Praise be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.
Today we celebrate the memorial of the martyr St. Blaise, who was a bishop of Sebaste in Armenia, which is now the city of Sivas in modern-day Turkey. St. Blaise died in 316 A.D. under the persecution of the Roman emperor Licinius. It's believed that Blaise was a physician at Sebaste before becoming a bishop. So he first specialized in healing bodies and then moved on to healing souls.
Reminds us of Sts. Peter and Andrew being fishermen by trade and then Jesus calls them saying, “I'm calling you to be fishers of men,” right, Matthew 4:19. It's grace building on nature, so too is the case of St. Blaise.
It's said that at the time of the persecution under Licinius, Blaise was taken prisoner under the command of the governor Agricolas. Soldiers or the hunters of the governor found Blaise in the wilderness in a cave where he had retired, and they arrested him.
So the acts of St. Blaise, which were written 400 years after his death, they say that as he was being led to jail, a mother brought her only son to the bishop and put the son at Blaise's feet. The son was choking to death from a fish bone, and through Blaise's prayers, the child was cured right away, similar to what we heard in the Gospel.
Blaise would not renounce his faith when he was brought to the governor, and so he was beaten, had his flesh torn with iron combs, and finally he was beheaded.
St. Blaise was one of the most popular saints in the Middle Ages. His name Blaise comes from the Latin Blasius, which comes from the Greek word blaisos, means lisping or stuttering or crooked or bent, especially referring to legs or the mouth. So someone who's named lisping or stuttering speech is a patron saint for healing injuries and illnesses of the throat. And sometimes he's invoked to help people with speech impediments or singers or preachers or for those who are anxious or nervous about speaking or proclaiming their faith. Pray to St. Blaise if you don't know how or when to speak up for your faith or what to say. Ask him for help in those moments.
He's also considered one of the 14 Holy Helpers, as they were called, 14 saints venerated in the Church during the Middle Ages because of their intercession, and their intercession was considered very powerful and effective, especially against various diseases like the Black Death, which was a great plague in Europe in the 14th century. The 14 saints were known as Nothelfer in German, meaning the helpers in need. I probably pronounced that wrong, but the idea is understood.
At the end of the Mass today, we'll have the customary blessing of St. Blaise with two candles. From the Middle Ages, the candles blessed on Candlemas, which was yesterday, those would be used the next day, today, for the blessing of the throats on St. Blaise's feast day. So the two crossed candles used in the blessing, they symbolize the cross of Christ and our healing through His passion, through His cross, right?
How does all healing come to us? It comes through the cross of Christ, and the crossed candles placed near the throat also echo the means by which St. Blaise reached his eternal reward. He was martyred by beheading.
The Alleluia verse before the Gospel today reminds us that Christ took away our infirmities and He bore our diseases, Matthew 8:17.
Our Lord is still very much in the healing business today, and there are many suffering souls that He would like to heal, even in this life. So let's ask St. Blaise today to grant us whatever healing, physical, spiritual, emotional, psychological, whatever healing that the Lord would like to grant us, and let's ask Our Lady for the grace to be faithful witnesses to her Son, like the martyr St. Blaise proved to be.