Saint Blaise

Saint Blaise
Saint Blaise confronting the Roman governor- scene from a stained glass window from the area of Soissons (Picardy, France), early 13th century.
Hieromartyr, Holy Helper
Born	Sebastia, Cappadocia
Died	c. 316
Honored in	Roman Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Churches Armenian Apostolic Church Eastern Catholic Churches
Feast	January 16 (Armenian Apostolic) February 3 (Roman Catholic) February 11 (Eastern Orthodox and Greek Catholic)
Attributes	Wool comb, candles, tending a choking boy or animals
Patronage	Animals, builders, choking, veterinarians, throats, infants, Maratea, Italy, Sicily, Dalmatia, Dubrovnik, Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, Rubiera, stonecutters, carvers, wool workers

Saint Blaise (also Saint Blase; Greek: Ιερομάρτυς Βλάσιος Hieromartus Blasios, d. c. 316) is a 4th-century Christian martyr. He was a physician, and bishop of Sebastia in Cappadocia (now Sivas, Turkey).^[1] According to his Vita (written c. 8th century) he was martyred by being beaten, attacked with iron carding combs, and beheaded. In the Latin Church his feast falls on 3 February, in the Eastern Churches on 11 February.^[1]

Legend

Statue of Saint Blaise at Holy Trinity Column in Olomouc.

The first reference we have to him is in manuscripts of the medical writings of Aëtius Amidenus, a court physician of the very end of the 5th or the beginning of the 6th century; there his aid is invoked in treating objects stuck in the throat.

The Greek Vita of Blasius was written some 400 years later (BHG 276).

According to this text, Blaise was born and educated as a physician in Sebastia.^[2] From being a healer of bodily ailments, Saint Blaise became a physician of souls, then retired for a time, by divine inspiration, to a cavern where he remained in prayer. As bishop of Sebastia Blaise instructed his people, as much by his example as by his words, and the great virtues and sanctity of the servant of God were attested by many miracles. From all parts, the people came flocking to him for the cure of bodily and spiritual ills and he was eventually elected bishop.^[3]

In 315, the Roman governor Agricola under order of emperror Licinius visited Sebastia to persecute the Christians there. He arrested the bishop and ordered him to be tortured and executed. When Blaise was led away, a mother set her son, who was about to choke to death on a fish-bone, at his feet, and the child was cured on the spot. Because of this incident, Saint Blaise is invoked for protection against injuries and illnesses of the throat. ^[4]

As the governor's hunters led Blaise back to Sabastea, on the way, the story goes, they met a poor woman whose pig had been seized by a wolf. At the command of Blaise, the wolf restored the pig to its owner, alive and unhurt. When he had reached the capital and was in prison awaiting execution, the old woman whose pig he had saved came to see him, bringing two fine wax candles to dispel the gloom of his dark cell.

Cult of Saint Blaise

The Fourteen Holy Helpers.

In the West there was no cult honoring St. Blaise prior to the eighth century.^[5]

In many places on the day of his feast the blessing of St. Blasius is given: two candles are consecrated, generally by a prayer, these are then 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.

One of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, Blaise became one of the most popular saints of the Middle Ages.^[1] His cult became widespread in Europe in the 11th and 12th centuries and his legend is recounted in the 14th-century Legenda Aurea. Saint Blaise is the saint of the wild beast.

Marco Polo reported the place where "Meeser Saint Blaise obtained the glorious crown of martyrdom", Sebastea;^[6] the shrine near the citadel mount was mentioned by William of Rubruck in 1253.^[7] However, it appears to no longer exist.

He is the patron of the Armenian The Order of Saint Blaise was established in the Armenian Church in the 12th century. In Italy, Saint Blaise's remains rest at the Basilica over the town of Maratea, shipwrecked there during Leo III the Isaurian's iconoclastic persecutions.

Many German churches, including the former Abbey of St. Blasius in the Black Forest and the church of Balve are dedicated to Saint Blaise/Blasius.

In Great Britain

In Cornwall the village of St Blazey derives from his name, where the parish church is still dedicated to Saint Blaise. Indeed, the council of Oxford in 1222 forbade all work on his festival.^[8] There is a church dedicated to Saint Blaise in the Devon hamlet of Haccombe, near Newton Abbot (Also one at Shanklin on the Isle of Wight and another at Milton near Abingdon in Oxfordshire), one of the country's smallest churches. It is located next to Haccombe house which is the family home of the Carew family, descendants of the vice admiral on board the Mary Rose at the time of her sinking. One curious fact associated with this church is that its "vicar" goes by the title of "archpriest".

There is a St. Blaise's Well In Bromley, Kent ^[9] where the water was considered to have medicinal virtues. St Blaise is also associated with Stretford in Lancashire. A Blessing of the Throats ceremony is held on February 3 at St Etheldreda's Church in London and in Balve, Germany.

In Bradford, West Yorkshire a Roman Catholic middle school named after St Blaise was operated by the Diocese of Leeds from 1961 to 1995. The name was chosen due to the connections of Bradford to the woollen industry and the method that St Blaise was martyred, with the woolcomb. Due to reorganisation the school closed down when Catholic middle schools were phased out, and the building was sold to Bradford Council to provide replacement accommodation for another local middle school which had burned down. Within a few months, St Blaise school was also severely damaged in a fire, and the remains of the building were demolished. A new primary school was built on the land, and

In England in the 18th and 19th centuries Blaise was adopted as mascot of woolworkers' pageants, particularly in Essex, Yorkshire, Wiltshire and Norwich. The popular enthusiasm for the saint is explained by the belief that Blaise had brought prosperity (as symbolised by the Woolsack) to England by teaching the English to comb wool. According to the tradition as recorded in printed broadsheets, Blaise came from Jersey, Channel Islands. Jersey was certainly a centre of export of woollen goods (as witnessed by the name jersey for the woollen textile). However, this legend is probably the result of confusion with a different saint, Blasius of Caesarea (Caesarea being also the Latin name of Jersey).most of the extensive grounds were sold off for housing.

In Croatia

Church of St. Blasius in Dubrovnik

Saint Blaise (Croatian: Sveti Vlaho or Sveti Blaž) is the patron saint of the city of Dubrovnik and formerly the protector of the independent Republic of Ragusa. At Dubrovnik his feast is celebrated yearly on 3 February, when relics of the saint, his head, a bit of bone from his throat, his right hand and his left, are paraded in reliquaries. The festivities begin the previous day, Candlemas, when white doves are released. Chroniclers of Dubrovnik such as Rastic and Ranjina attribute his veneration there to a vision in 971 to warn the inhabitants of an impending attack by the Venetians, whose galleys had dropped anchor in Gruž and near Lokrum, ostensibly to resupply their water but furtively to spy out the city's defenses. St. Blaise (Blasius) revealed their pernicious plan to Stojko, a canon of St. Stephen's Cathedral. The Senate summoned Stojko, who told them in detail how St. Blaise had appeared before him as an old man with a long beard and a bishop's mitre and staff. In this form the effigy of Blaise remained on Dubrovnik's state seal and coinage until the Napoleonic era.

Iconography

In iconography, Blaise is represented holding two crossed candles in his hand (the Blessing of St. Blaise), or in a cave surrounded by wild beasts, as he was found by the hunters of the governor.^[2] He is often shown with the instruments of his martyrdom, steel combs. The similarity of these instruments of torture to wool combs led to his adoption as the patron saint of wool combers in particular, and the wool trade in general. He may also be depicted with crossed candles. Such crossed candles are used for the blessing of throats on his feast day, which falls on 3 February, the day after Candlemas on the Roman Catholic calendar of saints. Blaise is traditionally believed to intercede in cases of throat illnesses, especially for fish-bones stuck in the throat.^[10]

See also

• Order of Saint Blaise
• San Biagio (disambiguation)
• San Blas (disambiguation)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Saint Blaise.

• Saint Blaise article from Catholic.org
• Hieromartyr Blaise of Caesarea in Cappadocia Orthodox icon and synaxarion
• St. Blaise's life in Voragine's Golden Legend: Latin original and English (English from the Caxton translation)
• St. Blaise page at Christian Iconography
• Novena in Honor of St. Blaise