
February 3 + Saint Blaise
Blaise was a doctor and the Bishop of Sebastea in Lesser Armenia (modern day Sivas, Turkey). The first known record of his life comes from the medical writings of Aëtius Amidenus, where Blaise is recorded as helping with patients suffering from objects stuck in their throat. Many of the miraculous aspects of Blaise's life are written of 400 years after his martyrdom in the "Acts of Saint Blaise."
Blaise was a good bishop, working hard to encourage the spiritual and physical health of his people. Although the Edict of Toleration in 311 (granting freedom of worship in the Roman Empire) was already five years old, persecution still raged in Armenia. Blaise was forced to flee to the back country. There he lived as a hermit in solitude and prayer but he made friends with the wild animals. One day a group of hunters seeking wild animals for the amphitheater stumbled upon Blaise’s cave. They were first surprised and then frightened. The bishop was kneeling in prayer surrounded by patiently waiting wolves, lions and bears.
In 316, Agricolaus, the governor of Cappadocia and of Lesser Armenia, has Blaise arrested for being a Christian. On the way to the jail, a woman set her only son, who was chocking to death on a fish bone, at his feet. Blaise cured the child and although Agricolaus was amazed, he tried to persuade Blaise to sacrifice to the pagan idols. The first time Blaise refused, he was beaten. The next time he was suspended from a tree and his flesh torn with iron combs or rakes. Finally, he was beheaded.
His feast is observed as a holy day in some Eastern Churches. In 1222, the Council of Oxford prohibited servile labor in England on Blaise’s feast day. The Germans and Slavs hold him in special honor, and for decades many United States Catholics have sought the annual Saint Blaise blessing for their throats. He is counted as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers.
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