A member of the Order of Friars Minor, the Franciscans, St. Anthony of Padua was born in Portugal in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century. He worked as an apostle to the Moors in Africa until poor health forced him to return to the Continent, where he served in France, Italy, and Sicily. Because of his devotion to the Faith, he is known as "the Ark of the Testament," "the Hammer of Heretics," and "the eldest son of St. Francis." He died in 1231, and was canonised a year later. It is said that during his lifetime he was seen with an Apparition of the Infant Jesus and that during his canonisation the bells rang themselves in Lisbon. (Fr. Alban Butler's 1955 Lives of the Saints (New York, Boston, Cincinnati, Chicago, San Francisco: Benziger Brothers, Inc., Printers to the Holy Apostolic See), pgs. 216-217. Butler's Lives bears the Nihil Obstat of John M. Fearns, S. T. D., and the Imprimatur of Francis Cardinal Spellman, Archbishop of New York. St. Anthony of Padua will also be covered in any other general saints book.)
In 1991 four masked individuals made off with a jewelled reliquary containing the jaw and teeth of St. Anthony. Discussing the theft (as well as claims to have found the reason for the liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius), you may wish to read:
Castro, Janice. (1991, 21 October.) "Science and Sacrilege Roil the Faithful." Time, vol. 138, n. 16, p. 30.
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In 1995, celebrating the 800th anniversary of St. Anthony's birth, bone and skin fragments were taken around the world to be visited by the faithful, making several stops in the Tri-State Area in September and October of that year. A short article on the tour was published in the New York Times as follows:
The Associated Press. (1995, 5 September.) "Relics of Saint Anthony to be Displayed." The New York Times, v. 144, p. B4(L), col. 5.