St. Anthony Day at the Shrine of St. Anthony is held every year on or around the Feast of our patron, St. Anthony of Padua on June 13. Known as a theologian, for his many miracles, and as the patron saint of lost things, St. Anthony Day features ways our guests can celebrate with his life and work, and rediscover and reconnect with holiness. Each St. Anthony Day features a guest speaker, Mass, and time/space for exploring our beautiful grounds for reflection and prayer. 

2025 Featured Speaker: Colleen Carol Campbell
Colleen Carroll Campbell is an award-winning author, print and broadcast journalist, and former presidential speechwriter for George W. Bush. Colleen is a renowned speaker, has received two honorary doctorates, and is the recipient of countless awards and fellowships. Her award-winning books include: The New Faithful; her spiritual memoir, My Sisters the Saints; and The Heart of Perfection: How the Saints Taught me to Trade My Dream of Perfect for God's. 

Colleen will offer two talks for visitors to St. Anthony Day. 

Boldness and Beauty, Not Branding:
Five Keys to Finding Lost Souls that Saint Anthony Knew and We’ve (Mostly) Forgotten
In a world obsessed with chasing likes, spotting trends, and scaling up, the individualized, incarnational approach to sharing the faith of saints like Anthony of Padua is shockingly old-school. Yet that approach is exactly what we need to reignite the New Evangelization in our cynical, post-Christian culture. In this talk, Colleen will examine five keys to effective evangelization that we can see in the life of St. Anthony and in the Church’s most fruitful ministries and communities today—keys we can put to work in our own families and communities to win hearts for Christ. 
 
The Heart of Perfection:
How the Ex-Perfectionist Saints Can Help Us Find Freedom in Christ 
Like St. Anthony of Padua, who traded a comfortable life as a noble-born Augustinian scholar for the scrappy adventure of Franciscan poverty, many saints found their spiritual footing only after pursuing, then rejecting, the world’s standards of perfection. And often their greatest struggle was the interior fight against spiritual perfectionism, a subtle obstacle to holiness that can masquerade as virtue even as it sours us on the spiritual life. Drawing on her award-winning book, The Heart of Perfection, Colleen will blend colorful tales of recovering perfectionist saints with Scripture and stories of her own trial-and-error experiments in applying their wisdom to her life. She’ll share four lessons to help us swap the chains of control, comparison, and impossible expectations for the pursuit of a new kind of perfection: freedom in Christ.

More information on the 2025 day's events coming soon!