Mr. Hals states St. Anthony, the hermit of Egypt, to be the patron
Saint of this parish, and of the other two known by the same name.
This St. Anthony is the reputed founder of the ascetic Anchorites,
from whose assemblies in after times, monks, and subsequently friars,
or begging monks, derive their origin. He is said to have lived from
the year 251 to the year 356; to have been the friend of St.
Athanasius, and to have held some correspondence with Emperor
Constantine. But as the two western points form part of the sea coast,
and the third is situated on a navigable river, it seems to be most
probable that they are all dedicated to the more popular Saint in
modern times, St. Anthony of Padua, the universal patron of fishermen.
This St. Anthony was a native of Lusitania, having been born at Lisbon
in 1195, and christened Ferdinand, which name he laid aside for that
of Anthony, in honour of the Egyptian hermit, on his entering into the
order of St. Francis. His long residence at Padua is said to have
procured for him the cognomen of that place, but the addition of Padua
is much more likely to have derived its origin from the locality of
his legendary miracle. Actuated by the spirit of fanaticism common in
those times, St. Anthony endeavoured to conceal and to render useless
all the learning and all the powers of eloquence which he had
previously acquired as a canon regular of St. Austin at Lisbon, and
during a residence of eight years with the same order at Coimbra.
Having become a friar, he employed himself as a menial in the kitchen,
or in sweeping the cells, till an accident discovered to the superiors
the value and importance of their newly acquired brother. The
intelligence was conveyed to St. Francis, the renowned founder of the
Friars Minors, from whom a letter to our Saint is preserved:
“To my most dear brother Anthony, Friar Francis wisheth
health in Jesus Christ. It seemeth good to me, that you
should read sacred Theology to the friars; yet so that you
do not prejudice yourself by too great earnestness in
studies; and be careful that you do not extinguish in
yourself or in them the spirit of holy prayer.”
All the accounts remaining of St. Anthony agree in representing him to
posterity as an example of learning, of piety, and of zeal. These
qualities, possessed however in common with thousands of others, would
have failed to make his name known to after times, if a legend had not
established his fame as a Saint, and elevated him to the high station
of protector and patron of fishermen all over the Christian world.
The legend may be best conveyed in the poetry of Dr. Darwin:
So when the Saint from Padua’s graceless land,
In silent anguish sought the barren strand,
High on the shatter’d beach sublime he stood,
Still’d with his waving arm the babbling flood;
“To man’s dull ear,” he cry’d, “I call in vain,
Hear me, ye scaly tenants of the main!”
Misshapen seals approach in circling flocks,
In dusky mail the tortoise climbs the rocks,
Torpedoes, sharks, rays, turbots, dolphins, pour
Their twinkling squadrons round the glittering shore;
With tangled fins, behind, huge phocæ glide,
And whales, and grampi swell the distant tide.
Then kneel’d the hoary Seer, to Heaven address’d
His fiery eyes, and smote his sounding breast,
“Bless ye the Lord!” with thundering voice he cry’d;
“Bless ye the Lord!” the bending shores reply’d;
The winds and waters caught the sacred word,
And mingling echoes shouted, “Bless the Lord!”
The listening shoals the quick contagion feel,
Pant on the floods, inebriate with their zeal,
Ope their wide jaws, and bow their slimy heads,
And dash with frantic fins their foamy beds.
The parish feasts do not serve in these parishes to indicate the
patron saint.
Anthony in Kerrier has its feast on the Sunday nearest St. Stephen’s
day, December 26th.
Anthony in Powder on the Sunday nearest to the 10th of August.
Anthony in East has not any feast.
The day consecrated to St. Anthony of Egypt is January the 17th; to
St. Anthony of Padua June the 13th.
The measurement of this parish is 571 statute acres.
Annual value of the Real Property as £. _s._ _d._
returned to Parliament in 1815 1050 0 0
Poor Rates in 1831 108 15 0
Population, { in 1801, | in 1811, | in 1821, | in 1831,
{ 163 | 157 | 179 | 144
Decrease on a hundred in thirty years 8.83, or somewhat less than
nine per cent.