Saint Anthony of Padua is one of the most popular saints that is recognized by the Roman Catholic faithful the world over. The thirteenth century Franciscan friar – who had transferred to this order after spending ten years in an Augustinian monastery in Lisbon, Portugal – was the Billy Graham of his day. He brought out huge crowds of listeners and spread spiritual renewal among the faithful in Catholic Europe. (1)
The interesting thing about Saint Anthony of Padua is that one of the popular stories about him has him struggling with a jew.
To wit:
‘It is the story of St. Anthony's encounter with a Jewish man. This man contested the "Real Presence of the Eucharist; so one day he approached St. Anthony publicly and after spelling out all of his reasons for not believing in such a "fable" as the Real Presence, he challenged Anthony to a contest. He bet that the Real Presence was a lie, and he proposed to "starve a donkey" for three days---no hay, and see if the donkey would choose to eat hay or preferred the Eucharist. St. Anthony, being publicly "put on the spot" accepted the challenge. So the wealthy merchant brought out his donkey, publicly hitched him to a post where he could be observed by all; and proceeding to "starve the donkey" for three days. Simultaneously, St. Anthony went into the forest and "fasted" for three days---taking no food. When the day of trial came, Anthony emerged from the forest and sought out a local Church where he took the Eucharist and returned to the spot where the donkey was tied. Meanwhile, the challenger had placed a large pile of hay about 20 ft away from the donkey. Anthony took out the Eucharist holding it in his hands; the merchant untied the donkey, who needless to say, made a "beeline" for the pile of hay. Just as the donkey was about to reach the hay, St. Anthony elevated the Eucharist and shouted in a loud voice: "Mule, in the Name of the Lord Our God, I command you to come here and adore your Creator!" The donkey "reared up" on his hind legs as if someone had pulled him by a bridle; he spun around, and ran to St. Anthony, dropping to his forelegs--- hind legs still extended; and put his head down to the ground---in a "posture of adoration" before the Eucharist which St. Anthony continued to hold elevated. The Jewish merchant, stunned by what occurred begged St. Anthony's forgiveness, converted on the spot, and donated the money to build a new Catholic Church, his newfound faith. On the cornerstone of the Church, he had engraved a picture of St. Anthony holding the Eucharist aloft and the donkey, "kneeling on his forepaws" in adoration of the Body of Christ.’ (2)
Now while this story is clearly apocryphal in nature. It does demonstrate rather nicely that according to Catholic tradition Saint Anthony of Padua was an ardent foe of the jews as he was a devoted follower of Jesus Christ. The spread of whose faith he – and Catholic orthodoxy at the time – saw as being principally opposed by the machinations of the very people who had defied Christ and had him crucified by Pontius Pilate upon the cross at Golgotha.
Therefore, we can reasonably state that Saint Anthony of Padua was an active opponent of the jews and Judaism, but was not anti-Semitic. Since he allowed – as Calvin, Luther and many others were to do before and after him – that jews could repent and convert to Christianity. Although they would certainly be suspect until they proved the strength of their convictions.
References
(1) Bert Ghezzi, 2000, ‘Voices of the Saints’, 2nd Edition, Loyola Press: Chicago, pp. 362-363
(2) http://www.catholic-pages.com/mass/corpus.asp