Traditional Blessing of the Animals

The traditional blessing of animals will take place on January 17.  It will be at 5:30 p.m. in the atrium of the Templo del Oratorio.  Parish of San Antonio will bless your animals starting at 6:00 p.m.

On January 17, the death of San Antonio Abad is remembered. Antonio Abad was born in Heracleópolis Magna in Egypt, Africa, in the year 251 AD. C. and died in the year 356 d. He was a Christian monk and founded the hermit movement (that is, the hermit movement). Antonio is believed to have lived to be 105 years old. About his life it is said that at the age of 20 he sold all his belongings, gave his money to the poor and retired to live in a local community, sleeping in a sepulchral cave and having an ascetic life (which seeks the purification of the spirit through denial of material pleasures or abstinence). His fame as a hermit brought him numerous disciples that he organized in groups, he is considered the father of Christian monastic life. He is considered the patron of animals, according to the stories of Saint Jerome, when Pablo (hermit disciple) died, Antonio buried him with the help of two lions and other animals; In addition, he cured some wild boar cubs that suffered from blindness and in gratitude, the mother of the cubs always remained by his side.

At the beginning of the devotion of Saint Anthony the Abbot, horses, mules and donkeys were indispensable animals for the work of the fields or the transport of people and merchandise, to have divine protection, the owners of the animals blessed them in search of protection from illness or accident throughout the year.

Currently, the blessing of animals has a meaning for people in the first place: to contemplate, admire and thank God for his marvelous work; and, secondly, an end related precisely to pets: that the Lord pour out his benefits on them, as he does with all living beings.

In San Miguel de Allende the blessing will take place on January 17 at 5:00 p.m. on the steps of the Templo del Oratorio.. You are invited to bring your pets with a bow, collar and leash.

Source