Chennai: St Thomas Basilica in Santhome, Chennai, will celebrate October 4, World Animal Day, as the day of the Feast of St Francis of Assisi who is regarded as the patron saint of animals. “He was a nature lover, so we will have a special blessing for animals between 11 and 11.30 am,” says Rev Fr Louis Mathias, parish priest of the Basilica. He added that on the Maatu Pongal day a similar ceremony was held when animals that are helpful to farmers were blessed.
“A similar ceremony was held six years ago at St Thomas Basilica,” says Chinny Krishna, chairman emeritus, Blue Cross of India, which is organizing the event. “We usually try and conduct the ceremony when October 4 falls on a Sunday. Incidentally, it was on October 4, 1968, that we got the Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals to gazette their first set of rules on animal experimentation in India.” A few churches and temples across the city are planning to conduct similar ceremonies. Every year, special prayers are being held at a Ganesha idol located under a peepal tree at the C P Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation.
