The friars began praying every day in a “perpetual novena” before the statue, a spot known today as “St. Anthony’s corner.” They dedicate their prayers to the petitions they receive from the faithful.

Catholics know St. Anthony of Padua as a Franciscan preacher, a doctor of the Church, and the patron of lost things. For the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement in upstate New York, he’s also a big ...