Every Pet’s Blessing

PetSmart - Catherine Mabe / Pets.com
June 2, 2009

You’ve heard the saying “All dogs go to Heaven,” but during the Blessing of the Animals, places of worship around the country (and the world) do a little something extra to make sure that’s the case. In honor of St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of ecology, countless churches and monasteries offer up benedictions to all manner of pets, great and small. In many cases, the blessings occur during the month of October, when The Feast of St. Francis is traditionally held.

“Creatures minister to our needs every day. Without them, we could not live, and, through them the human race greatly offends the Creator every time we fail to appreciate so great a blessing,” St. Francis is credited with saying. Legends have been passed down extolling his rapport with animals and extending so widely that he preached to birds and tamed a wolf with only his words. Even so, there is evidence that the tradition of blessing animals cropped up even before his time.

Diana L. Guerrero, who wrote, “Blessing of the Animals: A Guide to Prayers & Ceremonies Celebrating Pets & Other Creatures,” found that the Catholic tradition of blessing pets can be traced back via anecdotal evidence to the fourth century and, specifically, to St. Anthony Abbot (also known as St. Anthony of the Desert). “Tales indicate the current Western animal-blessing traditions originated in Italy. Associated with St. Anthony, the patron saint of the animal kingdom, these were probably the historical antecedents of blessing ceremonies performed in England, Switzerland, Austria, Spain and Mexico,” she writes.

Guerrero continues, “In Rome, an annual religious service called the Benediction of Beasts is performed…This benediction lasts for several days because citizens and visitors across the social strata send livestock and pets for blessing at St. Anthony’s shrine. The belief is that when animal attendees are sprinkled and sanctified, they receive the additional protection of the saint.”

You may have seen a painting, statue or stained glass window of St. Anthony in your travels—if you have, you’d know him by the pig that’s nearly always accompanying his likeness. It is said that St. Anthony cured a very sick pig who then became his faithful companion and, accordingly, the order in Frances established in honor him exercises an old papal privilege of raising pigs that are allowed to roam freely. 

In her book, “Holy Dogs and Asses: Animals in the History of Christian Tradition,” author Laura Hobgood-Oster calls such blessings a contemporary cultural phenomenon. “In the last two decades of the twentieth century, this seemingly ‘new’ ritual infiltrated the Christian liturgical cycle throughout the United States (and in some other part of the world….),” she writes. “The scattered history is suggestive but not definitive. Blessings of animals have taken place in the history of Christianity, but they have morphed in meaning, form and location…the end of the twentieth century witnessed an incredible growth, or maybe a rebirth, of animal blessings as they transformed, changed and became associated directly with The Feast of St. Francis.”

The blessing tradition has changed indeed. Today, you’re far more likely to run into more pampered pets than you are any beasts of burden if you plan on attending your local blessing. But don’t count out horses, cows or even yaks—in the tradition of both St. Anthony and St. Francis, all animals are welcome and counted as a blessing.

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