May we be assisted, O Lord, by the intercession of the blessed Abbot Anthony, so that those graces to which our own merits give us no claim may be granted to us through his favour. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.


Dear God, St Anthony the Abbot accepted your call to renounce the world and to love you above all things. He faithfully served you in the solitude of the desert by fasting, prayer, humility and good works. In the Sign of the Cross, he triumphed over the devil. Through his intercession, may we learn to love you better; with all our hearts, all our souls, all our minds, all our strength and to love our neighbours as we love ourselves. St Anthony the Abbot, great and powerful saint, intercede for us also for this special request (mention your request). We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

St. Anthony the Abbot Blessing the Animals, the Poor, and the Sick.
 

 
On a pedestal beneath Gothic arches, Saint Anthony stands like a living statue, blessing the people and animals gathered around him. On the right, several men carrying crutches have come to be healed, while a menagerie of animals in front looks up to Anthony as if listening to his words. 

Saint Anthony, a hermit of the 300s, renounced his worldly goods and retired to the desert of northern Egypt. In the 1100s, the Order of Knights Hospitallers, an organization that cared for the sick across Europe, adopted him as its patron saint. Although Saint Anthony was a desert hermit, he appears here wearing the black cape with the tau cross on the left shoulder worn by the Hospitallers of the 1400s. Growing out of his association with the Hospitallers, Anthony was called on to prevent and cure disease in both people and animals, which explains the assortment of followers around him. 

The miniature was painted by the anonymous artist known as the Master of Saint Veronica in the International style, which is characterized by bright jewel-like colors, detailed elaborate costumes, linearity, and melancholic expressions. The animals' naturalism demonstrates the artist's interest in the careful observation of nature.
 
“Digital image courtesy of the Getty’s Open Content Program – The J. Paul Getty Museum”
 

Physical Address: 925 Saint Anthony St., Cumberland, WI 54829
Mailing Address: PO Box 548, Cumberland, WI 54829

St. Anthony Abbot Parish's early Catholics came from various backgrounds to worship together for the first time in 1883. The initial church, St. Mary's of the Wayside, was completed in 1884 and formally dedicated by Bishop Kilian Flasch of La Crosse on October 24, 1888.

Italian immigrants outnumbered other Catholics, and they decided to establish their own ethnic church. In 1885, they withdrew from St. Mary's and erected a church one mile south of Cumberland and named it St. Anthony Abbot.

In 1973, the two churches were merged and became the Cumberland Area Catholic Community. Due to the size of the combined congregation, Masses were held only at St. Anthony's and St. Mary Church was sold in 1984.

In 1986, the parish officially returned to the name of St. Anthony Abbot. A parish center was built on land across the street from St. Anthony Church in 1993. In 1997, the parish was clustered with Sacred Heart in Almena and in 2002 with St. Ann Parish in Turtle Lake.

REFERENCE: Our Journey through Faith: A History of the Diocese of Superior,
by Sam Lucero, 2005.