St. Anthony to the rescue. Again.

St. Anthony of Padua is the patron saint of things that are lost.

I have found that an appeal to St. Anthony to help me find some lost or misplaced article pretty much never fails. And so it was with my heavy wool Swedish Army M43 cap that went missing about a month ago.

I found myself drawn to the top shelf of our hall closet where I have a box full of hats. I was certain that my M43 cap wasn’t in the box, but just to be sure, I pulled it down, also checking the space behind the box.

And there it was. Along with a missing cold weather motorcycle glove that I immediately reunited with its mate from the lower shelf.

(The gloves are among the longest-serving motorcycle clothing items in my arsenal of gear. I bought them from a vendor at the Daytona International Speedway during 1993 Bike Week, which makes them about 22 years old. I had ridden to Daytona in a size 3X Carhart coverall over my regular riding apparel and a barely adequate pair of gloves. Besides the new gloves, I also bought a proper cold weather snowmobile-type suit that made the ride back to snowy Indiana much more comfortable.)

But I digress.

There are lots of prayers to St. Anthony for the recovery of lost things. Here is one of the more formal ones:

St. Anthony, perfect imitator of Jesus, who received from God the special power of restoring lost things, grant that I may find (name your lost item)which has been lost. At least restore to me peace and tranquility of mind, the loss of which has afflicted me even more than my material loss. To this favor, I ask another of you: that I may always remain in possession of the true good that is God. Let me rather lose all things than lose God, my supreme good. Let me never suffer the loss of my greatest treasure, eternal life with God. Amen.

A more casual version goes:

Tony, Tony, look around. Something’s lost and must be found.

I usually just say, “St. Anthony, please give me a hand and show me where (insert lost item here) is.”

Typically, when I ask St. Anthony for a little help, less than a minute later the items turn up in a place I was sure they couldn’t be.

I don’t know for sure, but I have a feeling he’ll be happy to help non-Catholics find stuff too.