St. Eligius and the Blessing of the Animals

The other day, I saw a note on a church door (the church of San Giuseppe, halfway down the south side of town) that said the feast of S. Eligio would be this Sunday, and would include a procession and blessing of animals.  Anything with a procession, and you can count me in.  Add a blessing of pets, and I'm completely there!  

So, even after going to bed ridiculously late (another member of the family will post on that later, I hope), we made the effort to be down there at 10:10.  

And the church was completely deserted and locked up. Sigh.  Reading more intently (of course, the sign was cryptic, as is everything around here), I saw the name of the S. Prassede church.  Which is halfway down the north side of town and requires going up and over, not around.  A rather grudging husband and handful of children accompanied me as we hoofed our way over there.  

We knew we were on the right side of town when we saw banners hanging out of windows.  These folks cannot resist a banner on a procession day.  The church of S. Prassede?  Closed & locked. Harumph. 

I asked in the hostel that's located next door, and they said that we had in fact missed the procession (I'd gathered that), but that Mass was likely in the church of (!) St. Eligio, which was not far, just by the arch.

Going down a 15% grade (not kidding -- there's a sign), we went through not one, not two, but three arches before hearing the sounds of "Alleluia" filtering into the street.  Late -- but early enough to hear the Gospel reading; life is good...

We crammed ourselves into the tiny church that was already reminiscent of a can of perspiring sardines, and listened to the Gospel & homily, before creeping over to some seats that were available together.  The boys were amused by the chihuahua that was participating in Mass; I enjoyed looking around the church itself.  

The priest indicated after the parting blessing that the animals' blessing would take place outside.  We emerged to the blare of trumpets, the farting of trombones, and the oom-pa of tubas.  Yes!  Our band from the other day had come to celebrate with us!

There were four horses to be blessed (St. Eligius is the patron saint of horses; read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Eligius for more information), and a smattering of dogs.  Jeremy, as usual, insinuated himself into the crowd of animals, and had a lovely time patting noses and backs.  The priest gave a sweet blessing, including scads of holy water, and then we all went home (back up the 15% grade -- if you'd forgotten about it, we unfortunately were not able to!).  

Love,

Alexandra

One of our friends to be blessed.

I can't resist all the cute costumes they wear!
The guys in the blue capes are other parish priests.

Blessing the dogs & sprinkling
the owners simultaneously.

Jeremy with the horses.

Church interior. The floor is worn down in the center.

Ceiling, dated 1643

Just one of the pictures in the frieze

The very imposing facade of the church...
If you didn't already know it was a church, I don't
think you could tell easily by looking!

Aren't the banners cute?

Going back up the hill.
It looks remarkably flat because of the photo.

Okay, I exaggerated.
We didn't go through the 3rd arch.

Jeremy going down
an Etruscan street