Why is St. Anthony of Padua so popular? Perhaps because he considered everyone in the world a neighbor. “The devotion to the Saint of the Peoples is truly universal perhaps because he himself desired to consider all the world his as his home,” said Father Oliviero Svanera, director of the Basilica of St. Anthony of Padua.
“… he was a neighbor to all: to the poor, to people in difficulty, to the sick. In this, his being ‘brother of all,’ is perhaps his universality, something that renders him a friend of all the peoples of the world, beyond nationality, culture, and even religions, given that St. Anthony is respected even by those who do not profess the Catholic faith.”