St. Blaise
If your throat has ever been blessed with two crossed candles, that was him.
Blaise was a doctor before he was a bishop, which is unusual, and it is the reason for everything people remember about him.
The story goes that a mother came running to him with her little boy, who had a fish bone stuck in his throat and could not breathe. Blaise prayed, and the bone came free, and the boy was fine.
That is the whole story. It is small. And seventeen hundred years later there are still churches all over the world where, on February 3, a priest holds two candles crossed in an X against your neck and asks God to keep your throat safe. One kid, one fish bone, and the Church never let it go.
St. Blaise facts for kids
- He was a physician before he became a bishop
- On his feast day, throats are blessed with two candles crossed in an X
- The candles are crossed because that's how you'd hold them around a neck
- He's one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, a group of saints people ask for help in illness
Feast day: February 3 · Patron of throats and sore throats
The General Roman Calendar spells him Blase.
St. Blaise, watch over my throat, my voice, and the words I use it for.