The relics of St Anthony of Padua attracted hundreds of people to Paisley’s Cathedral last Sunday. Between 700 and 800 people packed St Mirin’s Cathedral in Paisley to venerate the beloved saint. The relics were due to travel across the North of England this week before stopping off at Shrewsbury cathedral today, Birmingham cathedral tomorrow and on Sunday at St Anthony’s church, Forest Gate, London. Sunday began with a procession of the saint’s relics through the streets to St Mirin’s Cathedral, followed by Mass celebrated by Bishop John Keenan, who described the saint as “one of the truly great disciples of St Francis of Assisi”. In his homily Bishop Keenan said that St Anthony was “a famous preacher and worker of miracles in his own day and, throughout the eight centuries since his death, has generously come to the assistance of the faithful who invoke him”. He continued: “Sometimes as Catholics we wonder why we honour the relics of our saints. When we have to explain it to ourselves or to others not of our faith we struggle to put into words this act of piety that means so much to us and is so much part of our lives of faith. “Yet the practice itself has remained persistent and vibrant among God’s people, who continue to flock in numbers to be close to the flesh, bones and belongings of men and women they knew to be holy and who have gone before them to their reward. They know that by being close to their bodies they will be somehow uniquely blessed by their intercession.” St Anthony of Padua was a Portuguese priest and Franciscan friar who died in 1231.