Saints on animal and plant life

Saints and animal/plant life. A number of Christian saints have anecdotes and stories about them in relation to animals or plants. In some cases they appeared to possess miraculous powers to speak with animals.

Among examples of such supposed stories include the following.

Anselm of Canterbury

A group of dogs were pursuing a hare and the hare run under this horse as he was riding it. The dogs stopped and the hare continued. Anselm thought the hare reminded him of a poor soul about to die that is surrounded by devils waiting to carry away their prey. And Anselm then forbade the dogs to continue pursuing the hare, and the dogs obeyed and left the hare in peace.

Columba of Iona

Columba, while living on the island of Iona, once supposedly called one of the other monks to him and told him that a heron would arrive in two days on the west side of the island, having flown there from Ireland. And he instructed the monk to go there and take the bird, bringing it back with him to feed it and take care of it for three days as a pilgrim. And after three days it would be ready to leave again, to go back to Ireland. And it all happened as Columba predicted, and the monk found the weak and hungry bird on the shore, took care of it, and released it again after three days.

Another story involving Columba is that there was a fruit tree near the monastery of Durrow in Ireland that was connected to Columba's monastery in Iona. The fruit was plentiful, but it was always bitter. When Columba came to Durrow on one occasion, he came to the tree and blessed it, saying 'In the name of almighty God, all your bitterness shall leave you, O bitter tree, and your fruit until now most bitter shall become most sweet.' And after he did this, the fruit of the tree supposedly did become sweet.

He encountered a very large boar being pursued by hunting dogs in Skye and said 'Go no further, but die where you are now' and after he said this, the boar dropped dead.

Shortly before he died, he supposedly blessed the island of Iona by saying that 'From this hour, from this instant, all poisons of snakes shall have no power to harm either men or cattle in the lands of this island for as long as the people who dwell here keep Christ's commandments'.

A monk named Molua Ua Briúin asked Columba to bless a butchering knife for him, and Columba blessed it without realizing what it was. When he later learned that it was a butchering knife he said, 'I trust in my Lord, that the implement I have blessed will harm neither man nor beast'. And when this knife was later used to slaughter cows, the knife was incapable of cutting the cows' flesh and could not even penetrate the skin. This knife was then melted down and the metal for it was put on all the metal implements used at the monastery of Iona.