St. Anthony Zaccaria

Feast Day: July 5

“If you want to live in perfect charity, you must root out every desire for your own advantage.” – St. Anthony Zaccaria

Anthony Zaccaria was trained to heal bodies.

He became a doctor.

But as he treated the sick, he became convinced that people needed another kind of healing too.

They needed Christ.

So Anthony changed direction.

He became a priest.

He preached repentance.

He encouraged frequent Communion.

He promoted devotion to Christ crucified and the Holy Eucharist.

And he gathered men and women who wanted to help renew Christian life in northern Italy.

Anthony lived at a time when many Catholics had grown spiritually careless.

He did not respond by abandoning the Church.

He worked to renew her from within.

He founded the religious community that became known as the Barnabites and helped develop the devotion of the Forty Hours, extended prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.

Anthony died when he was only thirty-six.

His life was short.

But he spent it calling Christians back to the center:

Jesus Christ.

St. Anthony Zaccaria, pray for us.

Who Was St. Anthony Zaccaria?

St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria was born in Cremona, Italy, in 1502.

His father died when Anthony was very young, and his mother raised him in the Catholic faith.

Anthony received an excellent education.

He studied philosophy and then medicine at the University of Padua.

He eventually became a physician.

A Doctor Who Saw a Deeper Need

Anthony could have built a successful medical career.

Instead, his contact with ordinary people made him increasingly concerned about their spiritual lives.

He saw poverty.

Illness.

Moral weakness.

Religious indifference.

Anthony began gathering people for religious instruction and prayer.

Eventually, he came to believe God was calling him to the priesthood.

Becoming a Priest

Anthony studied theology and was ordained a priest in 1528.

According to later tradition, extraordinary signs were reported during his first Mass.

Whether every detail of those accounts can be historically established, the Eucharist certainly became central to Anthony’s ministry.

He wanted Catholics not merely to identify themselves as Christian but actually to live close to Christ.

A Church in Need of Renewal

Anthony lived during the early years of the Protestant Reformation.

The Catholic Church also faced serious problems within her own members.

Clergy needed reform.

Laypeople often received the sacraments infrequently.

Religious practice could become routine.

Anthony believed the answer was deeper conversion.

He wanted priests and laypeople alike to become serious about holiness.

The Barnabites

In Milan, Anthony helped establish the Clerics Regular of St. Paul.

They later became commonly known as the Barnabites because their principal church was dedicated to St. Barnabas.

The community looked especially to St. Paul as a model.

Its members preached.

Taught.

Heard confessions.

Conducted missions.

And worked for the reform of Christian life.

Why St. Paul?

Anthony had a deep devotion to St. Paul.

Paul’s writings emphasize conversion, the Cross, grace, new life in Christ, and missionary zeal.

Anthony wanted the same fire in the Christians of his own time.

Christianity could not remain lukewarm.

The love of Christ had to change a person.

The Angelic Sisters of St. Paul

Anthony also helped establish a women’s religious community known as the Angelic Sisters of St. Paul.

Their work formed part of the same larger movement of Catholic renewal.

Anthony understood that reform was not simply the work of priests.

Women and laypeople also had important roles in strengthening Christian life.

Married Laypeople and Reform

Anthony worked with married Catholics as well.

He helped encourage groups of laypeople who wanted to live a deeper spiritual life while remaining in their ordinary vocations.

This reflected one of his central convictions:

holiness is not only for monks and priests.

Every Christian is called to conversion.

Devotion to the Eucharist

Anthony strongly promoted devotion to the Blessed Sacrament.

He encouraged Catholics to receive Holy Communion more frequently than was common in his time, provided they were properly disposed.

He wanted the Eucharist to become the center of Christian life rather than something approached only rarely.

For Anthony, renewal began close to the altar.

The Forty Hours Devotion

Anthony is closely associated with the spread of the Forty Hours Devotion.

During this devotion, the Blessed Sacrament is exposed for an extended period of prayer and adoration.

The forty hours recall the traditional period between Christ’s death and Resurrection.

Anthony helped promote this devotion in Milan as a way to draw people back to prayer, repentance, and love for Christ in the Eucharist.

The Crucified Christ

Anthony also emphasized meditation on the Cross.

He wanted Christians to remember what sin cost and how deeply Christ loved them.

The Cross was not decoration.

It was the center of the Christian life.

Looking at Christ crucified should move the believer toward repentance, gratitude, and love.

The Three O’Clock Bell

Anthony promoted the practice of ringing church bells on Friday afternoons, traditionally around three o’clock, to remind Christians of the hour of Christ’s death.

People were encouraged to pause and remember the Passion.

It was a simple idea:

interrupt ordinary life and remember the Cross.

Fighting Lukewarmness

One of Anthony’s greatest concerns was what he called spiritual lukewarmness.

A lukewarm Christian believes enough to remain comfortable but not enough to change.

Anthony wanted more.

Prayer should change us.

Communion should change us.

Confession should change us.

The Cross should change us.

For him, Christianity demanded movement toward holiness.

Opposition

Anthony’s reforming work sometimes attracted suspicion and criticism.

New religious movements could easily be viewed with concern, especially during a period of theological conflict.

His communities faced investigations.

They were eventually cleared of accusations and continued their work.

Anthony remained obedient to legitimate Church authority throughout these difficulties.

A Short Life

Anthony worked intensely.

His health eventually failed.

In 1539, while on a mission, he became seriously ill.

He returned to his mother’s home in Cremona.

There, St. Anthony Zaccaria died on July 5, 1539.

He was only thirty-six years old.

Canonization

Anthony’s communities continued after his death.

The Barnabites became involved in preaching, education, missionary work, and spiritual formation.

Pope Leo XIII canonized Anthony in 1897.

His spirituality remains especially associated with St. Paul, the Eucharist, the Cross, and Catholic renewal.

What St. Anthony Zaccaria Teaches Us

St. Anthony teaches us that the Church is renewed through saints.

Complaining about spiritual weakness is easy.

Becoming holy is harder.

Anthony chose the harder path.

He also reminds us that Catholics should not become comfortable with lukewarm faith.

The Eucharist is too great.

The Cross is too serious.

The Gospel is too important.

Christianity is meant to change us.

Anthony began as a doctor of the body.

God turned him into a physician of souls.

When Is the Feast of St. Anthony Zaccaria?

The Catholic Church celebrates the Optional Memorial of St. Anthony Zaccaria, Priest, on July 5.

He is remembered as a physician, priest, founder of the Barnabites, promoter of Eucharistic devotion, and important figure in Catholic reform.

Prayer Inspired by St. Anthony Zaccaria

Lord Jesus Christ,

through the intercession of St. Anthony Zaccaria, free us from lukewarm faith.

Deepen our love for You in the Holy Eucharist.

Teach us to meditate on Your Cross with gratitude and repentance.

Bless priests, doctors, religious communities, and all who work for the renewal of Your Church.

Give us the missionary fire of St. Paul.

And help us live our Catholic faith not halfheartedly, but with our whole lives.

St. Anthony Zaccaria, pray for us. Amen.