For those who missed the furry spectacle on the corner of Church
and First streets Tuesday afternoon, St. Mary School’s annual
blessing of the animals was a delightful circus of wagging tails,
laughing children, amused parents and a betta fish named Betty.
For those who missed the furry spectacle on the corner of Church and First streets Tuesday afternoon, St. Mary School’s annual blessing of the animals was a delightful circus of wagging tails, laughing children, amused parents and a betta fish named Betty.
The mirthful gathering – a centuries-old tradition in the Catholic Church – attracts creatures of all shapes and sizes, whose owners turn out in droves for the yearly benediction of the beasts.
“She’s excited,” said Father Dan Derry, of his New England Shepherd named Bandita, 5.
Turning to his other dog, a mutt named Pancho Villa, 4, Derry mused, “this one is just bewildered.”
Ever the gregarious figurehead of his parish, Derry strolled past lines of students, parents and pets, waving his aspergillum and indiscriminately flinging holy water on animals and humans alike.
Among the recipients was a pudgy Chihuahua named Hercules (fashionably outfitted in a red corduroy coat), a three-legged pit bull named Abby, Jasper the guinea pig, Rio the Rabbit, a pair of cats named Brother Onyx and Sister Raven and a pinto horse named Shoshone.
A few fake animals were even in tow.
“I don’t know … because I love him?” answered third-grader Ailisha Ramos, 8, when asked why she brought along a large, stuffed gorilla, which Derry obligingly blessed.
Her gorilla’s name is Gorilla, Ramos said.
The blessing of the animals takes place every year on Oct. 4, in conjunction with the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi. Known for his love of animals, the Italian Friar and patron saint of animals and ecology was quoted on Tuesday by Derry, who read aloud, “All praise to you, oh Lord, for all these brother and sister creatures,” from Francis’s “Canticle of the Creatures.”
School Development Director, Vicki Campanella, isn’t sure how long the ritual has been practiced at St. Mary’s in Gilroy, but noted “I’ve been here for 24 years, and they’ve been doing it ever since.”
