For those who desire it, we will be blessing throats this Sunday, February 8 after communion at 8 and 11 o’clock services. If you want this blessing at the 9:15 service, it will be available after the service in the side chapel.
Many have never heard of Saint Blaise, Armenian physician, bishop and martyr. Here’s a summary of his legend:*
‘Blaise was a doctor in Armenia, who practiced with miraculous ability, good-will, and piety. When the bishop of the city died, he was chosen to succeed him, with the acclamation of all the people. His holiness was manifested through many miracles: people came to him to find cures for their spirit and their body; even wild animals came in herds to receive his blessing. He was arrested for being a Christian and as he was being led to jail, a mother set her only son, choking to death on a fish-bone, at his feet, and the child was cured straight away.’
Because of his history of healing, specifically of the young child, in parts of the world St Blaise is commemorated by the blessing of throats with two crossed candles. Saint Blaise reminds the faithful that healing and holiness are not competitors. Medicine and prayer are not opposed, but ordered. The blessing teaches dependence, gratitude, restraint, and trust—virtues increasingly alien to a culture of control.
It may seem superstitious and perhaps more akin to magic than faith to bless throats to ward off illness or to expect miracles, but we bless them so that we can be more like Blaise, more open to what the Holy Spirit has to say through us. It may be more like taking our vocation to “proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ.” And it can’t hurt to have to have our throats blessed for greater health. All things are possible with God.
*Vollet, E. H., Grande Encyclopédie s.v. Blaise (Saint); published in Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca “Auctarium”, 1969, 278, col. 665b.
