Do Animals Have Souls?
There is a story that on the evening of his death, a cloud of larks, grieving for him, wheeled over his house and sang their farewells. The larks, like the other animals of that time, were losing a great friend. He felt so strongly for the mistreated animals of his days, for the whipped horses, captured birds and hungry dogs, that he went to the authorities, givernors, and finally to the emperor, pleading for a law protecting them from abuse. He asked for hostels where strays could be housed and fed and he raged over the caging of the Larks.
ALthough the best-known saint who cared for animals, Francis was not the only one. Gerasimus the Abbot bound up the wounds of a lion he found near the river Jordan with a thorn in his paw. Walaricus fed the birds that came to eat while he admonished intruding visitors, "Do let these innocents eat in peace."
One of St. Francis's biographers asserts that one day he was in the town of Alviano, preparing to preach to the townspeople. It was late afternoon, a time when hundreds of swallows circled over the square, which resounded with their unceasing twitter. As the crowd waited in the tense silence for the sermon to begin, the swallows kept coming in even greater numbers, circling closer and closer and filling the square with their voices so that nothing else could be heard. The saint waited for a while, watching the swallows. Finally he turned to them and said in his soft voice: 'My brothers and sisters, the swallows, it is now time for me to speak. You have been speaking enough at this time.' And immediately, the swallows were silent. They settled down, lowered their heads in respectful worship and listened silently to the sermon as did the people below in the square. When Francis had finished and the people sang a song of jubilation and praise, the swallows, too, joined in the voices of joy. The inhabitants of Alviano, witnessing this extraordinary occurrence, exclaimed: 'A miracle! A miracle!'
The saint lived his love for all of God's creatures big and small. His reverence for all life is an inspiration for us all to follow."
Check the scriptures, start with the stories of the creation since that is where we read most accounts of animals being created. NEPHESH CHAYA is the word phrase in Hebrew most often translated to mean "soul."
Latest Articles