Saint Blaise

Bishop and Martyr

Feast Day

February 3

Life

d. 316

Born

Sebaste, Armenia (modern Sivas, Turkey)

Blaise was bishop of Sebaste in the Roman province of Armenia Minor and a martyr under the persecution that followed the edicts of Licinius, about the year 316. The historical sources for his life are largely later (sixth century onward) and have legendary accretions, but his martyrdom in Armenia under Licinius is well-attested in early Greek synaxaria. His Greek name (Blasios) appears in early Eastern menologies on February 11; the West observes his memorial on February 3.

Tradition holds that, before his execution, he was tortured with iron combs (whence his patronage of wool combers), and that on the way to martyrdom a mother brought him her son, who was choking on a fishbone; Blaise's prayer healed the boy. From this episode comes the popular Blessing of Throats observed in Latin Catholic parishes on his feast day, in which the priest holds two crossed candles, blessed the previous day at the Presentation, against the throats of the faithful and prays: "Through the intercession of Saint Blaise, bishop and martyr, may God deliver you from every disease of the throat and from every other evil. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen."

The Book of Blessings of the Roman Ritual contains the official form of the blessing of throats. Blaise's veneration spread early in the Christian East and was carried to the West by the eighth century. He is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, a group of saints invoked in late medieval Germany against various afflictions. His relics are preserved at Maratea in southern Italy and at Dubrovnik (Ragusa) in Croatia, of which he is patron.