Patrons of Nature

When anyone asks about the patron saint of nature, everyone’s first thought is of Francis of Assisi. Rightly so, he is the most famous saint associated with nature. There are many stories of his dealings with nature in general, but perhaps the two points for which cemented this association was his Canticle of the Sun and the incident with the wolf. Easy to see why considering the Canticle praised God’s work in creation and how he takes the wolf. There is another reason for him being the most well known, he is the one saint associated with nature for the longest time. Most other saints came later. In fact, the next best known saint was a member of the Franciscan order.

This is St. Anthony of Padua. He is best associated with looking for lost items, or even people, as he is quite quick at finding things. But in several European countries, especially Portugal, St. Anthony’s day is celebrated with great pomp and succor. Part of the festivities are two big blessings, the blessing of bread and the blessing of animals. This tradition started because of a few miracles from St. Anthony. One of those was a bet between St. Anthony and an atheist. The atheist bet his donkey would ignore God in the Holy Eucharist. He starved the poor animal so it would go directly to its food, but when the moment came and the Holy Eucharist was revealed, the donkey knelt at the feet of Anthony, who was holding the monstrance. This converted many, including its owner. The other miracle was when Anthony could not get anyone to listen to the Gospel, so he went and preached to the fish. They popped their heads out and listened to every word.

This next saint has recently been made a saint, Saint Kateri Tekawitha, a Mohican maiden known for her piety and kindness. Miracles attributed to her were more about illnesses, but she is given the patronage of nature and ecosystems due to her people’s way of life. She is called Lily of the Mohawks, as such she is more associated with the flowers and plants than the animals, like Francis and Anthony are. St. Rose of Lima is also a patron of flowers, but flowers in particular. Kateri was given all of nature.

But those are the three top saints associated with nature in general. Most other saints are given patronage of one or a few parts of nature, like St. Rose with flowers, St. Gertrude of Nivelles with cats and mice, St. Roch with dogs, and St. Brigid with cows. St. Martin de Porres did feed a cat, a dog, and a mouse out of the same bowl, as such, he was given patronage of animals too. Yet one look through each of their stories will definitely give a new look on nature and how to find God in it.