Churchgoers around the Hampton Roads area gathered up their cats, dogs, and even a hamster, to be blessed on the first weekend of October. The feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi is celebrated on Oct. 4, marking the day of his death in 1226. A few years after his death, Pope Gregory IX canonized him as a saint and then designated him the patron saint of animals due to his great love for God’s non-human creatures.