On Saturday, Januarty 17th at 11:45 am, all people are invited to bring their household animals to Puerto del Cielo, the chapel of Hacienda San Angel, at Miramar 363, Colonia El Cerro, Downtown Puerto Vallarta.
This event is Free and Open to the Public. Refreshments will be available.
Animals (household pets only) will be blessed by Esteban Salazar Gonzalez, Parroco
This event is sponsored by SPCA de PV
St. Anthony Abbot, much venerated throughout Italy, is a hermit-saint who died in the deserts of Egypt on January 17th in the fourth century (not to be confused with St. Anthony of Padua, a Franciscan saint of the thirteenth century). Legend has it that during his periods of prayer and fasting in the desert, his only companions were the animals. Occasionally, the local people brought him bread. An integral part of St. Anthony’s feast day, even today, is the blessing of the animals followed by the receiving of the pane benedetto (“blessed bread”). Like most feast days in Italy, the Feast of St. Anthony is intertwined with the ancient Roman world. The long period between the winter solstice and summer equinox was replete with festivities and rites of purification, of the animals, the fields, the people – propitious offerings for fertility and regeneration of the cosmos. Today, under the veil of religious feast days, local customs are tied to those ancient rites of fecundity and regeneration. The blessing of domestic animals on the Feast of St. Anthony was considered auspicious, keeping away evil forces from the home and land, bringing fertility, fecundity.
The mission of SPCA de PV is to help fund and promote sterilization,
adoption and healthcare efforts for companion animals in the Puerto
Vallarta area, with the goal of eliminating the euthanasia of
healthy and adoptable animals. Monies raised will support these
various goals in ways that are most feasible within the community.