When the people of Rimini rejected Anthony's preaching, he turned to the fish at the shore. The Fioretti preserve the sequence: small and large fish gathered in order before him as he praised the gifts of their Creator. The people came, recognized their own closed hearts, and now listened to his teaching. Only after his blessing did the fish swim away. The medieval tradition shows God's action through an unusual call to conversion. The Shrine of Saint Anthony still receives the sermon to the fish as an invitation to listen attentively to Christ.
The Fioretti recount that fish gathered in order at the shore in response to Anthony's address and remained until his blessing. The miracle opened the way for the previously resistant people to accept the saint's preaching.
Anthony Goes to the Shore
Chapter 40 of the Fioretti recounts Anthony's preaching in Rimini. For several days, he explained Holy Scripture to the people, but they would not listen. He then went to where the river flows into the sea and called the fish to listen. What the people had refused was now set before their eyes through creation. Anthony remained faithful to proclaiming God's word. The unusual address at the shore opened a new way for the people to receive his message.[1]
The Fish Gather Before the Preacher
Small and large fish came together. The smaller ones stayed nearer the shore, the larger ones in deeper water. They raised their heads and remained peacefully in their order. Anthony praised God's gifts before them: their habitat in the water, their food, and their ability to move within it. He recalled the fish in Holy Scripture, Jonah, and Christ with his disciples. Through their behavior, the animals made the Creator's greatness visible.[1]
People came and saw the unusual gathering. They recognized in it a rebuke to their own refusal to hear God's word. The Fioretti recount their conversion and renewed instruction in the faith. Anthony could now speak to those who had previously rejected him. Only afterward did he bless the fish and dismiss them. The miracle thus led from the people's closed attitude to their readiness to open themselves to God's word.[1]
Creation Responds to the Creator
The sermon to the fish stands within a Franciscan world in which creation points to its Lord. Scholarship compares it with Francis's sermon to the birds. Both traditions show the saint's special closeness to God and creatures. Such kinship explains the account's spiritual form. It proves neither invention nor the dependence of each individual event by itself. A real event can be transmitted in a familiar biblical and spiritual language.[2]
The Fioretti attribute the miracle to Christ. Anthony acts as his servant. The text recalls Balaam, whom God corrects through an unexpected creature. In Rimini, too, human closedness thus becomes visible: the creatures remain before the preacher, while the people had previously refused to listen. The goal is their conversion. The saint calls them back to their Creator and points to the gifts that sustain life.[1]
The Medieval Sources
Antonio Rigon examines the written and visual tradition of the sermon to the fish. His study identifies the Legenda Rigaldina around 1300 as the first surviving written attestation. In the fourteenth century, the incident spread through further Franciscan collections and the Fioretti. Anthony had died in 1231; a considerable interval therefore separates his life from this surviving written record. The earlier biographies do not contain the episode. This context determines the historical source value without by itself deciding the truth of the event handed down.[2][3]
The Fioretti chapter gives no securely established exact day of the event and no verifiable number of converts. It transmits the sequence and its outcome within a spiritually shaped account of a life. Dating must therefore be guided by the saint's lifetime and the texts' dates of composition. More precise days or quantities require an additional source; they are not retrospectively attributed to the surviving account.[1]
The Historical Value of the Tradition
The Fioretti preserve a detailed medieval tradition, but not a collection of individually named eyewitnesses questioned about the event at the shore. Their value lies in the surviving text, its place in devotion to Anthony, and its relationship to older sources. Credibility must therefore be assessed historically. A later written account can preserve memories of an actual event; its date of composition and transmission remain important considerations.[1]
Oral transmission before the first surviving written version is possible. The precise chain between the event and this version, however, is not fully visible. This limits certainty about individual details. It is not positive evidence of invention. The account may be read in its actual form: as an old ecclesiastical miracle tradition whose spiritual content clearly emerges and whose historical transmission can be reconstructed only in part.[1][2]
The Invitation to Hear Christ
The Shrine of Saint Anthony preserves the sermon to the fish in its presentation of the saint's miracles. The novena of 2022 emphasizes readiness to listen to Christ while identifying the historical genre as legendary tradition. The incident thus remains alive in prayer and examination of conscience. Its ecclesiastical reception is documented; it must be distinguished from a modern natural-historical investigation of the event at the shore.[4][5]
The detailed original text reveals the enduring meaning: God's word seeks to reach human beings, and even creation can set their closedness before their eyes. The old tradition offers a compelling testimony to this. Appreciating it requires no added eyewitness names and no nonexistent zoological reports. The available source can speak in its own strength while also being judged according to its actual date and transmission.[1][2]
Witnesses & Investigators
Narrator of the Fioretti
Medieval tradition
Preserves the detailed medieval account of the sermon, the gathering of the fish, and the conversion of the people.[1]
Legenda Rigaldina
Early surviving textual attestation
According to Rigon's investigation, the motif's first written bearer around 1300; accessed here through the research.[2]
Antonio Rigon
Historian
Examines the sequence of written sources and the visual tradition of the sermon to the fish.[2]
The unfolding story
- Anthony as Preacher
His historical work forms the setting for the traditional sermon to the fish.[3]
- Death of the Saint
Anthony dies near Padua.[3]
- Legenda Rigaldina
The first written attestation of the sermon to the fish identified by Rigon.[2]
- Franciscan Dissemination
The incident enters further biographies and the Fioretti.[1][2]
- Spiritual Interpretation
The shrine's novena relates the story to readiness to hear God's word.[5]
Ecclesiastical assessment
The story is told and interpreted spiritually within the ecclesiastical setting of the Shrine of Saint Anthony. No modern ecclesiastical determination of fact or contemporary natural-historical investigation of this individual event is claimed.
Objections & Answers
Does the later written attestation refute the miracle?
An interval of time does not prove invention. Later texts can preserve older memories. The first surviving attestation around 1300 and the subsequent dissemination, however, do not reveal the complete chain of transmission from Anthony's lifetime. The sermon to the fish therefore does not possess the same historical evidential force as eyewitness statements recorded separately and close to the event. Its actual value is an old ecclesiastical miracle tradition with a detailed text and enduring spiritual reception. This foundation may be presented affirmatively. Describing individual details as independently established, however, would be stronger than the available sources permit.[1][2][5]
Would fish need to understand a sermon intellectually?
That is not a necessary part of the account. The Fioretti show animal behavior brought about by God through which people are addressed. The actual recipients are the previously unreceptive listeners. An ordinary gathering of fish explains the whole sequence only if it also accounts for the described order, their remaining, and their swimming away after the blessing. No such natural-historical examination from the time survives. Neither a modern zoological confirmation nor a refutation can be derived from this. The meaning handed down is clear: creation leads human beings to hear God's word.[1]
Meaning for faith
The sermon to the fish transmits a compelling miracle of conversion: the ordered gathering of the fish leads people to hear God's word. The account is traceable from the Middle Ages and continues to be received at the Shrine of Saint Anthony. Its later written attestation limits historical certainty about individual details; it does not negate its spiritual content.[1][2][5]
How Miracles in the Lives of the Saints Are Examined
Stigmata, bilocation, and material changes require different examinations.
Methods of examination and ecclesiastical procedure →Sources & Evidence
Information on accessibility and scope helps you assess the evidence for yourself.
- [1] The Little Flowers of Saint Francis of Assisi
Complete public-domain narrative text; no separately named eyewitness records.
Open source · ecatholic2000.com ↗ - [2] Scritture e immagini nella comunicazione di un prodigio di Antonio di Padova: la predica ai pesci
Abstract consulted, not the complete 25-page article; identifies the beginning of the tradition and Franciscan parallelism.
Open source · centrostudiantoniani.it ↗ - [3] St. Anthony of Padua
Older public-domain biographical overview.
Open source · newadvent.org ↗ - [4] Saint Anthony’s Miracles: Sermon to the Fishes
Present-day institutional narrative and spiritual interpretation.
Open source · santantonio.org ↗ - [5] Saint Anthony’s Miracles: 13 Tuesdays Novena 2022
Describes the episode as legendary and develops its significance for hearing the word.
Open source · santantonio.org ↗
