Welcome to another “Saint’s Monday” Column.  Today Let’s hear about Saint Francis of Assisi.  One of the stories about Saint Francis that truly resonates with me is about my totem animal, the wolf:

It was said that at one point in his life, there was a lone wolf terrorizing the town where Saint Francis lived in Italy.  He ventured out and attempted to tame the wolf.  When the wolf saw Francis it charged at him growling and made to attack.  Francis held up a hand and commanded the animal to stop.  The wolf slowed, approached Saint Francis and lay down at his feet.

The wolf offered his paw when Francis held out his hand and from then on the two were friends and the wolf never challenged anyone in the town again.  Being that wolves are so important to me and such a huge part of my own life this story is the of the biggest reasons I admire  Saint Francis.

Saint Francis is known as the Patron Saint of Animals because of this example and many others.  It was said that birds flocked to Saint Francis when he was out walking and upon his transition it was written that a flock of birds flew down around his service.

Hmmmm.  Does that sound familiar.  Anyone who has followed my blog for sometime should recognize the significance of birds at a funeral.  If you remember in January, 2012 I mentioned going to my Uncle Jim’s funeral and seeing a flock of geese flying over the interment ceremony.  This yet another example of the connectedness of everything.

Animals seem to gravitate to me and not simply domesticated animals.  A few years ago there was a family of fox that lived in the wetlands near my house and every morning for about six weeks in the spring they would trot out of the woods and watch me leave for work.  A few weeks into this experience, two of the three kits approached me and as I bent down to hold out my hand, they each in turn sniffed my hand, looked up at me then raced back into the woods.

I seem to have animal magnetism so to speak, because even domesticated animals sense that I’m not going to harm them.  Pets of people who have no knowledge of me also approach me without any fear, without any anger.  They seem to instinctively understand that I’m a good person.

This is yet another reason I decided to discuss Saint Francis today, because of the similarities between us.

Can you find a saint who you share traits with?  Let me know what you discover.

Be Happy!  Be Well!  Be Positive!
Blessings to you.
—
Chris