SAINT BLAISE

According to tradition Saint Blaise was a bishop of Sebaste, Armenia, in the early part of the fourth century. Saint Blaise suffered martyrdom under the Roman emperor Licinius who had commanded the governor of the province, Agricolaus, to prevent the spread of Christianity in
his territory.

Saint Blaise fled to the mountains and lived in a cave where he used his skill to heal the animals that he found wounded or sick. He was discovered in this cave by the emperor’s hunters and they carried him off to Agricolaus as a special prize.

Tradition tells us that on the way to Agricolaus they met a poor woman whose pig had been seized by a wolf. Saint Blaise commanded the wolf to restored the pig to its owner alive and unhurt. He also miraculously cured a child who was choking to death on a fishbone. This is the reason Saint Blaise is often invoked by persons suffering from throat trouble. When he had reached the capital and was in prison awaiting execution, the old woman whose pig he had
saved came to see him and gave him two fine wax candles to dispel the gloom of his dark cell.

Saint Blaise is supposed to have been tortured with an iron comb or rake and beheaded.

His emblems are an iron comb and a wax taper. Feast day is February 3.

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