We will continue our tradition of Blessing of the Throats on Sunday February 5th. It is our tradition to bless throats on the Sunday closest to the Feast of St. Blaise. His Feast Day is always on February 3rd
Below is a brief history of this saint and a description of the blessing that is made .
Saint Blaise
was the bishop of Sebaste in Armenia, the city of his birth, during the fourth
century Blaise, who had studied philosophy in his youth, was a
doctor who exercised his art with miraculous ability, good-will, and piety.
When the bishop of the city died, he was chosen to succeed him, with the
acclamation of all the people. His holiness was manifest through many miracles:
from all around, people came to him to find cures for their spirit and their
body; even wild animals came in herds to receive his blessing.
In 316, Agricola, the governor of Cappadocia and of Lesser Armenia, having arrived in Sebastia at the
order of the emperor Licinius to kill the
Christians, arrested the bishop. As he was being led to jail, a mother set her
only son, choking to death of a fish-bone, at his feet, and the child was cured
straight away. Consequently, Saint Blaise is invoked for protection against
injuries and illnesses of the throat.
Regardless, the governor, unable to make Blaise renounce his faith, beat
him with a stick, ripped his flesh with iron combs, and beheaded him.[6]
In many places on the day of his feast the blessing of St.
Blaise is given: two burning candles, are held in a crossed position by a priest
over the heads of the faithful or the people are touched on the throat with
them. At the same time the following blessing is given: "May Almighty God
at the intercession of St. Blaise, Bishop and Martyr, preserve you from
infections of the throat and from all other afflictions". Then the priest
makes the sign of the cross over the faithful.
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