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Animal Rights History Timeline » [c485-1450] Medieval Ages » Saint James of Venice

St. James of Venice

Bollandists, Acta Sanctorum

"St. James of Venice," in Acta Sanctorum, ed. by the Bollandists ["An association of ecclesiastrical scholars engaged in editing the Acta Sanctorum" (Catholic.org)], quoted in William H. Leckey, History of European Morals (London, 1870; Google Books: Online Library of Free eBooks).]

Of St. James of Venice—an obscure saint of the thirteenth century—it is told that he was accustomed to buy and release birds with which Italian boys used to play with by attaching them to strings, saying that 'he pitied the little birds of the Lord,' and that his 'tender charity recoiled from all cruelty, even to the most diminutive of animals.' (182)