For the day of St. Anthony the Abbot, Protector of domestic animals, the cardinal this year authorized the celebration of a mass to welcome breeders and exotic animals as well.
All Genoese people were invited together with their own animals, to first have a free complete check-up of their animals for which they were offered a health card. The program also provided the blessing of that card. A parade of horses and riders accompanied by fanfare was held on the street leading to the church.
A ‘wild’ participant this year
In reality, the blessing of animals, in particular pigs, is not directly linked to St. Anthony but I read that it is rather a tradition which got popularity in the Middle Ages on German soil, when it was customary for each village to breed a pig for the local hospital, where they carried out their service of the monks of St. Anthony.
Participating in this year’s blessing, there were cats in their carriers, little birds and hamsters in their cages and little fishes in their tanks full of water. The most numerous and, consequently, the noisiest were the dogs, little ones in the arms of their owners and big ones on a leash, pedigree dogs and mestizos alike.
In addition to the parishioners, those who had come to bless their animal, there were also numerous monks and nuns accompanied by their friends.
At the end of the function, before taking to the churchyard, the priest wanted to thank all those present: those who had just gone there to participate again at the blessing of the animals and those who had gone there not knowing it and were happily impressed and touched by this event.
The church filling up
During the Blessing of the Animals, organized by the volunteers of Genoa’s Animal Protection Association, approximately two hundred people with over one hundred animals participated at the rite, officiated by the parish priest.
The Genoa’s Animal Protection Association wanted to follow the tradition and all the participants were given a small bread bun, blessed during the mass by the parish priest, just as it happened in the past when the farm animals were kept in stables and on farmyards and the priests would come to the farms to donate blessed bread rolls to protect livestock from disease. Those who have not been able to take part in the function are able to pick up a blessed bun at the Animal Association headquarters in the city center until it runs out.
Blessed buns for all animals
Particularly touching was the collective recitation of special prayers in favor of farmed, wild and exotic animals, as well as pets, at the time of the distribution of the blessed bread rolls. There were also some disabled dogs and cats lovingly looked after by the owners and really deserving a special blessing.
There was evening an exotic guest: an abandoned but rescued water dragon that some volunteers have hospitalized and treated (although visually impaired) and then entrusted to a family that assists him with love.
The Genoa’s Animals Association is a private association of volunteers, who have never received government contributions, caring for many elderly stray dogs and rescues and treating every year over 500 injured, sick and traumatized or abandoned animals in difficulty; it also manages with its own volunteers some shelters for dogs and the cattery of Albissola with two nursing departments for cats and wildlife in Savona.
Collecting donations for stray dogs and cats
