Unknown- St. Blaise, who?

3 February

In the middle of all the hubbub of the holidays, Christmas, New Years, MLK, Groundhog Day, we have forgotten to pause for one of the great saints, a bishop who is venerated as St. Blaise. Perhaps that should be spelled Blaze, because the practice of throat blessings with crossed candles originated with him, sort of. Supposedly, he saved a boy, who was choking on a fishbone, probably with an old fashioned Heimlich maneuver. I don’t think crossed candles would have been effective. At any rate, this cave dwelling bishop from Armenia had been arrested for being a Christian, would not recant, and embarked on a career of healing and praying in prison. The persecutors tried to drown him, but they drowned instead, and finally he was done in by being beaten and torn with wool combs. I am not making this up… someone else did a long time ago. He has a long list of patronages: against coughs, goiter, whooping cough, and any other diseases of the throat. He also is the patron saint of wool combers and weavers… go figure. Just for perspective, he died about the same time as St. Patrick was born in the early 300s.

So the celebration of the feast of St. Blaise (or Blaze as I would imagine it spelled correctly) was important in our upbringing. On February 3rd, we paraded to church ready for a miracle or protection. Our sore throat was about to be cured, or we had health care from sore throats for another year. The priest came by each person who was kneeling at the altar rail, and said something in the universal tongue of Latin as he held the crossed candles at our throats. There was immediate relief, sort of like a tickle, and we would actually feel better after the ceremony.(If that didn’t work, we would be able to have a do over with a glass of Easter water in the spring.) With all that we swallowed, I guess we were pretty well protected.  Thank Blaise for that!

I wonder how come there are no hymns to Blaise like there are to Patrick. His throat idea seems far more reasonable than the lucky shamrock of Patrick. Probably because he lived, thrived and died in Armenia instead of Ireland, and despite his great work, dedication to prayer and steadfastness of faith, he remains virtually unknown. So let’s give a shout out to St. Blaise, and all the other unknowns who today live quiet, dedicated, and thoughtful lives. Some of them are true miracle workers.