The online magazine MonacoRevue.com caught up with internationally renowned artist Nall at the opening of Monaco's Sacred Music Festival just as he was about to take up baby-sitting duties.

"You go in and enjoy the music and I'll look after them," he told his wife as he settled on the steps of Saint Nicholas Cathedral.

The "them" referred to Pnut, a bushy-tailed,
black pooch and Rose, a Yorkie whom Nall said was irritable because she'd had her fur trimmed for the day's outing.

Did they receive a blessing from the Archbishop?

"Of course," Nall said proudly.

They wouldn't miss it; not when their papa was the instigator of the event which saw cats and dogs (and one frog, a priest said) being blessed by Monseigneur Bernard Barsi, assisted by friars from the Basilica of St Francis of Assisi.

The idea for a blessing of the animals came to Nall, an Alabama-born artist based in the French Riviera, when he worked last year among the Franciscans, who commissioned him to interpret the theme of Violata-Pax, translated as "Wounded Peace". (The pieces from that commission, including a large statue of a dove missing its right foot, toured France, Italy, Monaco and the United States.) Inspired by the legend of the love the order's founder St Francis had for all creatures, Nall decided to add a blessing of animals to the Sacred Music Festival he has organized in Monaco for the last five years.

All proceeds from the festival, which draws musicians and choirs from France, Monaco and Italy, go towards saving children of Sudan from hunger and slavery.

"These Sudanese children may be hundreds of miles away, but they are our children," parish priest Father Philippe Blanc wrote in the program. "To be able to accept in this day and age that they be sold like merchandise is to accept man's ruin."

The blessing of the animals took place on the opening night only, but the Monaco Sacred Music Festival continues on June 06 (La Passione Secondo San Marco de Perosi, presented by the choir and symphony orchestra of San Remo) and June 18 (Le Stabat Mater de Rossini, presented by the choir and orchestra of the Nice Opera).

"I think it's fitting to think of the animals and the vulnerable children of Sudan at a festival of sacred music," Nall told MonacoRevue.com, as Pnut and Rose nibbled bits of bread from his hand. "They need us to take care of them."

The event, which was under the patronage of Prince Albert II of Monaco, was attended the aunt of the sovereign, Princess Antoinette, and her granddaughter, Melanie de Massey.

Photos of the evening are available at MonacoReuve.com.