Who's a very good boy? Madrid church douses pets with holy water

Michael Francis Gore - Reuters - 17/01
Dozens of dogs and cats, a few parrots and a chicken queued up alongside their owners outside a church in Madrid on Friday, waiting their turn to be blessed by a Catholic priest in a popular annual ritual.
MADRID, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Dozens of dogs and cats, a few parrots and a chicken queued up alongside their owners outside a church in Madrid on Friday, waiting their turn to be blessed by a Catholic priest in a popular annual ritual.
In Spain, the feast day of Saint Anthony the Abbot celebrates pets, as the third-century Egyptian hermit is venerated as a patron saint of animals.
According to legend, he performed numerous miracles involving animals, such as restoring sight to blind boarlets.
On the steps of the baroque Church of St Anthony, 87-year-old pries...
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