Saint Blaise, Bishop and Martyr

Blaise is believed to have been a physician and bishop of Sebaste in Armenia, and to have been put to death under the Emperor Licinius and the prefect Agricolaus in the early 4th century. There is no evidence of a cult in either the East or West prior to the 8th century, and the accounts written in Lives in Greek and Latin are believed to be purely fictitious.

But according to these, he was the son of rich and noble Christians, and was consecrated bishop at a very young age. After becoming a bishop, a new persecution of Christians began and he received a message from God to take refuge in the hills. While there, a woman brought him her son, who was near death because of a fish bone stuck in his throat. Blaise restored the boy back to health.

Later, men hunting in the mountains came on a cave surrounded by wild animals who were sick.  Blaise walked among them unafraid and cured their illnesses.  Recognising Blaise as a bishop, he was captured and brought back for trial.  On the way, he persuaded a wolf to release a pig belonging to a poor woman. When Blaise was sentenced to be starved to death, the woman, in gratitude, sneaked into the prison with food and candles.

The tradition says he was martyred by being beaten, attacked with iron carding combs and finally beheaded. Now, at the annual blessing of throats on his feast day, two candles tied together in the shape of a ‘V’ are used in the ritual. In Latin, the blessing prayer is:

Per intercessionem Sancti Blasii liberet te Deus a malo gutteris et a quovis alio malo.

This translates as:

“May God at the intercession of Saint Blaise preserve you from troubles of the throat and every other evil.”

Water with the blessing of St Blaise is also given to sick cattle. Because the iron combs with which he was tortured were similar in appearance to wool-combs, for a long time, Blaise was the patron of wool-combers.

He is also patron saint of the city of Dubrovnik (where he is known as Sveti Vlaho) since 972 AD. Here, on 3 February, the relics of the saint, his head, a piece of bone from his throat and his right and left hands, are paraded in reliquaries.

Blaise is also listed as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. The shrine at Canterbury in England claimed to have his relics and at least four miracles were recorded as happening there. The last one of these was dated 1451.

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Friday of Week 4 of Ordinary Time – First Reading

Commentary on Sirach 47:2-11

Today we have our final reading about David. It comes from the poetic and apocryphal Book of Sirach (also known as Ecclesiasticus), which contains a lengthy section (chaps 44-50) praising the great figures of Israel’s history. Here we have Sirach’s eulogy of David which in poetic language recalls the highlights of his life.

David was a person set apart, in the way that in a sacrifice the fat is set apart from the rest of the flesh offering. From his youth, he stood out:

He played with lions as though they were young goats
and with bears as though they were lambs of the flock.

He was still a boy when he took on the Philistine giant, Goliath, and brought him down with one shot from his sling, thus relieving his people of their shame. Because of this he won the enthusiastic support of the people:

So they glorified him for the tens of thousands.

This is in contrast to Saul who, they said, only killed his thousands.

He was regularly victorious against their enemy, the Philistines and “crushed their power” (or “horn” in some translations).

At the same time, he constantly gave glory and praise to his Lord. David is famous in the Old Testament as a maker and performer of music. The Psalms have been attributed to him although, of course, he could not have written them all as their composition extends over a long period of time.

He created liturgies so that feasts could be celebrated with fitting splendour:

…while [the people] praised God’s holy name
and the sanctuary resounded from early morning.

The deeply sinful parts of his life are summed up in one short sentence:

The Lord took away his sins
and exalted his power forever;
he [the Lord] gave him a covenant of kingship
and a glorious throne in Israel.

It is right to concentrate on a person’s virtues and achievements and especially their relationship with God and their fellow-men. That is what Sirach does here.

Unfortunately, the words of Mark Antony about Caesar in Shakespeare’s play are often too true:

“The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.”

But a Latin saying is more to be followed:

De mortuis nil nisi bonum.

This translates as:

“Say nothing but good about those who have died.”

Yet, what makes many of the saints, saints, is precisely how sin was turned to good in their lives. We can think of Paul, Augustine and Ignatius Loyola, among the many others.

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