Neo-Gothic style building: The façade is elevated above a front portico with trefoil arches and enclosed between two bell towers ending in spires. The interior has a Latin cross layout, with three naves and a transept above which rises an octagonal dome.
**Description:** This is a fragment of the skin from the Saint’s hands, bearing an authentication dated April 14, 1994, signed by Father Agostino Gardin, Provincial Superior of the Franciscan Order of Padua. It was donated to the sanctuary on April 16, 1995, by the Franciscans of Padua, who arrived in Reggio accompanying the traveling relic of Saint Anthony (cf. CARUSO, 1996, p. 228). It is kept in a round metal case and displayed during the saint’s feast day in a golden reliquary.
**Date of entry into use:** 1995
**Relic:** Other
**Description:** A wooden statue depicting Saint Anthony of Padua, still displayed in the presbytery: in the second half of the 1930s, it was donated to the sanctuary by Don Carlo Sterpi, the first successor of Don Luigi Orione. It replaced an earlier statue of the Saint, placed around 1924 in the first chapel dedicated to him on the Hill of Angels.
**Date of entry into use:** between 1934 and 1937
**Image:** Statue
**Original location of the sanctuary:** Sacristy
**Type of ex-votos:** Painted tablets or inscribed plaques, Jewelry, Photographs, Other
**Current preservation:** Temporarily stored in a depository adjacent to the sanctuary.
On June 13, 1924, the Antonian Work of Calabria inaugurated a small institute for orphans and a chapel dedicated to Saint Anthony of Padua on the Hill of Angels. The cornerstone of the new church building was blessed and laid on September 13, 1928. In July 1932, the Church of Saint Anthony was recognized as a subsidiary of the Candelora parish but was blessed later, on June 10, 1934, and elevated to a sanctuary on August 15, 1937 (cf. CARUSO, 1996, pp. 88–89, 102–107, and 129–131).
Don Angelo Bartoli, then director of the Antonian Work of Calabria, dated the final decision to build the sanctuary to February 15, 1933, the feast day of the Tongue of Saint Anthony, miraculously preserved from the general corruption of his body (cf. CARUSO, 1996, pp. 116–122). The current rector of the sanctuary, Don Alberto Alfarano, considers the extraordinary drawing of lots—suggested by Don Orione to Don Bartoli in a letter dated September 8, 1927, to decide whether to dedicate the new temple to Saint Anthony of Padua or to Saint Prospero—more significant (cf. CARUSO, 1996, pp. 114–115).
**1928:** Blessing and laying of the cornerstone
**1932:** The Church of Saint Anthony of Padua is recognized as a subsidiary of the Parish of Santa Maria della Candelora
**1933:** Construction, halted shortly after the cornerstone was laid, resumes
**1934:** The new temple is blessed and inaugurated by Bishop Felice Cribellati of Nicotera and Tropea
**1937:** Bishop Pujia signs the decree establishing the Diocesan Sanctuary of Saint Anthony of Padua
**1943:** Aerial bombings cause incendiary fragments to fall on the sanctuary
**1979:** Archbishop Aurelio Sorrentino of Reggio establishes the Parish of Saint Anthony of Padua
**1995:** The Franciscan friars of Padua donate a relic of the Saint to the sanctuary, authenticated on April 14, 1994
**1997:** Solemn consecration and blessing of the temple presided over by Archbishop Vittorio Mondello of Reggio; on the same occasion, the Archbishop deposits the relics of Saint Maria Goretti and the Blessed Luigi Orione and Gaetano Catanoso in the sanctuary.
In the sanctuary, a plenary indulgence can be obtained since 1934 every June 13 and since 1997 every June 8, respectively the feast day of the Saint and the anniversary of the solemn consecration of the temple.
The Church of Saint Anthony of Padua, built on land donated to Don Orione in 1921 by Canon Salvatore De Lorenzo, parish priest of Candelora, was recognized in July 1932 as a subsidiary of that parish, remaining so until 1979.
On August 15, 1936, Archbishop Carmelo Pujia issued the decree declaring the Church of Saint Anthony a diocesan sanctuary.
The Fathers complement the activities of parish pastoral care with dedicated support in the religious formation of pastoral workers and catechists.
The land in the Schiavone district, known as the Hill of Angels, where the sanctuary would be built, was bequeathed to Don Orione by Canon De Lorenzo through a holographic will dated June 7, 1918. The canon died in 1921 (cf. CARUSO, 1996, pp. 79–81).
Corso Giuseppe Garibaldi, 75016 Pomarico MT, Italy
