Patronage
3 saints are venerated as patrons of animals, led by Francis of Assisi (feast day October 4).
1181 — 1226 · Feast day: October 4
Francis of Assisi — the 'Little Poor One' — stripped himself naked in the public square to renounce his inheritance and embrace radical poverty. He preached to birds, crossed enemy lines to meet an Egyptian sultan, and became the first recorded person in Christian history to receive the Stigmata, the physical wounds of Christ.
1579 — 1639 · Feast day: November 3
A Dominican lay brother of mixed African, Spanish, and possibly indigenous descent who endured racial discrimination in colonial Lima. He served the city's poor and sick as barber, infirmarian, and almoner, and was credited with miraculous healings, bilocation, and an unusual rapport with animals. He is depicted with a broom, a symbol of his embrace of menial work as a form of prayer.
c. 251 AD — January 17, 356 AD · Feast day: January 17
Anthony the Great abandoned a wealthy Egyptian inheritance at age twenty and withdrew into the desert, becoming the father of Christian monasticism. After thirteen years of ascetic life in the Nitrian Desert, he spent two decades sealed inside an abandoned Roman fortress at Pispir, then emerged — reportedly radiant with health — to guide the communities that had gathered around him. He died at 105 near the Red Sea, buried in a secret place at his own instruction.