From the desk of the Tar Heel disciple:
January 30, 2026 (#71)
The Blessing of Throats
In modern times, at least among many American Catholics, one of the more popular blessings offered by the Church has been the blessing of throats on the feast of Saint Blaise, February 3. According to the tradition, Blaise was a physician who became a bishop in Sebastea, Lesser Armenia (present day Sivas, Turkey). He suffered for the Faith and was martyred in 316 AD. By the end of the first millennium, devotion and more detailed stories about the saint had spread throughout Europe, where he was venerated as one of the “Fourteen Holy Helpers.”
Among the stories recounted through the ages is that he was tortured with metal combs tearing at his skin before he was beheaded. The representation of these combs in the iconography strengthened the association of this saint in the popular imagination with the wool industry in places like England. Perhaps even more famously, he is said to have blessed the throat of a child who was choking on a fishbone at the request of the child's mother. The bone is said to have immediately dissolved and the child survived. This, obviously, is the source of the tradition of blessing throats on the saint’s feast day. Finally, it is reported that this same mother, or perhaps another woman who had received another miraculous favor from the saint, smuggled candles into his prison cell prior to his death.
These stories may explain the current custom of using blessed candles, lit or unlit, held over the head or at the throat of someone receiving the blessing associated with this saint. The use of candles blessed the previous day, the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, or “Candlemas,” may also have been the source of this custom. At any rate, the popularity of the blessing in our time is apparent. Perhaps more than a devotion to Saint Blaise is at work here. The blessing itself indicates God's paternal care for each of us and for every aspect of our lives. And during the “flu and cold season,” it is a comfort to know that God cares about each one of us, uniquely. The current ritual of the Church enables a priest or deacon to give a single blessing to an entire congregation using the formula for this day (without the use of candles). However, lines of people willing to wait for the individual blessing gives witness to the hunger for a more intimate moment of encounter with God's grace.
"Through the intercession of Saint Blaise, bishop and martyr, may God deliver you from every disease of the throat and from every other illness.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
For a picture book featuring the lives of 15 saints, including St. Blaise, see:
https://inhisname.com/products/book-of-saints-vol-7-26462
Candles for personal devotional use and suitable for blessing on February 2 can be obtained at:
https://inhisname.com/search?options%5Bprefix%5D=last&q=candlemas
