Attend Mass
One beautiful tradition that the old form of the Mass retains is the blessing of throats, which happens yearly at Mass for St. Blase in the extraordinary form.
If you would like to attend a traditional Mass for the feast, find a Traditional Latin Mass near you (click here to explore).
Establish a Home Altar
This is a good time to set up a place to pray as a family with the candles that you had blessed yesterday at Candlemas.
St. Blaise’s Panettone
It’s traditional in Lombary, Italy to eat a piece of Christmas panettone (an Italian fruit-studded bread) for breakfast in the morning today. The panettone is saved just for this purpose. But if you haven’t saved any (or never had any for Christmas to begin with), you can make some now.
Read a hagiography about Blaise
A physician of Sebaste in Cappodocia, where he was later named Bishop, St. Blaise was martyred about the year 320. He is venerated as a patron to protect us against diseases of the throat, mainly because of the story told that he cured a boy choking from a fishbone.
As a doctor Blaise went into every home, at all hours of the day and night, knew both the rich and poor of the neighborhood, comforted and cured and advised all. As a bishop, he did the same thing. It was said that people had to look for him in the prisons, in the caves with hermits, in the mountains and the valleys, so fast were his steps to search out and to help each member of his flock.
Blaise also had the reputation for curing sick and wounded animals, it was while he tended an animal that some of the governor’s hunters found him and announced him as a Christian. This was their best catch, a bishop; and Blaise was ready, for he had been warned in prayer to prepare himself as a sacrifice. On his way to prison, Blaise greets his people along the ways, says goodbye to them, evangelizes them and baptizes. As he speaks, a voice is heard on the streets:
“Stop,” says a woman, “my child is dying!”
“And what is the matter with this child?”
“There is a fishbone in his throat, and it is strangling him.”
Is it a physician or a bishop that is needed? Blaise does not hesitate: medicine is too long, faith is shorter. He touches the elbow of the little boy, and commands the fishbone in the name of its maker:
“Go down or come out, by the law of the All-Powerful!”
The fishbone disappears and the child is returned safe and sound to his mother.
Blaise is thrown into prison, from which there is no exit except by adoration of the pagan gods. Upon his first refusal to worship, Blaise is whipped; and this achieves nothing, attempts are made to buy him off: he must keep his faith to himself, and simply appear at the official ceremonies of the state. Again he refuses, and is tortured, beaten and thrown into prison again.
“You punish my body,” says Blaise, “but there is nothing you can do to my soul. If he wished, my God could snatch my body from your hands. His will be done.”
“Do you think he could save you, if I had youS drowned like cat in a pond?” asked the governor. Thereupon he orders Blaise to be thrown into a nearby lake, and is astonished to find the waters remain frozen like ice, unwilling to be an accomplice in the death of this holy man. In a frenzy, a soldier draws his sword, and with a single blow delivers Blaise from the hands of his tormentors into those of the living God.
(Excerpted from The Encyclopedia of Catholic Saints, Volume 2)
Pray the Novena to St. Blaise
Say once a day for 9 days, especially beginning on 25 January and ending on 2 February, the eve of the Feast of St. Blaise.
Almighty and eternal God! With lively faith and reverently worshiping Thy divine Majesty, I prostrate myself before Thee and invoke with filial trust Thy supreme bounty and mercy. Illumine the darkness of my intellect with a ray of Thy heavenly light and inflame my heart with the fire of Thy divine love, that I may contemplate the great virtues and merits of the saint in whose honor I make this novena, and following his example imitate, like him, the life of Thy divine Son.
Moreover, I beseech Thee to grant graciously, through the merits and intercession of this powerful Helper, the petition which through him I humbly place before Thee, devoutly saving, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Vouchsafe graciously to hear it, if it redounds to Thy greater glory and to the salvation of my soul. Amen.
O God, deliver us through the intercession of Thy holy bishop and martyr Blaise, from all evil of soul and body, especially from all ills of the throat; and grant us the grace to make a good confession in the confident hope of obtaining Thy pardon, and ever to praise with worthy lips Thy most holy name. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
St. Blaise, gracious benefactor of mankind and faithful servant of God, who for the love of our Saviour didst suffer so many tortures with patience and resignation; I invoke thy powerful intercession. Preserve me from all evils of soul and body. Because of thy great merits God endowed thee with the special grace to help those that suffer from ills of the throat; relieve and preserve me from them, so that I may always be able to fulfil my duties, and with the aid of God’s grace perform good works. I invoke thy help as special physician of souls, that I may confess my sins sincerely in the holy sacrament of Penance and obtain their forgiveness. I recommend to thy merciful intercession also those who unfortunately concealed a sin in confession. Obtain for them the grace to accuse themselves sincerely and contritely of the sin they concealed, of the sacrilegious confessions and communions they made, and of all the sins they committed since then, so that they may receive pardon, the grace of God, and the remission of the eternal punishment. Amen.
My Lord and my God! I offer up to Thee my petition in union with the bitter passion and death of Jesus Christ, Thy Son, together with the merits of His immaculate and blessed Mother, Mary ever virgin, and of all the saints, particularly with those of the holy Helper in whose honor I make this novena. Look down upon me, merciful Lord! Grant me Thy grace and Thy love, and graciously hear my prayer.
Amen.