At Mass this morning, one of the announcements was that the blessing of throats for the Feast Day of Saint Blaise would be held during Mass tomorrow morning, 3 February 2025. While the announcements continued, the couple sitting near me tried to discern the blessing of throats.
The couple, who were visiting Mesilla from Fresno, California, are not Catholic. They shared that they had always wondered what happened during Mass and decided to visit.
Understandably, many non-Catholics and Catholics alike would not know about this blessing on Saint Blaise’s Feast Day. I wondered about this blessing before I entered the RCIA and became Catholic.
Why would you get your throat blessed? And just who is Saint Blaise?
The Feast of St. Blaise, a physician who later became a bishop and died for the faith in 316 AD, will be observed on Saturday, 3 February.
Saint Blaise was a physician who later became a Bishop. In 316 AD, Saint Blaise died for the faith as a myrter. Little is known about his life. He is the patron of troubled throats.
Many Catholics Saint Blaise for the annual throat blessing, which stems from a legend that says while incarcerated, he healed a child who nearly died because of a fishbone caught in the throat. For the healing of children and other healings, people have asked Saint Blaise to intercede for them in times of sickness and for protection from throat ailments. Others invoke Saint Blaise on behalf of family and friends who are ill.
The exact details of the boy vary, depending on who is telling the story. There is, however, one story that I have heard repeatedly.
This miracle happened while Saint Blaise was in prison. He picked up two candles that had been provided to him and formed a cross around the boy’s throat. Another version I’ve heard is that while Saint Blaise was being transferred from one prison to another, he placed his hands on the boy’s head, prayed, and the boy was healed.
When I first attended Mass during the Feast of Saint Blaise, I was keen on receiving a blessing. This was in 2021 during the COVID closures, and my tonsils and adenoids had been swollen, my throat was scratchy, and I could hardly speak. I was to return to work that Friday, and I wasn’t sure how to spend four hours on air.
I attended Mass that morning and received a blessing. As the priest intended, I prayed most reverently for a minor miracle. I needed to get back to work and needed my voice back.
Thursday evening, as I was going to bed, I still could not speak. It hurt to swallow and breathe, and there was no way I would be on the radio bright and early the next day. Still, I prayed for a miracle.
When I woke up the next day, there was no pain, and the scratchiness was gone. That Friday morning, I discovered I could once again speak and speak clearly.
Before my conversion to Christianity and the Catholic Church, I mocked such things as being all in the mind or make-believe. Today, after this minor miracle, on one major miracle, I know that prayers do get answered and the intercession of the Saints is real.
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