Paws for prayer as families gather at St Paul’s for Blessing of the Animals

What have St Francis of Assisi and the scores of families who assembled in the car park of St Paul’s church on Saturday afternoon got in common? A fondness for animals is the answer – which is why the church in Mullingar opted to hold its now-annual blessing of animals at the weekend which coincides with the feast day of the renowned Italian saint.

Fr Barry White, CC, and Fr Iulian Gherghel, CC, were the priests who conducted the blessing, and those who attended (mainly with dogs) were delighted at the fact that the church was recognising the importance of their pets.

This year marks the 800th anniversary of the death of St Francis. The saint died on October 3 1226, so the ceremony at St Paul’s was the 800th anniversary to the day.

“Many Franciscan abbeys and monasteries throughout the country and the world would have the tradition of blessing animals on the memorial of St Francis, which is actually on 4 October,” Fr White told the Westmeath Examiner.

This time of year is also recognised by all Christians as an ecumenical season of creation, he continued, explaining that it runs from the start of September through to St Francis of Assisi’s Feast Day, since St Francis is also patron saint of environmentalists.

“And, of course, he has a famous hymn called the Canticle of the Creatures and he referred to the sun and moon as his brother and sister,” said Fr White. He explained that St Francis saw creation as all related to each other in terms of humanity – brothers and sisters in humanity – but that extended also to the animal kingdom and to creation, because it’s all God’s creation.

“So [today] was a celebration of that and especially to bless animals that are dear and personal to people and families, whether a cat, a dog, a rabbit, a fish, a hamster.”

Fr White explained that the philosophy of St Francis was that creation and the environment were gifts from God, and needed to be protected, preserved and cherished. “It’s not just prayer but also concrete actions in terms of how best we can protect and look after the environment and to hand it on to the next generation in a much better state than we found it in, and that’s the nature of it,” he said, as he explained what the “ecumenical season of creation” is about.

In advance of the occasions, worksheets were given out to children parish primary schools. “They coloured in the colouring sheets, they brought them to the event, were given raffle tickets and then there was two prizes – vouchers for a pet store in the town. So that was a way of involving the young people, the children, and also there were treats for the children as well.”

This is the second year the parish has held the blessing of the animals, which the priests now regard as an annual event: “It’s nice that as a parish community in Mullingar, we offer that to our parishioners,” Fr Barry said, adding that he had been delighted at the turnout.

A new face at this year’s event was Fr Iulian Gherghel, a priest on loan to the Meath diocese from the Romanian diocese of Iasi. Fr Iulian arrived in Ireland a month ago, and said the priests based locally have been welcoming and helped him settle in: “It’s a lovely place, and people are more warm than the weather, I can say!” he said.