The relics of one of the one of the Christian church’s best-known saints will visit Middlesbrough for one day during a tour of Great Britain.

As part of the celebrations to mark the jubilee Year of Mercy, two relics of Saint Anthony of Padua will be venerated at Saint Mary’s Cathedral in Coulby Newham on Monday June 20.

Saint Anthony, who died in 1231, was a Portuguese priest and doctor of the church who is the patron saint of finding things or lost people.

The two reliquaries are in the form of a bust which holds fragments of the saint’s skin and a fragment of his floating rib.

They will arrive at the cathedral at 11am and Bishop of Middlesbrough the Rt Rev Terence Patrick Drainey will celebrate Mass at noon. This will be followed at 1pm by a sermon by Father Mario Conti, who is accompanying the relics from Padua.

There will be a period of silent veneration from 1.30pm, choral vespers at 4.30pm and Mass at 6.30pm, before the relics leave the cathedral for the next leg of their journey at 8pm.

“It’s a great privilege for the diocese to welcome these relics to Middlesbrough,” said Vicar General Monsignor Gerard Robinson.

“I think at some point in our lives, most Catholics and many Christians of other denominations will have prayed to Saint Anthony.

“We hope as many people as possible will be able to visit the cathedral and pray and reflect in unity and celebration, as we did when the relics of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux came here in 2009.”

Further information on the visit can be found at www.santantonio.org.