Four legs, two legs, Episcopalian, agnostic, furry, feathered or scaled - everyone is welcome at Grace Cathedral's blessing of the animals, an annual celebration of the guy for whom San Francisco is named, St. Francis of Assisi.Although this favorite traditional ceremony traces back to the fourth century, when St. Anthony of the Desert allowed animals into the church to be blessed - most churches now celebrate the event on Oct. 4, the feast day of St. Francis, well-known to Christians for his love of animals. After naming him the patron saint of ecology in 1979, Pope John Paul II wrote that he hoped St. Francis' example would, "help us to keep ever alive a sense of 'fraternity' with all those good and beautiful things which Almighty God has created. And may he remind us of our serious obligation to respect and watch over them with care, in light of that greater and higher fraternity that exists within the human family."
Read more at the SF Chronicle website.
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