Last Sunday, the Franciscan community together with the rest of the Catholic world celebrated the feast of St Francis of Assisi.

During the days before the feast, the Franciscan Friars in Ghajnsielem organized several activities at St Anthony's Church related with Saint Francis. The highlight of the celebrations took place last Sunday morning during the blessing of the pets and horses. The ceremony was held by Fra Alfred Sciberras. The bond between person and pet is like no other relationship and it is no wonder why so many people enjoy the opportunity to take their animal companions to church for this special blessing.

St Francis of Assisi, one of the most beloved of the saints, lived in the Italian region of Umbria between 1182 and 1226, and founded the largest Religious Order in the Christian world. He died on October the 4th 1226, at the old Porziuncola chapel that he had restored years earlier, in an area just below he town of Assisi. He was canonized less than two years later, on July the 16th 1228, by Pope Gregory IX.

The followers of St Francis arrived on the island of Gozo some two hundred years later, during the late Middle Ages, and they have remained with us ever since.