Lord, hear the prayers of Your martyr Blase. Give us the joy of Your peace in this life and help us to gain the happiness that will never end.
The Church has few exact details of the life of Saint Blase (also Blaise, Biago, Sveti Vlaho) but we have the experience of his popularity through the centuries in the churches of the East and West. What we know is that Blase was a physician, the Bishop of Sebaste, Armenia and martyr. The Roman Martyrology tells us that he was beheaded in 316.
More info on Saint Blase is found here and here.
The Blessing of Candles on the feast of St Blase can be found here.
The Blessing of Bread, Wine, Water and Fruit for the feast.
From the Golden Legend again:
And when this good widow, which by S. Blase had recovered her swine, heard thereof, she slew it, and the head and the feet with a little bread and a candle, she brought to S. Blase, and he thanked God and ate thereof, and he said to her that every year she should offer in his church a candle, and know thou that to thee and to all them that so shall do shall well happen to them, and so she did all her life, and she had much great prosperity.
Even after imprisonment, he refused to worship the prince’s gods, and for punishment his flesh torn by wool combs. He was finally beheaded, martyred along with seven women and two children.
Today, due to the cure of the boy’s throat when the boy was choking, Saint Blase is patron against diseases or any other trouble of the throat.
The priest will bless two candles in honor of Saint Blase.
O holy Brigid, you became sublime through your humility, and flew on the wings of your longing for God. When you arrived in the eternal City and appeared before your Divine Spouse, wearing the crown of virginity, you kept your promise to remember those who have recourse to you. You shower grace upon the world, and multiply miracles. Intercede with Christ our God that He may save our souls. (Troparian, tone 1)
Lord, you
inspired in Saint Brigid such whole-hearted dedication to your work that she is
known as Mary of the Gael; through her intercession bless our country; may we
follow the example of her life and be united with her and the Virgin Mary in
your presence.
More on Saint Brigid here.
Saint Joan of Arc is a confusing figure for some these days. I think she’s abused by the feminists who dash-off with her story for their own agenda which runs contrary to the authentic Christian woman, Joan. If you miss the fact of Joan’s rootedness in Christ and the Church, then you miss the point of her life and work. The synthesis of the Pope’s teaching is given here. The full texts follows below.
Our catechesis
today deals with Saint Joan of Arc, one of the outstanding women of the later
Middle Ages. Raised in a religious family, Joan enjoyed mystical experiences
from an early age. At a time of crisis in the Church and of war in her native
France, she felt God’s call to a life of prayer and virginity, and to personal
engagement in the liberation of her compatriots. At the age of seventeen, Joan
began her mission among the French military forces; she sought to negotiate a
just Christian peace between the English and French, took an active part in the
siege of Orleans and witnessed the coronation of Charles VII at Rheims.
Captured by her enemies the next year, she was tried by an ecclesiastical court
and burnt at the stake as a heretic; she died invoking the name of Jesus. Her
unjust condemnation was overturned twenty-five years later. At the heart of
Saint Joan’s spirituality was an unfailing love for Christ and, in Christ, for
the Church and for her neighbour. May the prayers and example of Saint Joan of
Arc inspire many lay men and women to devote themselves to public life in the
service of God’s Kingdom, and encourage all of us to live to the fullest our
lofty calling in Christ.