Last month my brother got married in Arizona. We packed up our minivan and drove to Phoenix for a weekend of wedding festivities. Our van was packed with suitcases filled with all the clothes and accessories for a family of 6 to outfit us for a rehearsal dinner, wedding, reception, and the after-party. I brought along my jewlery bag with a nice assortment of jewlery, including the diamond solitare earrings that Juan gave me as a wedding gift.

I decided not to wear the earrings to the wedding, since I had a different pair I wanted to wear.  Erica was looking through my jewlery case hoping to find a necklace she could wear. She carefully took out all my jewlery and laid it out on the bed. When she found what she wanted she put everything back in my jewlery case.  When we returned home later that weekend, I was unpacking my jewlery when I noticed that one of my earrings was missing. I panicked. I carefully laid out all the jewlery and looked through the entire case. No luck. I could not find one of my earrings. I could feel myself getting more and more nervous. I did not want to tell Juan what happened but when he came in our room and saw me in my frenzied state, tearing apart my suitcase and jewlery case, he knew something was wrong. I told him that I couldn’t find the earring. He stayed calm and reassuring, thank goodness. No sense in both of us becoming crazy about losing a precious stone, with huge sentimental value. He helped me look again, but we still could not find it.

The next day I called the hotel and asked if the maid, or anyone around the hotel,  found my earring. Nothing. I was devastated.  I resigned myself to the idea that I lost the earring, but I still said a silent prayer to Saint Anthony. You know Saint Anthony, the patron saint of lost things? I usually don’t pray to saints, but there have been times when I say a prayer to Saint Anthony to help me find something. I think it’s kind of odd that saints become “representatives” of certain causes. My kids go to a Catholic school named for the saint who is the patron saint of bakers, and hatmakers. On their saint’s day, the kids get baked goods and wear crazy hats to school.  When Juan was working in a drug prosecution unit in our office, and was reassigned to a different unit, his collegues and staff presented him with a bust of Jesus Malverde as a going away gift. Jesus Malverde is the patron saint for drug dealers. It seems that there are saints for everything, so why not for lost things, and lost jewlery?

This week, I was getting ready for work and opened my jewlery box to find a necklace to wear.  All my necklaces are hung on hooks in my jewlery case. After I was done sifting through the hanging necklaces, I tried to close my jewlery box door. It would not close. I tried again and realized something was jammed in the jewlery box lid. I looked closer and saw something shiny. I looked even closer, and saw my diamond earring! Saint Anthony had come through!

This is not the first time we have found something after praying to St.Anthony. The story of the lost iPhone is probably the best known”miracle” in our family.  Juan had the first edition iPhone and when the new edition was released, of course, he upgraded. He kept the old iPhone for all of us to use as iTouch. One day the iPhone went missing. We looked everywhere for it, but we could not find it anywhere. We said our prayer to St. Anthony, but held out little hope of ever finding it again. One day, months later, Juan was looking in our bookcase. He pulled out  a book, and spied something. It was the iPhone! He found the phone, crammed between two books. One book was titled, “Awareness” and the other was “Gifts for Your Soul!” Hah! Saint Anthony must have a sense of humor!

Coincidence? Maybe, or maybe not. All I know, is that when I lose something I say a silent prayer to Saint Anthony. Next time you lose something, you may want to try saying this:

St. Anthony, St. Anthony
Please come down
Something is lost
And can’t be found