Poetry Blog no 181 On Saint Anthony's Sermon to the Fishes

   

ON SAINT ANTHONY’S SERMON TO THE FISHES

This is based on a German poem- Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt. It comes from a collection of German folk poems and songs that was edited by Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano, It was also set to music by Gustav Mahler. The poem itself references the legend of St Anthony of Padua preaching to the fishes.

Saint Anthony of Padua, born Fernando Martins de Bulhões (1195 – 13 June 1231), also known as Anthony of Lisbon, was a Portuguese Catholic priest and friar of the Franciscan Order. He was born and raised by a wealthy family in Lisbon, Portugal, and died in Padua, Italy. Noted by his contemporaries for his powerful preaching, expert knowledge of scripture, and undying love and devotion to the poor and the sick, he was one of the most quickly canonized saints in church history. He was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church on 16 January 1946. He is also the patron saint of lost things. From Wikipedia

On the legemd-

Once Anthony had travelled to the city of Rimini because it was a hotbed of heresy. The city leaders had ordered everyone to ignore him, so no one turned up for his homilies. Wherever Anthony went, he was greeted by silence.

Anthony walked along praying and reflecting upon what had happened. As he walked outside of the town, he came to the mouth of the Marecchia River where it flows into the Adriatic. There he began to address the crowds, not of people but of fish.
He called out, “You, fish of the river and sea, listen to the Word of God because the heretics do not wish to hear it.” Suddenly there were thousands of fish neatly arranged in rows, all pushing their heads through the surface of the water as if they were straining to listen to every one of Anthony’s words.
The people of Rimini, seeing this miracle, gathered to listen to Anthony. What began with simple interest in an extraordinary event turned into a passionate conviction that Anthony was speaking to their very hearts. They were so moved by Anthony’s words, by his call to conversion, that they abandoned their hardened positions and returned to the Church. As we stated above, we are not sure that this story is historic, but it certainly does represent a version of what often happened when Anthony preached: that many hardened sinners were converted through the unselfish love of Anthony. From http://www.santantonio.org

Whilst this legend is probably a reflection of the great power of his preaching the poem takes a rather humorous, even ironic, view. It could be seen as a comment on expecting nature to behave according to human ideals or as a wry look at the intractability of humans – the various fish representing various types of people.

In form each line could be thought of as four feet of the amphibrach meter – that is unstressed syllable, stressed syllable, unstressed syllable u / u (they swish with ). They swish with | their tails so, | in sunshine | their scales glow. Furthermore each line is “broken” in two by a rhyme or half-rhyme. Sometimes each line is printed as two separate lines :

The saint goes to preach so,

finds no one in church though etc.

ON SAINT ANTHONY’S SERMON TO THE FISHES

The saint goes to preach so, finds no-one’s in church though!

He goes to the rivers and preaches to fishes.

They swish with their tails so, in sunshine their scales glow!

The carp with their spawn near, all come, all are drawn here;

With mouths fully gaping, they listen, heed taking;

No sermon has ever touched carp with more pleasure!

And pikes with sharp biting who love to be fighting,

Swim up in a hurry to hear all that’s holy.

No sermon has ever touched pikes with more pleasure!

As well those dream-casters, who always are fasters,

The codfish I mean now, arrive on the scene now.

No sermon has ever touched cod with more pleasure!

Good sturgeon and eels fine, that make nobles’ meals fine,

In comfort lie stretching to take in the teaching.

No sermon has ever touched eels with more pleasure!

And crabs, stiff-backed creatures, at most times slow-coaches,

Hurry up from the ground to hear well his sound.

No sermon has ever touched crabs with more pleasure!

Fish great and fish tiny, both noble and lowly,

Are lifting their features like clear reasoning creatures.

As God’s wish they’re keeping, they hear all the speaking!

The sermon now ended, away each has wended.

The pikes still stay muggers, the eels still stay huggers.

The preaching was splendid, but their ways have not mended!

The crabs still go backward, the cod’s still a fathead,

The carp’s still a glutton, the preaching’s forgotten.

The preaching was splendid, but their ways have not mended!

Though the preaching was splendid, was splendid!