Yesterday, in the Roman Catholic Church we had the Feast of St Blaise with the blessing of throats after mass. Since St Blaise was from Armenia, and is recognized by the Orthodox, I was wondering if anything unique is done for his feast day in the East.
Apparently, the blessing of the throats is only found in the Roman Catholic Church. The Eastern Churches -including the Armenian Church- do not have this custom. I am not aware of any Eastern Catholic churches adopting it either.
If anything has changed since then,I too would like to know
BTW, there is a nice icon written by one of our fellow Forum members which depicts Saint Blasie dressed in Armenian hierachical vestments holding a dikirion in his hand.
Well, I have a friend who is an OCA priest who does a form of blessing of throats on the feast of St Blaise for his Western converts.
He doesn't actually hold candles to their throats, but does a more general blessing.
This man is quite amazing in his ability to adapt to the various groups he has in his Church - traditional, cradle Orthodox, Russian Jewish converts to Orthodoxy, an Old Believer family (who were told at another church to take their "Muslim prayer mats" out!), Ethiopians (I got him an Ethiopian priest's mitre - always happy to assist!) and converts from the Anglican/Protestant tradition.
A Western Rite Orthodox Benedictine community is coming to his city as well.
Alex, The icon is not for sale...wish I had prints. I am pleased that you like it. When I did my research for the icon, I contacted Father Daniel Findikian of Saint Nersess' Seminary in New York. He supplied me with the Armenian inscription. It is interesting to note that Blaise is called, "The Patriarch" even though his rank was only a bishop.
Apparently, the blessing of the throats is only found in the Roman Catholic Church. The Eastern Churches -including the Armenian Church- do not have this custom. I am not aware of any Eastern Catholic churches adopting it either.
If anything has changed since then,I too would like to know
With the feast of Saint Blaise coming up in the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar, I wanted to post an update to my previous post of last year.
It appears that the Armenian Catholic parish of Saint Blaise in Rome does give a blessing of throats on February 3rd; however, the blessing involves anointing the neck with oil (no candles used) and blessed bread is given as well: http://orbiscatholicus.blogspot.com/2008/02/st-blaise-day-in-rome.html
Alex, The icon is not for sale...wish I had prints. I am pleased that you like it. When I did my research for the icon, I contacted Father Daniel Findikian of Saint Nersess' Seminary in New York. He supplied me with the Armenian inscription. It is interesting to note that Blaise is called, "The Patriarch" even though his rank was only a bishop.
Ray
Ray,
Here you go! I took the photo of your icon found on the FB page of Most Sacred Heart Church and, using a photo app, made the version attached to this post. It's not perfect, but at least you and anyone else can have a copy of your beautiful icon.
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