Animal blessings

Today is the feast of St. Anthony the Abbott, not to be confused with St. Anthony from Padua. Anyway, the Abbot St. Anthony was a hermit who lived in the desert in Egypt with only animals as his companions, so the story goes. And so on his feast day, domestic animals are blessed. How could Luca miss this?We bundled up, put Luca in his best sweater, and trundled off to church.

This is the outside of the church, known as Christo Risorto, or sometimes unkindly called the modern, ugly church. I don't think it's ugly, just different from the other churches. I have always had a soft spot for misfits.

I asked the Stoic One to take pictures of dogs and their owners. This is my favourite.

They are both so handsome and at peace in their world. This is macho at its best!

Not all of the dogs were peaceful. They greeted one another in peace but some had issues as we waited for the priests to arrive.

Some dogs were quite large:

Some dogs were quite small:

Some dogs were well behaved, such as Luca and Georgia

Others, not so much

We had a few horses show up

And the priests seemed happy.

All in all it was a successful day. No major fights. We all received a blessing as well as an individually wrapped roll, and we continued on our day. Hope you all had a lovely Sunday as well.