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Does
St Blaise and Blessing of Throats
have any meaning or signifgance in the Eastern Rites ?

I recall when I was in grade school at a Latin Rite Slovak School, the Blessing of the Throats with two candles was always a big event.

I don't even know if they do it at our Parish anymore.

When I was in grade school, I went to mass EVERY DAY. I sometimes joke around that if I miss mass I have credit :-) but it was always nice to see the different liturgical seasons and to celebrate Holy Days.

Although I am Byzantine, I am also an organist in a RC Church. The blessing of throats is an annual event, and I get mine blessed, too. I figure, why not? I can use all the blessings I can get.

Glory to Jesus Christ!

Most assuredly our holy father Blaise, bishop of Sebaste and martyr, is observed liturgically on the Byzantine calendar. You will find his feast kept on February 11.

The sacramental of the blessing of throats, however, is a Latin custom, developed in tandem with St. Blaise being considered one of the "Fourteen Holy Helpers" of medieval fame. Each of these saints was invoked for a particular need:

1. Achatius, against headaches.
2. Barbara, against lightning/fire/explosion/sudden death
3. Blaise, against diseases of the throat
4. Catherine, by philosophers, students, lawyers
5. Christopher, by travelers
6. Cyriacus, against eye problems
7. Denis, against headaches and rabies
8. Erasmus, against cramp/intestinal diseases
9. Eustace, by hunters; against fire
10. George, by soldiers; against skin diseases
11. Giles, against epilepsy/insanity/sterility/cases of possession
12. Margaret, by pregnant women & during childbirth
13. Pantaleon, against phthisis & wasting disease
14. Vitus (Guy), against epilepsy/St. Vitus dance

There were local variants on the saints included <G>. The feast of the Fourteen Holy Helpers was kept on the pre-Vatican II calendar of some diocese on August 8. There was a large pilgrimage shrine to the Vierzehn Heiligen in Austria in the mountains.

No eastern Catholics keep the custom of blessing throats on the feast of St. Blase, unless they picked it up from the Roman church.

Prof. J. Michael Thompson
Byzantine Catholic Seminary
Pittsburgh, PA

Dear Professor Thompson, You are of course correct in your post. But, there are parishes who give the Blessing of St. Blaise on his Feastday (as you stated)...and some Orthodox parishes at that. The Blessing of St. Blaise predates the schism and is among THE most ancient blessings in the Church. As such, there are Byelorusian and Carpathian and Ukrainian parishes here and there in the Orthodox Church that give the blessing, albeit with blessed candles and the hand cross. After all, St. Blaise was Bishop of Sebaste in ARMENIA...and that IS an Eastern country, right? So he was an Eastern bishop. It is interesting that wherever I've found this blessing given in Orthodox parishes, there is emphasis on his also being prayed to in order not to withold sins in the Holy Mystery of Confession as well as the more popular, patron of those with maladies of the throat.

St. Blaise, Bishop of Sebaste and Undermercenary Healer, pray unto God for us!

In His great mercy,
+Fr. Gregory

Back home, I have a photocopy of a Byzantine-style "St. Blaise Blessing of Throats" from some Ukrainian Greek Catholic source; whoever compiled/composed it did a good job making it thoroughly Byzantinized (including a Synaxarion).

I wish I had a pic of the icon my dad did of St. Blaise for a Polish RC priest: St. Blaise is dressed in modern Armenian style episcopal vestments and is holding a palm, a fish, and a dikirion; the inscriptions are in Polish, Armenian, and English. It is a very inclusive icon!

Dave

Dave, I have (what I thought was) a WONDEERFUL icon of St. Blaise here in my office, untill I heard about YOURS...now I'm feeling a bit jipped...but mine doesn't have any palm or fish because doesn't have any fish or palm or candlesticks. What's up wit dat bro?

In Christ,
Your poor brother,
+Fr. Gregory

I have never heard of this custome in the Byzantine Church. But that doesn't mean that it is not observed. I don't have an icon of him, but I have several holy cards of him.

There was a church of the 14 Holy Helpers in Baltimore, but I don't know if it exists anymore. I'll have to look it up.

I know a priest who has a holy card of all 14 Holy Helpers. Its neat.

That sheds some light on it.

If I recall what happened, when I was in grade school, early 1980's the one pastor did the Slovak language mass and confession in Slovak and of course the Blessing of Throats.

Since we are heavily influenced by the East, I was wondering of the orign of it.

Eventually the pastor left and most of the nuns that spoke Slovak retired and the next pastor, I guess did not know Slovak, and some of the things changed.

Here are a few good icons of St. Blaise and Prayers to him:

http://www.religiousmall.com/rqt_wst30.html

and:

http://home.it.net.au/~jgrapsas/pages/stblasios.htm

and a Novena to St. Blaise:

http://www.cin.org/saints/novblase.html


St. Blaise, Bishop of Sebaste and Undermercenary healer, pray unto God for us!


In Christ Who is glorified in His Saints,
+Fr. Gregory

A few more icons and holy pictures and medals of St. Blaise of Sebaste:

http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/stb04002.htm

St. Blaise of Sebaste, intercede with the Lord that we may never withhold any known sin in Confession!

In God's great mercy,
+Fr. Gregory

Dear Friends,

I used to go and get my throat blessed at my Catholic high school, but my singing voice is still quite lousy!

There can be no doubt that this is a Western practice that has been appropriated by some EC AND Orthodox churches. In Galicia, Ukraine, there are Orthodox churches with Stations of the Cross around the church, Sacred Heart devotions and even Monstrances.

As for the 14 Holy Helpers, it is interesting that the fourth bishop of Naples, Italy was "St Aspreno" or "St Aspirin" another patron of headaches.

I wonder if it is a coincidence that "St Aspirin" and "Aspirin" have similar names?

Alex

I became interested in St Blaise after a memorable incident in 1999. I had been waking up with a sore throat every morning for several weeks(the pain would go away as soon as I had coffee), when I went for the blessing of the throats at St John Cantius in Chicago. The next morning I had no pain at all, nor did I have any for the rest of the year.

I always tend to think of the Feast of St Blaise in conjunction with Candlemas.

Dear Brothers and Sisters:

St. Blaise is still well-venerated amongst the Eastern Orthodox Christians in the old countries and is still working miracles!

In Albania, there is the famous monastery of St. Blaise (Shen Vlashi) outside of the port city of Durres [Dyrrachium (Latin) or Epidamnos (Greek)], a major West-East gateway for many a thousand years.

At this monastery, there was a large stone from which fresh water came forth. Upon his feast day, but also at other times, pilgrims (both Eastern & Western Christians as well as Muslims) came to drink from this spring. I do not know if the purpose was to heal illnesses of the throat, but it is interesting that, indeed, the water that one drinks passes through the throat.

The Communists (of cursed memory) destroyed the stone and the whole monastery in the late 1960s under their policy of enforced atheism, but to no avail, of course. (Yes, the Lord rebuked the fools).

The newly-resurrected Church (in the early 1990s) immediately began building her most beautiful "Resurrection of Christ Seminary" there on those same grounds. This new spring now yields faithful men and women to serve His holy Church, curing more than the illnesses of the throat, but bringing the gifts of preaching and speaking to a nation once deprived of His lifesaving word.

Let all glory be to God.

In Christ,
Andrew

And lest I forget, there is the famous chocolate maker here in the heart of Philadelphia, named "Blasius."

When one's throat is ailing, have a chocolate!

Andrew

Dear Mike,

I don't know about Baltimore, but there is one near Buffalo, and they display an Icon of the Fourteen Holy Helpers on their webpage.

http://www.fourteenholyhelpers.homestead.com/

John
Pilgrim and Odd Duck