The Blessing of Throats
This Weekend - Feb 1 & 2
At the conclusion of our four regular Lord’s Day Masses our priests and some lay ministers will offer the traditional Blessing of Throats. We invite you to receive this blessing. Everyone can use blessings for our health and recent weeks have seen a rise in illnesses.
Monday, February 3, is the actual feast of the martyr, St. Blaise. Blessings will be offered that day too. But we always offer this blessing on the nearest weekend to February 3.
St. Blaise lived in Armenia, where he became Bishop of Sebastea which, in time, became quite the destination spot for Christian pilgrims. This was largely due to Blaise’s sanctity, Christian example and the many miraculous cures of body and spirit reportedly happening around him. Like many a martyr, Blaise was rounded up in a persecution, the one ordered by the Roman Emperor Licinius in the early 300s. On his way to jail, a woman whose son was choking on a fishbone placed the boy at Blaise’s feet. He blessed the boy, who coughed up the fishbone and was cured.