Today is the feast of St. Blaise, which many of you may know means Blessing of Throats! Blaise lived in Armenia in the early 4 ^th century and was a physician and a bishop. He was very good at both jobs. People came from all corners of the earth to be healed by him this continued even after he was made bishop. Now, you might wonder if he was able to heal through medical science or through miracles. They answer is: both. This is common amongst certain saints who had medical skills (I am thinking also of St. Martin de Porres). They used both science and prayer to help people, and often they would even pretend that the science had caused the healing and not a miracle because they didn’t want to draw attention to themselves. Saints tend to be quite humble. With Blaise, it is said that even wild animals made pilgrimages to see him and be healed!

In his biography, the Acts of St. Blaise, there is related the story of how his life ended:
“ 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. Regardless, the governor, unable to make Blaise renounce his faith, beat him with a stick, ripped his flesh with iron combs [the combs were used to comb through wool, but here used to tear his skin], and beheaded him.”

This is the last miracle of a saintly man. Even as he is being led to his own torture and death, he stops and prays for a child. To the last, he thinks of others. In the Church, we know that the saints even after death remain with us. How much more does Blaise continue to think about ways to help us? He has a special desire to pray for us and intercede with Our Lord on our behalf for medical issues. I would say that he is a good patron saint to pray to for all illness in ourselves or in animals, but in particular, from this last miracle we can see how he has come to be concerned with throats; colds, sore throats, cancer, and all other illnesses.

If you would like to ask for prayers, today is a great opportunity. When Blaise was in prison awaiting death, a woman brought to him two candles to light up the darkness of the prison cell, which is explains why the blessing is given after two candles are consecrated as a visible sign of God’s desire to heal. Our Lord came into the world as a light in the spiritual darkness. He heals physically, we really do believe in miracles, but more importantly he heals us spiritually. I suspect that if Blaise was here right now, he would insist that his spiritual duties as a bishop were far more important than the physical healings he was involved in. The healing that Our Lord brings is a sign of the greater love he has to save our souls.

The two candles are held up and crossed over the throats and the 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".

Now, what comes immediately to mind is physical healing from sore throats and the like, but if it is true that Spiritual illness, what we call sin, is worse for us even than physical illness, we ought to ask St. Blaise to help us also in the area of sins of the throat and tongue: Cursing, gossip, angry words, and unkind remarks. The Scriptures mention often the ways in which our speech can lead us astray. We may consider ourselves devout, but if our manner of speech doesn’t reflect our faith, St. Paul says that we are like a ship without a rudder. We have no direction.

Whether you are able to make it to a blessing of the throats this Tuesday or not, take a moment and ask St. Blaise to pray for you, both for physical protection and healing during the winter months when throats are particularly vulnerable, and more importantly that all spiritual evil which attacks the throat be healed. May our words always imitate those of Our Lord, who was a light to a dark world.