Vita Prima. Saint Anthony in Portugal

This exhibition is a journey through the life of St. Anthony in his youth. It is also an invitation for people to understand how the saint and the values associated with him (both holy and profane) became identity cornerstones of Lisbon.

Anthony had two lives: before and after he joined the Order of Friars Minor, founded by Saint Francis. In Italy and France, he is better known as a preacher and the first professor of this Order. However, Portugal maintained the memory of his childhood and youth in the places he visited and in a vast oral tradition.

The life story of Fernando de Bulhões (the given name of the future St. Anthony) is told by the Portuguese places that contributed to its formation. He received his first teachings in Lisbon Cathedral, became a monk in the Monastery of São Vicente de Fora, and acquired a more substantial education in the Monastery of Santa Cruz de Coimbra, where he met the first Franciscans. The sight of the dead bodies of the five Martyrs of Morocco made him join the mendicant cause. He adopted the name Anthony and departed on an evangelic mission to Morocco in the Autumn of 1220.