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Elegguá and San Antonio de Padua, protectors of children around the world

Eleggua and Padua

Elegguá is one of the seven African gods most venerated of the Yoruba Pantheon, the first to be called in every religious act or festivity and the last to say goodbye, the one who is best known and one of the most acclaimed by the devotees for being the owner of the paths and destiny.

Eleggua is considered in the Rule of Osha-Ifá the beginning and the end of all paths, birth and death, good and evil.

It is the first protection and opens the paths to continue in religion.

In most homes, he lives behind the door, so that whoever arrives at the house greets him first and also from that line, he can protect those who inhabit that space.

The Yoruba Patakíes say that Elegguá saved Olofin from a serious illness, despite being the youngest and smallest Orisha, so the Creator granted him his wish to always be the first Orisha to be received.

In addition, he is the most spoiled of the Osha, and in his image as a child he is mischievous, intelligent and tricky.

And not only with Olofin, but he also gained enough privileges with the great father Obbatalá and the diviner Orunmila to be the first to be attended, which is why the religious hold him so much respect and veneration.

San Antonio, the one who protects children and finds the lost

One of the most important processes of syncretism in Cuba was the transculturation of Yoruba and Catholic religiosity, a product of the slave trade of Africans in the Caribbean.

The union of both religions, customs and cultures has inherited to this day, among other branches, the one known as Santería, or Osha-Ifá Rule.

Elegguá syncretizes in Catholicism with Saint Anthony of Padua or San Antonio de Lisboa, Portuguese theologian, preacher and monk, renowned for protecting children and for being the one we call when we lose an important object.

  • One of his most recognized miracles indicates that:

Little Tomasito, a baby barely two years old, was about to drown in a lake when his mother decided to pray to the Franciscan priest. 

With the intercession of San Antonio de Padua, the little boy was saved from dying.

Also known as the Saint of Lost Causes, Saint Anthony is the person most quickly canonized by the Catholic Church. It happened 352 days after his death, on May 30, 1232.

Today he is the patron saint of Lisbon, in Portugal, where he was born, and of Padua, in Italy, where he died and his remains remain.

He is also venerated in other cities such as Argentina, Venezuela, Spain and Cuba.

the immense devotion that unites Elegguá and Padua

Although it cannot be guaranteed, the syncretism of San Antonio de Padua and Eleguá is related to the fact that both are recognized as protectors of infants in danger, for which the faithful pray to him and ask for his blessing for their children.

Both deities in their religions are very powerful, the image and devotion to the Saint and Orisha in Afro-Cuban religiosity is found everywhere in the world, protecting and supporting the faith of its faithful.

Learn more about this beautiful Holy Orisha:

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