Feast of St. Blaise—Invoking Against Diseases of the Throat

A physician of Sebaste in Cappadocia, where he was later named Bishop, St. Blaise, was martyred about the year 320. He is venerated as a patron to protect us against diseases of the throat, mainly because of the story told that he cured a boy choking on a fishbone.

As a doctor, Blaise went into every home at all hours of the day and night, knew the rich and poor of the neighborhood, comforted and cured, and advised all. As a bishop, he did the same thing. It was said that people had to look for him in the prisons, in the caves with hermits, in the mountains and the valleys, so fast were his steps to search out and to help each member of his flock.

Blaise also had a reputation for curing sick and wounded animals; while he tended an animal, some of the governor’s hunters found him and announced him as a Christian. This was their best catch, a bishop, and Blaise was ready, for he had been warned in prayer to prepare himself as a sacrifice. On his way to prison, Blaise greets his people, says goodbye to them, evangelizes them, and baptizes them. As he speaks, a voice is heard on the streets:

“Stop,” says a woman, “my child is dying!”

“And what is the matter with this child?”

“There is a fishbone in his throat, and it is strangling him.”

Is it a physician or a bishop that is needed? Blaise does not hesitate: medicine is too long, faith is shorter. He touches the elbow of the little boy and commands the fishbone in the name of its maker:

“Go down or come out, by the law of the All-Powerful!”

The fishbone disappears, and the child is returned safe and sound to his mother.

Blaise is thrown into prison, from which there is no exit except by adoration of the pagan gods. Upon his first refusal to worship, Blaise is whipped; this achieves nothing, and attempts are made to buy him off: he must keep his faith to himself and appear at the official ceremonies of the state. Again, he refuses and is tortured, beaten, and thrown into prison again.

“You punish my body,” says Blaise, “but there is nothing you can do to my soul. If he wished, my God could snatch my body from your hands. His will be done.”

“Do you think he could save you if I had you drowned like a cat in a pond?” asked the governor. Thereupon, he orders Blaise to be thrown into a nearby lake and is astonished to find the waters remain frozen like ice, unwilling to be an accomplice in the death of this holy man. In a frenzy, a soldier draws his sword and, with a single blow, delivers Blaise from the hands of his tormentors into those of the living God.

Source:  The Encyclopedia of Catholic Saints, Volume 2