St. James of Venice
“St. James of Venice,” in Acta Sanctorum, ed. by the Bollandists「Société Des Bolalntistes」, quoted in William H. Leckey, History of European Morals 「Google Books」 (London, 1870). 「Roger Pearse has graciously made availabe a list of the volumes of the Acta Sanctorum online.」
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)
