Reading Notes: Saints and Animals, Part A

Illustration of Saint Philip Neri with his dog. Source: Catholic Animals.

1. Saint Kentigern and the Robin by Abbie Farwell Brown (Part 1, Part 2)

• Saint Servan is in charge of boys' school in Glasgow, Scotland where Kentigern was top of his class, so Servan favored him
• Other boys in his class got jealous of his success, so tried to make Kentigern fail by talking over him, teasing him, and attempting to get him into trouble
• Since these attempts didn't work, the boys figured they would need a well-planned trap for Kentigern to fall into so he would get in trouble
• The boys' minds thought about getting him in trouble with the main fire of the school used to make food, warm the rooms, and to light candles for church services since it would be a near tragedy to have to restart it
• On Kentigern's week to tend to the fire, the boys hatched a plan and put the fire out, making it seem like he was careless enough to let it go out, but he was able to set a new log on the ashes and get a flame to catch
• To spite their failure, the boys decided to try and get Kentigern in trouble again by killing a robin that Servan loved dearly and blaming it on him
• Once the boys killed the bird, showed Servan, and blamed it on Kentigern, Servan questioned him with belief that he had committed the act
• Kentigern proved that it was not him by holding the bird together, praying to God, and asking to undo the undeserving death which held the bird together and brought him back to life so he could chirp and flap his wings to Servan's shoulder
• Servan saw that Kentigern was innocent and helped guide him through school until he became the saint he is today
• The vicious boys in his class gave up trying to get him in trouble and began respecting him instead

2. Saint Blaise and His Beasts by Abbie Farwell Brown (Part 1, Part 2)

• Saint Blaise grew up in a town where it was common to be a heathen rather than Christian, but he kept his faith and was "full of sympathy for everything that lived", so much so that he studied medicine and became a "doctor"
• Wild animals loved him along with humans and pets because he would not hesitate to talk kindly to them and heal them if they needed it
• Example: a poor woman went to his home (a forest cave) and told him of a wolf that stole her only pig, so Blaise called upon the wolf and told him to return the pig to her, so it did and was rewarded by the saint with milk
• He became a Bishop, which was a wonderful honor, but also a dangerous position since heathens at that time believed that he would turn everyone into Christians
• The heathens wanted to stop him from advancing in his position as Bishop, but they could not find him since he lived in a forest cave
• Emperor Licinius wanted Christians to be killed at that time, so he ordered his army to search the mountains/forests for any wild beasts for arena games where Christians would be killed
• The army could not find any wild beasts for the games, but they came upon the forest cave where Saint Blaise lived
• The animals were surrounding Blaise while he prayed his morning prayers and did not want to disturb him when the army men showed up, so the men left astonished at what they had seen (they assumed he was some type of god)
• The soldiers told the emperor about this and he ordered that they bring Blaise to him right away since he knew he was a Christian, so they did just that and Blaise agreed joyfully to go with them
• Saint Blaise was jailed and tortured to convert him from Christian to heathen, but he refused and was ordered to be killed by the emperor, which upset the forest animals greatly
• The soldiers were told to drown him, but before he was thrown into the water, he did the Sign of the Cross and was not able to fall below the water surface
• Eager to die for his beliefs, he walked back to shore and was quickly beheaded by the soldiers
• People used to light fires (blazes) in honor of Saint Blaise in February, bringing the animals out of their dens 

3. Saint Comgall and the Mice by Abbie Farwell Brown (Part 1, Part 2)

• Saint Comgall (Irish word for "the goodly pledge" of friendship between man and beast) built a monastery at Bangor with many pupils and friends nearby
• One day Comgall and his friends were walking along a pond and spotted six beautiful swans swimming, so his friends asked if they could bring them to shore and play with them
• Comgall warned them that they have to tempt them with something or else they likely wouldn't approach strangers
• Surely, they refused to approach the boys since they did not have any food, but Comgall went to the edge of the pond and called to them, which made them rush to him although he was a stranger with no food
• During a famine in Ireland, many people, including Comgall and his people, were starving although a prince named Croadh had plenty of grain which he refused to share
• Croadh lived with his "wicked" mother named Luch ("the Mouse" in Irish)
• After many failed attempts by others to get grain from Croadh, Comgall decided to go him himself with a silver goblet worth many bushels of grain, but was turned away
• Since Comgall was friends with mice, he called upon them to let them know of the situation at hand and all the mice in Bangor became enemies of Croadh, crawling into his barns and eating all his grain so that the "mice would have all the grain"

4. The Wonders of Saint Berach by Abbie Farwell Brown (Part 1, Part 2)

• Berach had a vision as a boy in his father's house where an angel led him to the monastery where Saint Coemgen and his doe lived, so that he could learn all the Coemgen knew alongside other boys there
• One day as Berach was watching his favorite mother cow and her calf, he noticed a wolf prowling about near them, so he ran down to save them
• He was too slow and the wolf ate the calf, so Berach had differing opinions on the matter--the mother cow would miss her calf, but the wolf was also hungry
• To make up for the situation, he called to the wolf and brought it and the cow together, telling the wolf that it would now be her son
• Duke Coleman's son at the monastery became ill, so Coemgen sent Berach to heal him since he knew what had happened with the wolf
• Berach set out in the snow to pray for help in healing the child, and once he did, all the nature around him came back to life, bringing many "juicy, tart sorrels" for him to make a salad for the boy and he was healed
• Many years later, Berach became an Abbot and built his own monastery 
• He had an enemy of a man which wanted the land he built his monastery on, who would do whatever he could out of spite to get it, so Berach went to the King for protection but they were both called to court
• The enemy was a rich man who entered very lavishly, whereas Berach only had his robe on, making him appear as a beggar so that the guards would not let him in
• While he was sitting outside the court, a group of boys mocked him and started throwing snowballs at him until Berach breathed on them and froze them in every way
• After this, he breathed on a heap of snow and it turned instantly into a fire for him to keep warm by
• Word got to the king, so he and others went outside to see Berach by the fire and the king came to the conclusion that he was a holy man, so he invited him into the the palace hall
• The rich man regretted messing with Berach, a now known holy man, so he backed off and on Berach's way out of the hall, he unfroze the boys and returned home