In the Franciscan church of the Holy Cross in Osijek special devotion has been shown to St. Anthony of Padua since the days of Franciscan arrival in Osijek, the proof of which we can find in the entreaty of the Franciscans to the emperor Francis I in 1697 to allow them to build a larger church instead of the small wooden one. In the new church a side altar dedicated to St. Anthony and donated by the Spanish "field marshal Count Anthony Al Gaudente" was put up. Devotion to St. Anthony in the new church grew ever stronger.
That is why St. Anthony the finder of lost property has been celebrated and honoured in the Osijek church of the Holy Cross for over three centuries. Devotees are attracted to it all year long and not just on St. Anthony's feast-day, 13 June.

Today devotees gather every Tuesday morning and evening for a prayer to the saint and for the Mass, and especially during devotion of 13 Tuesdays when the number of devotees grows as the feast-day approaches. On 13 June tens of thousands of St. Anthony's devotees come from Osijek and the surrounding area.

Several priests hear confessions of the multitude of the faithful who come to make confession, take Communion, renew themselves spiritually, give their thanks to God and St. Anthony of Padua. At the same time they don't know that they can't approach the saint who carries Baby Jesus in his arms if they are not friends of Jesus.
The church and monastery courtyard are already full of people at 3 a.m. and they don't empty until 9 p.m..
The celebration of St. Anthony in Osijek is still a confirmation of perennial persistent work of the Osijek Franciscans from the times when they governed near-by parishes and performed as parish vicars. St. Anthony's feast continues not only as a mere come-together of Catholics from Osijek and the surrounding area, but as a living proof that the Franciscan order lies at the heart of the common people.
Feast of St. Anthony is celebrated in all our Slavonian monasteries, but the greatest number of people attend precisely in the Osijek monastery.