Every August 31, a small plaza outside Oaxaca City’s Templo de La Merced turns into a scene of wagging tails, travel crates, and patient priests with a silver aspergillum. Locals call it a neighborhood tradition; others assume it’s a St. Francis custom. It isn’t. This is San Ramón Nonato’s day—an event whose roots go back to working animals and crop seasons, and which now reflects a city where pets are family. Here’s what happened this year, and why August 31 matters here more than October 4.
Pet blessing at La Merced Oaxaca
On Sunday, August 31, the Templo de La Merced hosted the annual blessing of animals, drawing families with dogs, cats, birds, and more to the historic church in Oaxaca City’s center. The rite coincides with the feast of San Ramón Nonato, a Mercedarian saint whose local devotion is linked to care and protection for the animals that live and work alongside households.
Quadratín Oaxaca documented the ceremony, highlighting the emphasis on the bond between families and their animals. The outlet notes the custom once centered on working animals—yuntas and draft beasts—and has shifted over time toward pets who share daily life in the city.
A neighborhood tradition with Mercedarian roots
San Ramón Nonato was a 13th-century Mercedarian; his feast day is August 31. He is widely invoked in the Catholic world for childbirth and those falsely accused, yet in Oaxaca, a parallel, locally rooted devotion associates his day with blessing animals at La Merced. That local framing is reflected both in current coverage and past cultural notes about the date and place.
This local practice coexists with better-known animal blessings elsewhere—often on October 4 for St. Francis of Assisi, or January 17 for St. Anthony Abbot—showing how Oaxaca’s calendar weaves global Catholic feasts with neighborhood traditions.
What the blessing looks like today
In recent years, city families arrive with pets in carriers, on leashes, or dressed with ribbons and flowers. Priests offer prayers, then sprinkle holy water over animals and their owners gathered in the atrium. That blend of reverence and everyday affection is part of why the tradition endures, and why coverage repeatedly highlights the human-animal bond as much as the ritual itself.
Older reports and photo essays show the range of species locals have brought—dogs, cats, parrots, and occasionally farm animals—underscoring how a ceremony once tied to agricultural rhythms is now equally about companion animals in an urban setting.
This year’s turnout and a short walk to church
Oaxacan broadcasters streamed the scene from outside La Merced, confirming steady attendance and the familiar cadence of prayers and blessings through the afternoon. Community pages also promoted a short neighborhood walk—la “Caminata San Ramón Nonato”—from the Cruz de Piedra to La Merced before the blessing, another sign that the custom is anchored in the barrio as much as in the parish calendar.
Local outlets beyond Quadratín also reported the August 31 gathering this year, reinforcing both the date and the practice’s place in Oaxaca’s cultural life.
Why August 31 matters here
Ask around Oaxaca, and you will hear two answers to “When do you bless pets?” The global answer is October 4, the feast day of St. Francis. The neighborhood’s answer is August 31 at La Merced, because that’s when San Ramón Nonato is celebrated and when neighbors have, for generations, brought animals—first for work and harvest, now for companionship—to be placed under God’s care. That layered meaning is precisely what keeps the ceremony packed.
