On January 17, like every year, parishioners take their pets, usually to Franciscan churches, to be blessed. The reason why animals are blessed, this day of San Antonio Abad, is because this saint is attributed the protection of animals, the same as San Francisco de Asís.
On January 17, like every year, parishioners take their pets, usually to Franciscan churches, to be blessed. The reason why animals are blessed, this day of San Antonio Abad, is because this saint is attributed the protection of animals, the same as San Francisco de Asís.
San Antonio Abad was one of the holy founders of monasticism, who as a young man read the biblical passage about the rich young man, who rejected Jesus’ request to sell everything and follow him, so the young man, who had been born with an abundance of goods In the year 251, he decided to leave his belongings and follow Jesus.
During his life in the desert, San Antonio received many temptations, represented in the form of animals. For this reason, the painters drew him surrounded by them and that is why people took the idea that he was their protector.
Where does this tradition of blessing animals come from?
In the Middle Ages, the purpose of this blessing was to protect the animals that served as sustenance for man and those that served for field work and transportation. At that time, the health of these animals was important because of the role they played in society.
Pope Francis in his encyclical Laudato Si’, calls upon humanity to recognize the importance of caring for and respecting “the common home”, which is shared with all living beings, inspired by the teachings of Saint Francis of Assisi. , in which he emphasized, that creation includes more than humanity. He always called creatures his brothers and sisters and worked to further expand the fraternity, in which he links men and creatures, in the same relationship with God.
The message of the encyclical Laudato Si’, which is addressed to every person who inhabits this planet, invites us to recognize that we live in a common home and therefore, that we have a common Father.
At present, the modern profile of this custom causes many of the people who go to these temples to put aside their religious beliefs and a spirituality flourishes in them, where pets are an integral part of the family and in many cases, these animals, go to the extreme of being “humanized”. Let us remember what the Catechism of the Church points out (cann 2415-2418) where God entrusts Man with the administration of animals, recognizing the love that can be felt towards them, as long as the affection due solely to human beings is not diverted, or invest sums that should remedy the poverty of men.
But this relationship, which Laudato Si’ teaches us, that everything is connected and in which “we are all in the same boat”, means that we can also take catholicity to the physical environment and we can use the ecological issue as a means of evangelization, where the human being stands as the center and custodian of Creation. Always respecting the binomial immanence/transcendence. Contemplating a given natural order implies elevating a Creator, that given order, where Creation does not imply a fund available to be used, but to be cared for.
Rosa Mª Quero Pérez
Cheerleader Laudato Si´