Next: 17 Jan 2027
St Anthony's Day and the blessing of animals
The feast of St Anthony the Abbot, patron of farm animals, when priests in Spain and Italy bless the livestock of the parish.
Cattle at St Anthony's Day and the blessing of animals
Anthony the Great, the Egyptian hermit of the fourth century, became in medieval Europe the patron saint of domestic animals, and his feast on 17 January is still the day for blessing them. In the villages of Italy, Spain and Portugal, farmers bring cattle, horses, donkeys, sheep and dogs to the church square, or the priest goes out to the stables with holy water. In many places the eve is marked with great bonfires, the falò di Sant'Antonio, and loaves blessed on the day are fed to the animals. In cities the blessing has become a day for pets, but in the hill country of the south it is still a farmers' feast.
The breeds
Also part of it, and being written: Podolica (The grey cattle of the southern Italian hills.), Rubia Gallega (The golden-red cattle of the Galician parishes.), Asturian Valley cattle (The brown beef breed of the Asturian valleys.).
Written by the EveryCow desk with AI assistance. Background: "Anthony the Great" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Maremmana: Zyance, CC BY-SA 3.0, source