The relationship between saints and animals
"Pacify yourself
and heaven and earth will be pacified for you".
Abba Isaac
The relationship of
men towards animals perhaps should be presented under the prism of the creation
of the world. We specifically read in Genesis, "and God created the beasts
of the earth after their kind, and the animals after their kind and all that creep
on the earth after their kind and God saw that it was good (Gen, 1:25).
After his creation
man is given dominion over all the animals "over the fish of the sea and
over the foul of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth
(Gen, 1:28).The dominion over the animals extends in their naming when God
brought all the animals in front of him
to give them their name: "...and brought them unto Adam to call
them and whatever Adam called every living thing, that was its name" (Gen, 2:19).Thus man has authority over the animals as on all creation, being a
creation "in the image of God". The animals looked on man as a crown
of the complete creation, for this they not only submitted to him but lived in
harmony between themselves.
The fall of the first
created did not only have a radical change in the relationship with God but
also between man and creation. Having darkened the "image" and
lacking the divine grace, man now is confronted with hostility by the dumb
animals "the beasts and all the animals of the earth seeing him denuded of
the former divine glory, ignore him and immediately became harsh towards
him". The result being that some animals he feared and other animals
feared him.
In Genesis we also
see the decision of God to destroy man "for them being of the flesh"
but as He spares the just Noah and his family so also He takes care of the
animals "for You took care of the animals in the Ark"
In the Deuteronomy
it is noted that one of the main reasons for observing the Sabbath is due to
the need for the animals to rest. In the preamble psalm (103) the caring of
animals is mentioned, "they give drink to every beast of the field; the
wild donkeys quench their thirst" (Ps, 103:11). For the thirst" as to
Joel "and the animals of the valley he cared when the water discharges
dried up". Where as at the second coming of Christ, "I will make a
covenant for them with the beasts of the field and the fowls of heaven and with
the creeping things of the ground" (Hosea, 2:18)
In many instances
in the Old Testament we see the pre-fall relationship of man with the animals,
where an explicit promise is given to the Prophet Elijah, that he will be
provided care for his feeding, "and I have commanded the ravens to
feed you there" (1 Kings, 17:4). We see the raven is a bird by nature
despised bird - that does not even care for its young - carrying meat and bread
to the prophet.
Jonah remains three
days in the belly of the whale ("mark of Jonah") symbolizing the
three day burial and resurrection of the Lord. Later, in Babylonian detention
of Daniel, he remained unhurt in the den of the lions: "They placed him in
the lions pit and he remained there for six days", on which the Apostle
Paul later said, "the mouths of the lions were sealed".
The time of
Christ
Our Lord coming to this world receives the affection of the dumb animals: "and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger" (Luke, 2:7).
The promise of
Jesus to His disciples is that He will protect them from dangers, and He will
give them authority "to tread on serpents and scorpions [...] and
nothing shall by any means hurt you" (Luke, 10:19).
Early Christian
Times
After Apostle Paul
was shipwrecked at Meliti, when the barbarians saw that he was bit by a viper,
they shouted "no doubt this man is a murderer [...] yet justice
has not allowed him to live"(Acts, 28:4).
When however they
saw him remain unaffected, "they changed by saying that it is his
God" Here we see the fulfillment of the promise "and snakes they will
take up" and secondly the miracle results in the changing of the minds of
the Melitians.
The saints
Trophimos and Dorymedon are given as feed to a wild bear and because they
remain unhurt, they are thrown to a leopard and then to a lion. Because even
the lion did not bother them, the beast tamer started prodding it to attack
them, the lion lunged at him and torn him apart.
In the case of
saint Golindouch not only the martyr remained unhurt by the dragon inside the
pit, but the beast became tame and was resting on her. Similarly Saint John in
a shaft of a dry well, was protected from scorpions and serpents.
Saint Alexander,
bishop of Jerusalem was condemned to be torn apart by the beasts, however after
his prayer, some of them worshipped him by bowing their heads and others were
licking his wounds.
Impressive is the case of Saint Hypatius who killed in a spectacular way a huge snake that had entered in the castle of the emperor Constans. He placed his rod in the mouth of the beast and it followed him to the marketplace where he burnt it in a huge pyre.
The animals
serve the Saints
Further to the
cases of protection of the martyrs from being hurt by the wild animals -which
were described above- our collections describe many cases where the animals
served the Saints in different ways.
Saint Koprios as a
baby was fed by a goat which "grazed with the other goats and when it was
time to ‘breastfeed' the baby, it descended from the mountain and having ‘breastfed'
the child it returned to her usual grazing. The same Saint was ascending the
mountain with a laden donkey which was then wounded by a bear, he then got hold
of the bear, loaded it with the wood and told it "you'll perform the
service of the donkey until it recovers".
In the case of
Saint Makarios the Roman, the lions became the cause to feel his sinfulness:
every day two lions would come to his cell and keep him company. One night he
was tempted by a thought of the flesh and considered it a great sin, because
the lions would not come close to him for ten days.
Well known is also
the case of the lion and Saint Gerasimus the Jordanite, where the beast "was forced to carry water, while in
many depictions it drags the donkey from the bridle (reins) and brings it to
the Saint as a hunt quarry only to be falsely accused that it had killed it.
The care of the
beasts however does not stop in serving a Saint, but continues to the taking
care of the relics, as shown in the case of Saints Philomonas and Apollonius:
Their relics were placed in bags and were cast into the sea where a large
dolphin "took" the bags on its back and brought them to the coast of
Alexandria.
In the life of
Saint Martinus, bishop of Lougdoynoy, there is this happy story that shows the
love of the animals towards the Saints: in the area of Nitria, an ascetic lived
on wild herbs but did not know how to select the good from the poisonous, with
the result that he would suffer with convulsions. This way he stopped eating
for seven days and was on the verge of dying. Then an ibex (type of deer). Approached him and dropped him a bag of
vegetables. The beast with its mouth selected the good from the poisonous
herbs. This way the ascetic taking this as an example of what to eat, he was saved
from death.
The Saints heal
or send away the animals
For this reason,
flooded by the love for God and man, the saints have great reserves of love,
that they pray also for the animals and in fact heal them, either because they
suffer and feel compassion for them, or because they are useful to people while
getting rid of the risks that hurt people.
In Saint Mark the
ascetic a hyena visited him and brought her blind cub and acted as if she
begged the Saint to cure it. The Saint having prayed spat in the eyes of the
cub which was then healed. Few days later the hyena brought him a pelt of a
large ram. The ascetic took it after making sure that the hyena understood she
should not harm the sheep of the poor.
Many times the
healing of the suffering animal was nothing more than from a pathological
organic disease, but an animal could also be tormented by demons as we see in
the Synarxis of Saint Martin of Tourins:
"he met a cow that was tormented by a demon and was goring people
with her horns. When the Saint approached, he lifted his hand and ordered the
animal to stop. He sees the demon sitting on the back of the animal. "Go
unclean from the animal and cease tormenting the innocent animal. When it was
freed, the cow fell at the feet of the saint. He then ordered it to rejoin the
herd, stronger than the sheep.
The animals show
gratitude and contrition to the Saints
The animals which received benefits from the saint - within the framework of communication that develops - express their gratitude with different ways to their benefactor, such that the biographer of Saint Martinus wrote: "for this we sigh that the beasts feel the kindness and the people do not revere it".
Something similar
is also the previous example of the ascetic Mark with the hyena that gave him
the sheepskin as a gift for the care she received and the healing of her cub.
The mourning of the animal for the death of a
saint
The lion that
served Saint Gerasimus the Jordanian in its customary visit to worship the
elder, was informed by the attending
monk of his demise and when it was led there (to the grave) "it roared greatly and then expired".
Another lion helped
the elder Zosimus to bury the relics of holy Mary of Egypt: "Immediately
when the lion was told the required size of trench, it did so (dug it) and then
buried the body".
The animals talk
about God
Between the other
wonderful signs that we find in the collections, noteworthy are those where the
animals appear to be talking with God or the Saint.
Holy Artemon of
Laodecia was followed by two deer and six donkeys. When he was captured, he
told the animals to report it to bishop Sisinius - who was surprised when a
female deer told him of the arrest of Artemon. While the Saint was being
tortured by being skewered over a fire, the deer would lick his burns and then
said to the torturer: "know impious one that two big birds will grab you
and will drop you in the boiler" as it happened. Also at the martyrdom of
Saint Eutyhius the animals would speak.
Similar is the case
of the wild mules which dragged the corpse of Saint martyr Zoticus, the orphan
feeder, to the emperor Constantius. "Even when they were flogged violently
by the torturers, the human voice invokes everybody to their triumph over the king's
atrocities and lack of reason, calling him blind and insensitive".
Others, denying the
historical validity of the Bible, consider such narrations as myths. More
powerful is the explanation of Holy Chrysostom in his 16th speech on Genesis
where he explains the conversation between Eve and the snake, through which it
is apparently applicable to all the other similar stories in both the Old and
New Testaments. "But perhaps someone may wonder and wish to know if the
beast took part in the conversation. May
this not be so, for always following the scripture it is necessary to consider
that while the saying were of the devil... the beast was used as a specific
tool".
According to this explanation by Saint
Chrysostom it is not this animal but God Himself who gives us the message or
the devil, as was with Eve and the snake.
Contemporary
Saints and Elders
Because the lives of the earlier saints may seem somehow distant from the contemporary world, it would have been an oversight not to mention more recent saints and elders of our days:
b) In the
collections of elder Hadzigeorgis, it is said that the elder made the sign of
the cross on the wild boar that was destroying his garden and it remained
motionless. He then took it by the ear and closed it in the stable under a
"rule". Three hours later he freed it telling it that if it stepped
back he would receive a double "rule". So it happened.
c) Saint Arsenius
the Cappadocian never mounted animals because he did not wish to burden them.
d) From the life of
elder Paisius we see that wild birds would approach him and feed from him. When
some enlightened one told him that he believed in some power but not in Christ
the Saint replied, "you are more stupid than the lizard". To the
great surprise of the man, the elder asked the lizard if Christ existed and the
lizard replied by moving its head affirmatively.
Another
characteristic with the elder Paisius that reminds us of the prophet Elijah, is
the following: "On the Sunday of the blind, being sick, exhausted and
hungry he went out to the garden somewhat unhappy because he had nothing to
eat. He looked at the sea and saw a large bird rising to the sky, such as a
hawk or an eagle that held in its talons a large fish. As it arrived over his
cell, it let go of the fish which then dropped in front of his feet. The elder
prayed, cooked it and then ate it".
A pre-fall
picture
As a crowning over
all the wonderful cases in the relations of the Saints with animals, it is
perhaps worth mentioning the description from the "Thebaid of the
North". Someone visited Saint Paul of Obnaras who lived in a remote area
of the Russian forests. When he saw him he became witness to the following:
"A great number of birds surrounded the Saint. The smaller ones even
climbed in his shoulders and head and he would feed them with his hands. Close
to him was a bear that waited to be fed. Foxes, hares and other animals would
mingle without any aggression between them. It was a wonderful picture of the
first created innocent Adam in the garden of Eden.
The protectors
of the animals: Modesto and Mamas
Our Church
expressing her love for the dumb animals made - in view of their specific
miracles- the Saints Modesto and Mama their protectors. "Miracles brighten
all the earth, from disease and danger you save every soul and your visit soon
stops the pernicious infections of the nurslings (=animals).
In the martyrdom of
Saint Mamanta it is mentioned that they threw him to the wild beasts, which
however stood beside him, joyfully wagging their tails. In agiography, the
saint is depicted sometimes riding a lion and other times holding defensively a
little doe.
Apparently, from
other cases, as well as from Saint Tryphon - protector of gardens- we see that
some distinction is made between the wild animals: The saints, even though they
generally love the animals, they send away or kill the damaging ones (birds,
snakes, locusts) when they become the cause of hardship and suffering of man.
The centre of love is God, then man and
then the animals, in a relationship based on whether they benefit or
harm man, who when benefiting glorifies God.
Church's
blessings on the animals
The Church with her blessings on all the creation - it is not possible not to pray for the animals as well - as for all the creation. This is concluded by the different blessings in the Book of Blessings (Efgologion): blessing against the transmission of animal diseases and of drought.
In particular we
see some characteristic excerpts from the blessing of Saint Modesto: "hearken to this supplication and
remove all deadly disease and hurt from the animals (horses, donkeys, mules, sheep, goats, bees
and the rest of the animals) that are useful in the lives of your servants,
pity all the suffering animals [...] their suffering and their grief miserably
they announce [...] that your servants abundantly enjoy [...] being fully self
sufficient and having left over in every good work and glorify You, the
provider of every thing good".
Concerning the
above prayers we can make the following observations: Firstly, the Church prays
-through the saints who composed the prayers- for the good health of the
animals and the increase of the fruit of the earth, so that man be self sufficient
in necessary goods, but this should not be self serving but "so that there
should be left over in all goods" and "glorify" "in
remembrance of this time, for the glory of God". Three are therefore the
reasons for the well being of the animals a) so that man may be adequately
supplied and not suffer, b) to do good
works and c) to glorify the name of God.
Secondly the reason
that animals suffer - as was already said- it could be due to some demonic
activity: "the devil's envy", "protect against all poison and
entrapment" and thirdly what is truly impressive and is the punch line of
the prayer is on the diseases of the cattle: "guard them oh Lord with the
holy angels".
The animals and
the people today
In our contemporary,
western style urban society, man has drifted away from his natural environment,
thus the relationship between man and animal has been disturbed. Phenomena,
such as excessive animal loving - such as adoption, hospitalization,
inheritance and officially burying dead animals- consist in outrageous
transformation of the normal relationship between humans and animals. All this
is evidently the result of loneliness of contemporary man. However, is it
possible that an ethical problem has been created by this precedence of
affection? Towards whom should this love be manifested? Towards man or animals?
Is it possible some extreme forms of animal love ("the animal has
soul") take us way back to animal worship? Dog, bird, crocodile worship
etc of ancient Egypt?
Conclusions
From all that were briefly presented on the relationship of the saints with the animals, we see that before the fall of the first created period, the holiness and grace that covered man flowed from his relationship with the Creator, made the animals feel this grace and live peacefully with man.
After the fall,
when the "according to the image" had darkened and the grace was
removed, the relationship of man with all the creation became disturbed and the
relationship between man and animal became hostile. Despite everything the care
of the Father Creator did not stop, since He cared for them in the Ark (For You
also cared for the animals in the Ark). In the Old Testament we have seen the
saints and the just were protected unharmed by the wild animals (Daniel in the
lion pit, Jonah in the belly of the whale, Prophet Elijah and the crow).
In the New
Testament we have cases of martyrs who were protected from ‘wild beasts, saints
healing wild animals, which not only served them but mourned for the death of
saints. In parallel our Church prays for the animals - not however
independently- but for the welfare of animals for the benefit of man but also
for the glory of God (‘so that You be glorified").
Besides it was
ascertained that the relationship of saints with the animals is not far fetched
and fairy tales, as many believe in our
time but a tangible reality that continues to our days, as is apparent from the
lives of contemporary saints and elders. Even though the answer for the happy
relationship, that mostly could sound strange and unreal in our ears, has been
exposed in many ways within this small reality and judged expedient - as punch
line - to repeat the answer of Abba Paul to the specific question: " They
asked Abba Paul who was catching with his hand horned serpents, scorpions and
snakes. Tell us what did you do to receive this gift? Forgive me fathers. If
someone attains purity, everything submit to him, as for Adam when he was in
Paradise, before he disobeyed the commandment of God".
