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ST. ANTONY AND THE CHRIST-CHILD

Bartholome Esteban Murillo (1618-1682)

any very curious legends are told of St. Antony of Padua, who died in 1231. He was a close friend of St. Francis (see "St. Francis and his Birds," page 76). One story says that one time he was preaching about the Savior when the child Jesus came and sat on his open Bible. It is this story that Murillo painted his picture to illustrate. Again and again Murillo has shown us St. Antony with the Christ-child, but never more beautifully than here. This is one of Murillo's greatest religious pictures.

Another story is told of St. Antony. One day he was preaching the funeral sermon of a rich young man when he exclaimed:

"His heart is buried in his treasure-chest; go seek it there and you will find it."

Sure enough when the friends of the rich young man opened the treasure-chest there was the heart, and no heart was found in the young man's dead body.