so much so that San Marco also became an intellectual center in the city, specializing in the re-appropriation of the ancient classics.

After serving another term as the vicar-provincial of the reform province, Antoninus was selected by Pope Eugenius IV to serve the Church of Florence as its archbishop. At first the humble Dominican resisted, but soon the pressure from his family and the citizens of Florence, including the Medici’s, became too much, and Antoninus acquiesced. In his short biography of our saint, Bede Jarrett, OP, describes the events surrounding his consecration. Antoninus chose to receive the episcopal dignity in the priory chapel at Fiesole, where he had enjoyed many hours of prayer as a novice. He then walked barefoot to the city. Upon arriving he participated in an ancient Florentine ritual, wherein was symbolized the mystical marriage of the new archbishop to his see. This ceremony obliged the new ordinary to visit a monastery of Benedictine nuns and place a ring on the finger of one of them. Antoninus then walked to his cathedral, the Duomo, where the Te Deum was sung, and from the pulpit he preached for the first time as archbishop.

Antoninus served the See of Florence for twelve years—preaching, urging moral and social reform, caring for the poor and the sick, and being a father to his priests. Despite his numerous duties, he kept the disciplines of the Order. As we heard this morning at the Office of Readings, Antoninus spent the first hours of the each day studying and writing. One thing in particular that occupied this daily period of study was the writing of textbooks for his clergy. In the early- and mid-fifteenth century, European presbyterates were still suffering from the effects of the plague and the disruptions of the Western Schism. Antoninus sought to remedy the situation by writing manuals, especially in canon law and moral theology.

As his death approached, Antoninus’ holiness increased, as did his fame. Even the pope reverently joked about canonizing Antoninus before he died.

As we prepare to live the Dominican life in the twenty-first century, what can we learn from our saintly fifteenth-century brother? We may be overwhelmed by his holiness in comparison to our mediocrity, discouraged by his scholarship in comparison to our ignorance, or embarrassed by his love in comparison to our indifference. Can Antoninus be followed? Can we in our own lives replicate the events of his? I’m not sure that’s the purpose of our remembrance of him today. Instead, we study his gifts for the purpose of thanking God, for every so often he sends the Order a saint to remind us what it is for, and what it is capable of. These saints manifest again the great charism of St. Dominic and reveal that the ideal of the Order is one that lies very close to the heart of the Church. St. Dominic knew, as did St. Antoninus, and we are striving to learn today, that a life given over to holy obedience, in which a disciplined schedule of communal prayer and sacred study ground an active life of preaching, can bear much fruit for Christ and his Church.

And so we pray today for our brother’s intercession, that St. Antoninus will carry our intentions and our vocations before the throne of God. We ask him to assure that the grace of the Order will continue to take deep root in our minds, our hearts, and our imaginations, all for God’s glory first, then for our sanctification, and finally for the good of all God’s holy Church.

Rev. Aquinas Guilbeau, OP

Dominican House of Studies

Washington, DC

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