St. Blaise

Who they were

Blaise was a physician in Sebaste, in Armenia, who became the city's bishop. During the persecution under Licinius he withdrew to a cave, where the accounts say wild animals came to him to be healed. He was found, imprisoned, and eventually executed. The story every generation retells comes from his arrest: a mother pushed through the crowd carrying a boy choking on a fishbone, and Blaise prayed over him and the boy breathed. Nearly everything about Blaise beyond the fact of his martyrdom is late tradition, and the page should say so. The devotion, though, is unusually alive: on his feast, February 3, Catholic parishes around the world still bless throats with a pair of crossed candles, a practice centuries old.

Why people turn to St. Blaise

The choking boy. A physician by trade and a healer by account, invoked for sore throats, throat cancers, thyroid trouble, and anything that makes it hard to breathe or speak.

How to ask their intercession

Name the ailment plainly. If it is February, find a parish blessing of throats; if it is not, ask him to pray anyway. Prayer alongside treatment, never instead of it. ---