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Saints for real life

Patron Saint of Animals

St. Francis of Assisi

Every October, parishes bless dogs, cats and horses in Francis's name. The custom is real and the instinct behind it is right, but it grows from something larger than fondness for animals: Francis understood every creature as belonging first to God, and he spoke of them accordingly.

“Praised be You, my Lord, with all Your creatures.”
St. Francis of Assisi, Canticle of the Creatures
Saint Francis of Assisi in a gray Franciscan habit.

Why Catholics turn to St. Francis

  • The small chapel of the Eremo delle Carceri set among the woods on Monte Subasio above Assisi. Creation as kin The Canticle of the Creatures calls the sun brother and the moon sister. Francis was not being poetic about nature; he was placing every creature under one Father.
  • The plain stone church and portico of San Damiano below the walls of Assisi. The crucifix at San Damiano The conversion came first. Praying in a ruined church outside the walls, Francis heard the call to rebuild, and took it literally before he understood it.
  • The small stone Porziuncola chapel standing inside the basilica built around it. A very small church The Porziuncola is the chapel Francis repaired and loved most, and where he died. A vast basilica was later built to shelter it.
  • The domed Chiesa Nuova in Assisi, built over the site venerated as the family home of Saint Francis. Where he came from The Chiesa Nuova stands over what tradition identifies as the house of his father, a cloth merchant whose trade Francis renounced in the town square.

Start with the answer

Why is St. Francis the patron saint of animals?

Saint Francis of Assisi in a gray Franciscan habit.

St. Francis of Assisi is the saint Catholics associate with animals. The connection comes from the earliest accounts of his life, in which he preaches to birds and calls creatures his brothers and sisters, and from his own Canticle of the Creatures. His feast is October 4, when many parishes bless animals, and his tomb is in the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi.

The association is old and it comes from the sources rather than from later sentiment. Thomas of Celano, writing within a few years of Francis's death in 1226, describes him preaching to birds near Bevagna and speaking of creatures as brothers and sisters. Francis's own Canticle of the Creatures, composed near the end of his life, praises God through Brother Sun, Sister Moon, Brother Wind and Sister Water. The later collection known as the Little Flowers adds the best known story, the wolf of Gubbio, which is devotional tradition rather than documented biography.

It is worth being exact about what the Church has formally said. Francis has never been declared patron of animals by decree. What he was formally given, by St. John Paul II in 1979, is the patronage of those who promote ecology. The animal patronage is popular rather than juridical, which does not make it wrong; it makes it the kind of patronage the faithful conferred by praying it for centuries.

The custom of blessing animals on October 4 grew out of that. Catholics bring a dog or a horse to be blessed not because Francis guarantees the animal's health, but because a creature is a gift and the right response to a gift is to give thanks for it. That is the whole logic of the Canticle, and it is why the devotion has never really been about pets alone.

Read his full life Visit his tomb in Assisi
“Praised be You, my Lord, with all Your creatures.”
St. Francis of Assisi, Canticle of the Creatures

Assisi, and the hills around it

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  1. Two days in Assisi The basilica, the tomb, Santa Chiara and San Damiano, with time to walk between them.
  2. Walk up to the Carceri The hermitage on Monte Subasio, where Francis and the first friars withdrew to pray.
  3. The city itself Assisi is small enough to cross on foot and rewards staying overnight.
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Photo credits
  1. Hero. Basilica di San Francesco d'Assisi, Assisi, Italy. Christoph Strässler / Wikimedia Commons. Source. CC BY-SA 2.0.
  2. Creation as kin. Gunnar Bach Pedersen / Wikimedia Commons. Source. Public Domain.
  3. The crucifix at San Damiano. Laurajsi / Wikimedia Commons. Source. CC BY-SA 3.0.
  4. A very small church. Caba2011 / Wikimedia Commons. Source. CC BY-SA 4.0.
  5. Where he came from. Gunnar Bach Pedersen / Wikimedia Commons. Source. Public Domain.
  6. The tomb. José Luiz / Wikimedia Commons. Source. CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped from the original.
  7. The Basilica. Fabriziogitto / Wikimedia Commons. Source. CC BY-SA 4.0.
  8. Santa Maria degli Angeli. Einaz80 / Wikimedia Commons. Source. CC BY-SA 4.0.