He was forever tempted.
So what? You might ask. Isn't that what keeps casinos going and is the raison d'etre for John Key's (yet to be proved disastrous) collaboration with Skycity in Auckland. How else are they going to recoup their investment unless the punters gamble drink and fornicate there?
Well, yes but this is supposed to be a saint we're talking about here.
Anthony was born in Portugal but spent a lot of time in Italy where he found society less restrictive. He was able to satisfy his peccadillos in the various Italian city states, moving from one to the other until he settled in Padua.
To be fair to Tony he tried to lead a straight life but was forever tempted by city nightlife and the temptations of the flesh.
Various bishops and popes would send him letters admonishing him on his behaviour and slipping little reminder notices into the letters which he would conveniently lose (he later was awarded the title 'Patron Saint of Lost Things').
After Tony's death in 1231as the Church was a bit short of role models he was canonised and his 'temptations' were rewritten as actual temptations from the Devil and his cohorts (it was the Middle Ages after all)
* The title 'Saint' was bestowed after Antony's death as a way of the Catholic Church perpetuating the myth that its ambassadors were special and free of the sins that the rest of us have.
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