Why blessing animals has become popular in recent decades

Shortly after Pope Francis visited the United States in September, many churches invoked his namesake, St. Francis of Assisi, in services of blessing animals. From the spectacular event at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan to small gatherings of pets and pet owners on church lawns, Americans around the country marked Francis’s feast day, October 4, by blessing the animals.    

They may not have realized that blessing the animals is a recent and very American development. Not only does it meet a very contemporary set of needs, but it represents a sea change in the way we practice religion.

There are some precedents for the contemporary celebrations. Roman Catholics, particularly in southern Europe and Latin America, had well-established traditions of blessing animals, but the blessings were associated with St. Anthony Abbot, not with Francis, and they were oriented toward working animals, not pets.