The Saint Of The Larynx

Biographical details about the life of St. Blaise are very scarce, and therefore legend has embellished his life with many prodigious events that made him one of the most popular saints in the Middle Ages. During the persecution of Christians by Licinius, a Roman emperor between 308 and 324 (there was more than one emperor in this period – Constantine was another), this saintly bishop was imprisoned in a cave outside Sebastea, in Armenia. It is said that wild beasts would come to him to be cured.

It is also said that a mother once came to him asking him to cure her son, who was choking on a fish bone which was stuck in his throat. St. Blaise said a prayer and made the Sign of the Cross over the boy, who immediately recovered. For this reason, Blaise is venerated as patron of those suffering from diseases of the throat. During the 15th and 16th centuries, especially in Germany, St. Blaise would also be invoked in the cases of haemorrhages and ulcers, although the reason for this is not so clear.

Licinius eventually had Blaise brought before him, and ordered him to be tortured and beheaded. His execution was carried out in 316.

The cultus of St. Blaise was propagated by rumours of many miraculous cures attributed to this saint. In many churches even in our times, there exists a ritual whereby two blessed candles are held together in the form of a St. Andrew’s cross and applied to the throat as the priest pronounces a special invocation to St. Blaise to protect the individual against diseases of the throat. The Church remembers St. Blaise each year on 3rd February.