Readings & Reflections: Monday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time & St. Blaise, February 3,2020
A native of Sebaste, Armenia (present-day Sivas, Turkey), reported to have been martyred for the faith sometime in the early 4thcentury, Blaise has a widespread cult. The medieval accounts of Blaise’s life present him as a physician-turned-bishop who fled to a cave to avoid the Roman persecutions. He was discovered by hunters, captured, and eventually executed. While in prison, his prayers brought healing to a young boy who had a fish bone caught in his throat. Blaise is invoked for the healing of ailments of the throat through a blessing that dates to the sixteenth century. During the Middle Ages, Blaise became one of Christendom’s most popular saints. He was counted among the Fourteen Holy Helpers, saints who were implored in times of plague and disaster. Countless churches in Europe bear his name. He continues to be invoked throughout America and Europe against ailments of the throat.
If the man with the unclean spirit is worried about Jesus “tormenting” him, then why does he, “from a distance,” ran to him “at once” and prostrate himself before Christ? Why doesn’t he run in the other direction? Maybe, despite his dread, he nurtures in his heart the hope of King David. “Perhaps the Lord will look upon my affliction and make it up to me.”
AMDG+
Opening Prayer
Dear Jesus, The man possessed by Legion run to You and prostrated himself – a sign of hope and faith. Lord, in our sinfulness, we carry the demons of our pride, our power, our fears, and our unwillingness to fully embrace your plan for us. Lord, at times these demons are so strong and we forget that if we just prostrate ourselves in your presence that we will not have to fight them alone. While they may not be driven into swine, we believe and trust that You will drive them from us and replace with hope of what is to come. Yes, our Lord Jesus, we hope and strive for your love to uphold us day and night! Amen.
Reading I
2 Sm 15:13-14, 30; 16:5-13
An informant came to David with the report,
“The children of Israel have transferred their loyalty to Absalom.”
At this, David said to all his servants
who were with him in Jerusalem:
“Up! Let us take flight, or none of us will escape from Absalom.
Leave quickly, lest he hurry and overtake us,
then visit disaster upon us and put the city to the sword.”
As David went up the Mount of Olives, he wept without ceasing.
His head was covered, and he was walking barefoot.
All those who were with him also had their heads covered
and were weeping as they went.
As David was approaching Bahurim,
a man named Shimei, the son of Gera
of the same clan as Saul’s family,
was coming out of the place, cursing as he came.
He threw stones at David and at all the king’s officers,
even though all the soldiers, including the royal guard,
were on David’s right and on his left.
Shimei was saying as he cursed:
“Away, away, you murderous and wicked man!
The LORD has requited you for all the bloodshed in the family of Saul,
in whose stead you became king,
and the LORD has given over the kingdom to your son Absalom.
And now you suffer ruin because you are a murderer.”
Abishai, son of Zeruiah, said to the king:
“Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king?
Let me go over, please, and lop off his head.”
But the king replied: “What business is it of mine or of yours,
sons of Zeruiah, that he curses?
Suppose the LORD has told him to curse David;
who then will dare to say, ‘Why are you doing this?’”
Then the king said to Abishai and to all his servants:
“If my own son, who came forth from my loins, is seeking my life,
how much more might this Benjaminite do so?
Let him alone and let him curse, for the LORD has told him to.
Perhaps the LORD will look upon my affliction
and make it up to me with benefits
for the curses he is uttering this day.”
David and his men continued on the road,
while Shimei kept abreast of them on the hillside,
all the while cursing and throwing stones and dirt as he went.
The word of the Lord.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 3:2-3, 4-5, 6-7
R. (8a) Lord, rise up and save me.
O LORD, how many are my adversaries!
Many rise up against me!
Many are saying of me,
“There is no salvation for him in God.”
R. Lord, rise up and save me.
But you, O LORD, are my shield;
my glory, you lift up my head!
When I call out to the LORD,
he answers me from his holy mountain.
R. Lord, rise up and save me.
When I lie down in sleep,
I wake again, for the LORD sustains me.
I fear not the myriads of people
arrayed against me on every side.
R. Lord, rise up and save me.
Gospel
Jesus and his disciples came to the other side of the sea,
to the territory of the Gerasenes. When he got out of the boat,
at once a man from the tombs who had an unclean spirit met him.
The man had been dwelling among the tombs,
and no one could restrain him any longer, even with a chain.
In fact, he had frequently been bound with shackles and chains,
but the chains had been pulled apart by him and the shackles smashed, and no one was strong enough to subdue him.
Night and day among the tombs and on the hillsides
he was always crying out and bruising himself with stones.
Catching sight of Jesus from a distance, he ran up and prostrated himself before him, crying out in a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me!” (He had been saying to him, “Unclean spirit, come out of the man!”) He asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “Legion is my name. There are many of us.” And he pleaded earnestly with him not to drive them away from that territory.
Now a large herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside.
And they pleaded with him, “Send us into the swine. Let us enter them.” And he let them, and the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine. The herd of about two thousand rushed down a steep bank into the sea, where they were drowned. The swineherds ran away and reported the incident in the town and throughout the countryside. And people came out to see what had happened. As they approached Jesus, they caught sight of the man who had been possessed by Legion, sitting there clothed and in his right mind.
And they were seized with fear. Those who witnessed the incident explained to them what had happened to the possessed man and to the swine. Then they began to beg him to leave their district. As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed pleaded to remain with him. But Jesus would not permit him but told him instead, “Go home to your family and announce to them all that the Lord in his pity has done for you.” Then the man went off and began to proclaim in the Decapolis what Jesus had done for him; and all were amazed.
The Gospel of the Lord.
Reflection 1 – Being unclean
Being “unclean” was a major issue in a society that had strict rules on acceptability and appropriateness of food and human contact. Being possessed by unclean spirits was a significant impediment to normal human contact. Such was the poor man who came to Jesus for help. “The man had been dwelling among the tombs, and no one could restrain him any longer, even with a chain. In fact, he had frequently been bound with shackles and chains, but the chains had been pulled apart by him and the shackles smashed, and no one was strong enough to subdue him.”
Our impression of “being possessed” always has been close to a physical invasion of someone’s body by evil spirits, such as what we see in the movies. But reflecting on today’s gospel, brings us some thoughts that being possessed by spirits can also transpire in more subtle ways than what we see in today’s gospel as in the man from the tombs.
We can also be possessed when the spirit of selfishness overtakes our inclination to be more giving and generous, when the spirit of bias and prejudice sets aside our sense of fairness. Being under the control of the evil one could flow into our affairs as a community when control and dominance take over our spirit of empowerment, when we make the letter of the law preside over the spirit of love and mercy…when we abuse the authority that is provided for by our position in community…when we circumvent and hide the truth by using God’s Word to suit the desires of our lustful hearts for power and control…when we knowingly side with what is wrong to achieve transient glory and success and conceal our shortcomings. When we are overcome by what is evil, all that we desire is the flesh and the world, its power, its pleasures and influence!
Today, let us be encouraged by the thought that we have Jesus Who will cast out any spirit that separates us from our Father in heaven. He is always there for us to deal with us and make us whole. All we need to do is imitate the man in today’s gospel and ask Jesus for His help. We need to recognize that we cannot do it alone but have an open desire to be rid of any evil and unclean spirits as our Lord Jesus will provide the power to do the rest. God’s word reminds us that no destructive force can keep anyone from the peace and safety which God offers to those who seek his help. “A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand; but it will not come near you…because you have made the Lord your refuge, the Most High your habitation.” (Psalm 91:7,9).
Jesus is ready and willing to free us from anything that binds us and that keeps us from the life God has prepared for us, from His love, His mercy and grace.
Direction
Depart from anything that will keep us from God’s love and saving grace.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, help me find everything that has separated me from you. Give me the grace to get rid of them. In Jesus’ Name, I pray. Amen.
Reflection 2 – Gerasene Demoniac
For the first time Jesus enters a gentile environment. He immediately encounters resistance in the form of a demonically possessed person, a ‘man with an unclean spirit’ living among the tombs. Jesus finds himself in a land of demons and of the dead. The non-Israelite nature of the surrounding is further stressed by the presence of the pigs. The descriptions fit the power of the demons in the pagan surroundings and the heartless treatment of the demonic being chained by his fellow-human beings for a period of time. The man is totally in the power of evil. He lives among the tombs and on the mountain far away from human habitation either by preference or by forcible segregation imposed on him by ‘normal’ people. He himself has lost all human bearings: he is ‘crying out –yelling and shrieking’ unable to speak, ‘bruising himself’, filled with self-destruction and hatred. In analyzing the story several points can be highlighted:
First, the situation of the man described as one of absolute hopelessness. The effects of being possessed are portrayed in the violent anti-social and self-destructive behavior of the person. He lives in the abode of the dead. He has been cast out from the community which had attempted to bind him. He has become an outsider, excluded from the community and from all human communication. No one dares to live with him; no one talks to him; no one loves him. He is like a dead man since he is exiled, cut off, and despised.
Secondly, the mission of Jesus is clearly demonstrated as setting free and leading the person back to full authenticity and dignity. This liberation is not a peaceful surrender of Satan. The evil forces fight vigorously to maintain control over the person. The actual “driving out” involves violent convulsions of the possessed person (cf. Mk 1:24-26; 9:20-26). Jesus is the one who “crosses over” to this man, who communicates with him, who feels deep compassion and cares about him. He restores his human dignity; he integrates him once again into the life of the community. In this the true mission of Jesus is revealed. The man “whom no one had the strength to subdue” (Mk 5:4) is found by his countrymen “seated, clothed and in his right mind” (Mk 5:15). Now since he can communicate again, Jesus sends him back to those who have excluded him from the community. The non-person has been made a person again. He is now sent to proclaim to his countrymen, “How much the Lord has done for you and how he has had compassion on you” (Mk 5:19).
Thirdly, the story reveals the Kingdom as a power that deprives evil of any place in the world. Not even in swine will it find a place to stay. The coming Kingdom means the end of all evil. The presence of the Kingdom of God is seen as a dynamic force overthrowing the kingdom of evil and liberating the present age by restoring human beings to their true authenticity and dignity.
Reflection 3 – Tell them how much the Lord has done for you
Do you ever feel driven by forces beyond your strength? A man driven mad by the evil force of a legion found refuge in the one person who could set him free. A legion is no small force – but an army more than 5,000 strong! For the people in the time of Jesus’ ministry, hemmed in by occupied forces, a legion, whether spiritual or human, struck terror! Legions at their wildest committed unmentionable atrocities.Our age has also witnessed untold crimes and mass destruction at the hands of possessed rulers and their armies.
Jesus has power to free us from every evil spirit of oppression
What is more remarkable – the destructive force of this driven and possessed man – or the bended knee at Jesus’ feet imploring mercy and release? God’s word reminds us that no destructive force can keep anyone from the peace and safety which God offers to those who seek his help. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand; but it will not come near you. ..Because you have made the Lord your refuge, the Most High your habitation (Psalm 91:7,9).
Jesus took pity on the man who was overtaken by a legion of evil spirits. The destructive force of these demons is evident for all who can see as they flee and destroy a herd of swine. After Jesus freed the demoniac the whole city came out to meet him. No one had demonstrated such power and authority against the forces of Satan as Jesus did. They feared Jesus as a result and begged him to leave them. Why would they not want Jesus to stay? Perhaps the price for such liberation from the power of evil and sin was more than they wanted to pay. Jesus is ready and willing to free us from anything that binds us and that keeps us from the love of God. Are you willing to part with anything that might keep you from his love and saving grace?
“Lord Jesus, unbind me that I may love you wholly and walk in the freedom of your way of life and holiness. May there be nothing which keeps me from the joy of living in your presence.” – Read the source: http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/readings/2020/feb3.htm
Reflection 4 – Unlikely Missionaries
One of the greatest examples of a Christian missionary can be found in the very beginning of Christianity. We don’t know his name but you can read about him in chapter 5 of the Gospel of Mark.
He lived in the Gentile territory of the Decapolis. He had been possessed by demons for a long time, and his life changed the day that Jesus came with his apostles across the water to his region and freed him from his affliction. After he was healed, he begged Jesus to remain with him; and in a surprising response Jesus refused his request. Instead, Jesus told him to announce “all that the Lord in his pity has done for you” (Mk 5:19). When Jesus returned to the Decapolis some time later, there were thousands of people seeking him out where before there had been none.
To be with Jesus
The greatness of this man is not due to the success of his mission, even though he seems to have brought thousands to Jesus. It is not due to the fact that he is likely the first missionary, for he was sent out by Jesus even before Jesus sent the apostles out to Jewish territory. His greatness is his desire to stay with Jesus. He could have just thanked Jesus and enjoyed his demon-free existence. But he recognized that Jesus was more than a means to being healed. Jesus was his fulfillment; he could not imagine happiness without Jesus. So why did Jesus send him away? Perhaps so that his first missionary could witness to every age what a true missionary really is.
He shows that the beginning and the core of every true mission is the desire to be with Jesus. True mission is not born from good intentions of helping people or changing the world. True mission is born from the love of Christ and the awareness of Christ’s continual pity on me, which springs from his love for me. Mother Teresa fell in love with Jesus in the poor. It was love for him that made her a missionary of charity to those she served. Her charity to the poor is the overflowing of Christ’s charity toward her. Saint Francis Xavier’s missionary zeal was born from the love of Christ that came to him through his friendship with Saint Ignatius and their other friends among the earliest Jesuits.
An evident change
It seems that what moved so many were not the words these missionaries said, but rather the love that was so evident in them. The Decapolitan was a walking sign of Christ’s love. He didn’t have to say anything; as soon as people saw him they were struck by the very fact that he was healed. They must have been attracted to the change in him. For when I experience Christ’s love to the point that I want to remain with him always, there is an evident change in me that others notice. This is what is communicated when I preach or teach or heal or feed.
This is the love of Christ himself which will endure for ever in those who are attracted to the missionary to the point that they themselves want to remain always with the love they see in the missionary, the love whose name is Jesus.
Often we reduce missionaries to agents of material assistance. But the human heart needs so much more; it cries for something so much deeper. A relief agent from a developed country would rarely be able to bring citizens of poor country to the same level of material abundance which he or she enjoys. But a missionary always has the possibility to offer the very same fullness which he or she lives; for there is no material circumstance which can limit the love we can experience in Christ Jesus, and no limit to the ways his love can change us.
Unlikely missionaries
This means that all of us who are baptized into Christ Jesus are called to mission. Missionaries are not just those who go to far off lands; and my personal vocation to mission is not satisfied by merely offering money to those who go abroad.
Think of that first missionary. He was sent to the Gentiles by Jesus, perhaps because the other Decapolitans would be more open to one of their own than a Jewish carpenter who seemed foreign to them. The healed demoniac was perhaps a better missionary for Jesus in that time and place than Jesus himself could have been.
What about the people among whom you live and work? Have they seen the love of Jesus walking among them? Are they in need of a missionary where they are … one that might have a greater impact than a priest or a nun whom they might easily dismiss as “professional”?
Do you want to be a missionary? Then seek Jesus. Seek him wherever and in whomever you find him. Pray that he enters your life and gives you the grace to experience his love in the dwelling place of his missionaries, which is called the church. Allow him to love you and he will do the rest. For I do not decide my mission, Jesus loves my mission into existence by continually loving me into existence.
May that anonymous and formerly demon-possessed Dacapolitan be the first in a long line of unlikely missionaries. (Source: Fr. Richard Veras. Magnificat, Vol. 12, No. 8. New York: October 2010, pp. 320-323).
Reflection 5 – When Jesus Comes In
Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction. –Mark 5:34
In 1932, as the US was undergoing a financial breakdown, missionary Robert Cummings was suffering an emotional breakdown. As he carried on his evangelistic ministry with his wife in India, he became obsessed by blasphemous and sinful thoughts so overwhelming that he felt cast aside by God and eternally lost. Hospital care and therapy were of no help. His wife brought him back to the US where he was placed in a private mental facility.
For 2 more years Robert underwent indescribable emotional agony. Then one morning he knelt beside his bed begging for relief. God answered dramatically with the words of a poem by James Procter: My soul is night, my heart is steel—I cannot see, I cannot feel; for light, for life I must appeal in simple faith to Jesus. ((c) Renewal 1937 Hope Publishing Company).
As Robert repeated those lines, peace surged through his soul. Dread vanished from his heart and he was filled with joy and gratitude. Then a hymn by William Sleeper welled up from the depths of his memory, which he sang with one significant change. For him it wasn’t, “Jesus, I come to Thee,” but “Jesus has come to me.”
Into my bondage, sorrow, and night,
Jesus has come, Jesus has come;
Bringing His freedom, gladness, and light—
Jesus has come to me.
By God’s grace we may have been spared from extreme emotional distress. But all of us can join in singing praise to the One who has come to bring peace to our souls. — Vernon C. Grounds
God’s dawn of deliverance often comes when the hour of trial is darkest (Source: Our Daily Bread, RBC Ministries).
Reflection 6 – Blessings on the battlefield
In second Book of Samuel (15:13-14, 30; 16:5-13), King David is publicly cursed out by an angry enemy, Shimei, but he handles it humbly. David could have had him executed for his attack against his authority, but David wonders, “What if the Lord’s trying to teach me something?” He recognizes the stinging truth in the angry man’s words.
Even though Shimei’s accusation against him was false — he had not murdered Saul’s family to take over the throne — David’s conscience reminds him that he was nonetheless guilty of murder. He had had an affair with the wife of one of his officers and then killed him so that he could have her.
David chooses to approach the problem with a non-defensive posture. He reasons that if the Lord could use Shimei’s evil tirade to keep him humble and repentant, then he would benefit from the curse.
How do we react when someone gets angry at us? (I’m not talking about verbal or physical abusiveness; that’s a different matter and it requires escape and justice.) Do we pause and ask the Lord whether there’s any truth to the accusations? Or do we defend ourselves to protect our image and retaliate with our own angry words?
David accepted the “affliction” of being ridiculed and bad-mouthed rather than inflict harm upon his enemy. In this, he foreshadowed the Messiah. Did you also notice another foreshadowing as he wept over Israel on the Mount of Olives?
When people accuse us or curse us, we too can reflect Jesus. And, rather than feel hurt by their attacks against us, we can find ways to benefit. What are we learning from the experience? How are we growing stronger in our faith? How’s it helping our humility?
A healthy spirituality includes a balance between being open to learning from accusations and being closed to complete degradation. God sees what is good in us, not just what we do wrong, and we are holy when we recognize what is good while learning what to improve.
In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus rescues a man from an army of demons. When we’re under attack and we choose self-defensiveness and retaliation (or the other danger: loss of self-esteem), we expose ourselves to the weapons of Satan’s battlefield. We live in the curse. But when we repent and look for the lessons that God himself is trying to teach us, we immediately begin to benefit. Curses become blessings, despite our enemy’s worst intentions.
Taking this humble approach requires effort. Our first reaction is to fight the enemy or sink into depression, but our soul yearns for Jesus to deliver us from the battle. The only way we can put ourselves into his protection is to handle the attacks his way.
May our all-powerful Lord help us to be humble in our daily battles ~ amen! – Read the source: http://gnm.org/good-news-reflections/?useDrDate=2018-01-29
Reflection 7 – The power of our interconnectedness
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In Hebrew (11:32-40), we learn that none of the people of Old Testament times obtained salvation, not even the holy ones, until we of the New Testament era were saved by what Jesus did on the cross. This does not mean that they went to hell. Remember, eternity is not a clockwise movement through time the way we experience it in our temporal lives. Those who died embracing God’s love immediately received the benefits of Christ’s future victory over death.
The most interesting point of this scripture is everyone’s interconnectedness. The greatest heroes of the Old Testament were not made perfect until Christ died for them and for us too. Although they were promised the eternal joy of union with God, they could not receive it without us. We are all united in the gift of eternal unity with God.
In our individualistic world, we’ve lost sight of our interconnectedness. We’ve forgotten what it means to believe in the communion of saints, despite professing it often as we recite the Creed of our Faith. In my opinion, individualism is the biggest sin of our age — that is, the self-centered “me first” attitude that leads to abortions, many divorces, conflicts within parishes, greed, and you-name-it. The idolatry of self takes the goodness of our individual uniqueness to the opposite of what God intends, leading to crimes against our interconnectedness.
Throughout biblical times, people understood that they were part of a larger whole. In the Old Testament, when one person disobeyed God, the entire community was punished. Today, we think that was unfair. Why should all suffer on account of one? Jesus answered that question when he, as one man, suffered for all.
The fact is, we are all connected to each other. Everything we do creates ripples in the stream of life that reach much farther than we can see. Even our small deeds of kindness make a wide-spread difference. So too our sins. This is why we go to a priest for Confession: Through him, absolution comes not only from Christ but from the whole Body of Christ: the community on earth and in purgatory and in heaven.
In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus gets rid of a legion of demons. As Christ’s earthly Body now, we continue this ministry. Together, we can be a powerful, undefeatable, miracle-working unit of holy strength that overcomes evil. Together, we have all the power of Christ. But do we choose to actively work together?
The absence of those who are not active in Christian community and ministry is grievous, for this diminishes what the Body can do. The world suffers because of the disconnectedness of Christians, and because some of us are too preoccupied with our self-focused desires to provide our gifts and talents to the works of the Church, and because some clergy and lay leaders assert self-importance instead of imitating Christ’s style of servant-leadership.
Do you feel worthless or lonely? The cure is in your connection to the community, which is a life of actively serving and being served. -Read the source: http://gnm.org/good-news-reflections/?useDrDate=2019-02-04
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Reflection 8 – St. Blaise (d. 316 A.D.)
We know more about the devotion to St. Blaise by Christians around the world than we know about the saint himself. His feast is observed as a holy day in some Eastern Churches. In 1222, the Council of Oxford prohibited servile labor in England on Blase’s feast day. The Germans and Slavs hold him in special honor, and for decades many United States Catholics have sought the annual St. Blaise blessing for their throats.
We know that Bishop Blaise was martyred in his episcopal city of Sebastea, Armenia, in 316. The legendary Acts of St. Blase were written 400 years later. According to them Blase was a good bishop, working hard to encourage the spiritual and physical health of his people. Although the Edict of Toleration (311), granting freedom of worship in the Roman Empire, was already five years old, persecution still raged in Armenia. Blaise was apparently forced to flee to the back country. There he lived as a hermit in solitude and prayer, but he made friends with the wild animals. One day a group of hunters seeking wild animals for the amphitheater stumbled upon Blaise’s cave. They were first surprised and then frightened. The bishop was kneeling in prayer surrounded by patiently waiting wolves, lions and bears.
The legend has it that as the hunters hauled Blaise off to prison, a mother came with her young son who had a fish bone lodged in his throat. At Blaise’s command the child was able to cough up the bone.
Agricolaus, governor of Cappadocia, tried to persuade Blase to sacrifice to pagan idols. The first time Blaise refused, he was beaten. The next time he was suspended from a tree and his flesh torn with iron combs or rakes. (English wool combers, who used similar iron combs, took Blaise as their patron. They could easily appreciate the agony the saint underwent.) Finally, he was beheaded.
Comment:
Four centuries give ample opportunity for fiction to creep in with fact. Who can be sure how accurate Blaise’s biographer was? But biographical details are not essential. Blaise is seen as one more example of the power those have who give themselves entirely to Jesus. As Jesus told his apostles at the Last Supper, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you” (John 15:7). With faith we can follow the lead of the Church in asking for Blaise’s protection.
Quote:
“Through the intercession of St. Blaise, bishop and martyr, may God deliver you from ailments of the throat and from every other evil. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Blessing of St. Blaise).
Patron Saint of: Throat ailments
Read the source: http://www.americancatholic.org/features/saints/saint.aspx?id=1280
SAINT OF THE DAY
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How St. Blaise Saved a City and More Fascinating Facts About Him
On Feb. 3 many Catholics will be in church for the annual blessing of throats on St. Blaise’s feast day. We know we ask through this blessing to for bishop and martyr St. Blaise’s intercession, as the priest prays, “Through the intercession of Saint Blaise, bishop and martyr, may God deliver you free from every disease of the throat, and from every other disease. In the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
But why two candles? And what miraculous event led to his major patronal church in a city which has hundreds of statues and other art on him?
Let’s start with the candles. First, they’re tied together to form a cross. The reason should be unmistakable.
But what other events do the pair of candles recall? Why two?
Most everyone is familiar with the story of how St. Blaise, arrested and being led to prison, met a woman rushing up to him and pleading for him to save her only son who was choking to death on a fishbone. Bishop Blaise interceded with his prayers and the boy was miraculously healed. That miraculous intercession led to the blessing of throats for his intercession for health which carries on today. He’s patron of illnesses of the throat.
Even in his life Blaise was known for healing humans. People from all around sought him out for healing their bodily ills and their spiritual ills.
The second part of the double reason: he was also known for healing and helping animals.
Stories go how when the Christian persecutions began, he withdraw to a cave in the woods when inspired to do so by the Lord. Since he was a physician before he became a bishop, Blaise soon became the friend of wild animals that were ill or wounded. They sought him out. One day the governor’s hunters searching for animals to bring to the city’s amphitheater were shocked when they happened upon Blaise. There he was, kneeling and praying — surrounded by totally docile wolves, lions and bears, tame in his presence.
When they took him prisoner, on the way to the jail he got more chances to perform miracles besides healing the boy with the fishbone. He met a poor woman in great distress because a wolf had snatched her small, young pig. She asked his help. Blaise commanded the wolf to return the pig. Right away, the wolf heard and brought back the pig which was not harmed.
St. Blaise also is patron of animals, veterinarians, wool combers, and against attacks of wild animals.
And again why the two candles? Because that poor widow who got her pig back in gratitude brought Blaise food and two candles while he was imprisoned and being tortured. On a smaller scale, the two candles recall that story.
Croatian Miracle
In the year 971, just over 650 years after St. Blaise was martyred in 316 in Sebastea, Armenia, he made an appearance which still is celebrated big time every year since 972. The place: Dubrovnik, Croatia.
It was Feb. 2, the feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, the Purification, and Candlemas. All was normally quiet. The only difference was that a fleet of Venetian ships were in the harbor. They had assured Dubrovnik that they were only present to load up more supplies before sailing on.
That evening, the night before next day’s feast of St. Blaise, Father Stojko, the pastor of what is today’s Dubrovnik Old Town, was taking a walk when he spotted that the doors of St. Stephen’s Church were left open. Entering the church to check the inside, he spotted an elderly man with gray hair. The man introduced himself to the pastor as Saint Blaise, the 4th-century bishop and martyr of Sebaste.
“I come to warn you of great danger for the city,” he explained. The Venetians were fooling. Thy really intended to invade and take over the city because it was beginning to boom and develop into a threat to Venice’s commercial power. He was to tell the city council.
The pastor rushed with St. Blaise’s message to warn the council. At once the city’s gates were protected and the heavy city walls manned for action. Seeing what was happening, the Venetians changed their minds, dropped their plans, and sailed on. St. Blaise’s feast arrived hours later with the peace of Dubrovnik as safe and secure as ever.
Naturally, the citizens credited St. Blaise for saving them and immediately named him Dubrovnik’s patron. They called him by his Latin name, St. Blasius. Every year they remember him with a great festival on his feast. This super-big Festival of St. Blasius been going on for over 1,045 years. (See a good video on it here.)
Major Church and His Relics
Dubrovnik citizens erected a church in his honor — the Church of St. Blasius, or Church of St. Blaise. Damaged in the great earthquake in 1667 and destroyed in a 1706 fire, the present Church of St. Blaise was built in 1715. And to show bygones were bygones and all was healed, this church was designed by Marino Gropellia, a Venetian architect. He designed it after St. Mauritius Church in Venice.
A focal point of the church which was spectacularly restored and completed in 2016 is the main altar with its gothic statue of St. Blaise from the 15th century. The saint holds a model of the City of Dubrovnik as it looked before the massive earthquake. The statue and some other items were undamaged in that quake and in the fire that followed years later. People interpret it as a miracle.
There are several major relics of this popular saint in the city, especially just a few blocks from the Church of St. Blaise in the Treasury of the Dubrovnik Cathedral. Among its other relics, there is the head, arm and leg of St. Blaise.
They’re encased in stunningly elaborate silver and gold reliquaries, shaped quite differently than what we normally expect to see. The head is within a Byzantine imperial crown. The hand within a golden hand shaped like a hand. Same for the foot. Beginning in the 11th and 12th centuries, Dubrovnik’s superior goldsmiths formed them of the precious metals, etched them in high ornamental detail, and added many exquisite stones and jewels.
Priests process with them on the annual Festival day so that the faithful honoring their city’s patron saint can venerate them and touch them. (See the procession and relics here.)
St. Blaise Watches
Residents and visitors to Dubrovnik are constantly coming upon St. Blaise outside of the Cathedral Treasury and the Church of St. Blaise. Around the Old City statues of him number in the hundreds. They appear on every corner of the city’s walls. He’s ever present, alert, and on the watch as he as in that year of 971.
St. Blaise listens, too, as people over the centuries have asked and prayed for his intercession. In the Middle Ages he gained widespread popularity as one of the Fourteen Holy Martyrs.
Never did Agricolaus, Roman governor of Cappadocia and Lesser Armenia who carried out the persecution of Christians that Emperor Licinius ordered, dream that Blaise would blaze to such heights. They figured torturing Blaise in various ways with whips, raking with iron combs, then finally beheading him, would put an end to this popular bishop.
But God something else in mind.
Read the source: http://www.ncregister.com/blog/joseph-pronechen/st-blaise-saves-a-city-and-more-fascinating-little-known-facts-about-him
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Blaise
| SAINT BLAISE | |
|---|---|
|
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| HIEROMARTYR, HOLY HELPER | |
| BORN | Sebastea, historical Armenia |
| DIED | c. 316 AD |
| VENERATED IN | Roman Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Churches Oriental Orthodox Church |
| FEAST | usually in January (date varies)(Armenian Apostolic); February 3 (Roman Catholic); February 11 (Eastern Orthodoxand Greek Catholic) |
| ATTRIBUTES | Wool comb, candles, tending a choking boy or animals |
| PATRONAGE | Animals, builders, choking, veterinarians, throats, infants,Maratea, Italy, Sicily, Dalmatia,Dubrovnik, Ciudad del Este,Paraguay, Rubiera, stonecutters, carvers, wool workers |
Saint Blaise (Armenian: Սուրբ Վլասի, Soorp Vlasi; Greek: Άγιος Βλάσιος, Agios Vlasios; Latin: Blasius; Albanian:Vlashi; Croatian: Sveti Vlaho), also known as Saint Blase, was a physician, and bishopof Sebastea in historicalArmenia (modern Sivas, Turkey).[1] According to the Acta Sanctorum, he was martyred by being beaten, attacked with iron combs, and beheaded. He is the patron saint of wool combers. In the Latin Church his feast falls on 3 February, in the Eastern Churches on 11 February.[1]
Contents
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Sources[edit]
The first reference we have to him is in manuscripts of the medical writings of Aëtius Amidenus, a court physician of the very end of the 5th or the beginning of the 6th century; there his aid is invoked in treating objects stuck in the throat.
Marco Polo reported the place where “Meeser Saint Blaise obtained the glorious crown of martyrdom”, Sebastea;[2] the shrine near the citadel mount was mentioned by William of Rubruck in 1253.[3]However, it appears to no longer exist. He healed animals (who came to the saint on their own for his assistance) and was assisted by animals.
Life[edit]
From being a healer of bodily ailments, Saint Blaise became a physician of souls, then retired for a time, by divine inspiration, to a cavern where he remained in prayer. As bishop of Sebastea, Blaise instructed his people as much by his example as by his words, and the great virtues and sanctity of the servant of God were attested by many miracles. From all parts, the people came flocking to him for the cure of bodily and spiritual ills.[4]
In 316, the governor of Cappadocia and Lesser Armenia Agricolaus began a persecution by order of the Emperor Licinius and Saint Blaise was seized. After his interrogation and a severe scourging, he was hurried off to prison,[4] and subsequently beheaded.
The Acts of St. Blaise[edit]
Statue of Saint Blaise at Holy Trinity Column in Olomouc.
The legendary Acts of St. Blaise were written 400 years later.[5] The Acts of St. Blaise, written in Greek, are medieval.
The legend as given in the Grande Encyclopédie is as follows:
Blaise, who had studied philosophy in his youth, was a doctor in Sebaste in Armenia, the city of his birth, who exercised his art with miraculous ability, good-will, and piety. When the bishop of the city died, he was chosen to succeed him, with the acclamation of all the people. His holiness was manifest through many miracles: from all around, people came to him to find cures for their spirit and their body; even wild animals came in herds to receive his blessing. In 316, Agricola, the governor of Cappadocia and of Lesser Armenia, having arrived in Sebastia at the order of the emperor Licinius to kill the Christians, arrested the bishop. As he was being led to jail, a mother set her only son, choking to death of a fish-bone, at his feet, and the child was cured straight away. Regardless, the governor, unable to make Blaise renounce his faith, beat him with a stick, ripped his flesh with iron combs, and beheaded him.[6]
The blessing of St. Blaise[edit]
According to the Acts, while Blaise was being taken into custody, a distraught mother, whose only child was choking on a fishbone, threw herself at his feet and implored his intercession. Touched at her grief, he offered up his prayers, and the child was cured. Consequently, Saint Blaise is invoked for protection against injuries and illnesses of the throat.
In many places on the day of his feast the blessing of St. Blaise is given: two candles are consecrated, generally by a prayer, these are then held in a crossed position by a priest over the heads of the faithful or the people are touched on the throat with them. At the same time the following blessing is given: “May Almighty God at the intercession of St. Blaise, Bishop and Martyr, preserve you from infections of the throat and from all other afflictions”. Then the priest makes the sign of the cross over the faithful.
Legend[edit]
As the governor’s hunters led Blaise back to Sebastea, on the way, the story goes, they met a poor woman whose pig had been seized by a wolf. At the command of Blaise, the wolf restored the pig to its owner, alive and unhurt. When he had reached the capital and was in prison awaiting execution, the old woman whose pig he had saved came to see him, bringing two fine wax candles to dispel the gloom of his dark cell. In the West there was no cult honoring St. Blaise prior to the eighth century.[7]
Cult of Saint Blaise[edit]
One of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, Blaise became one of the most popular saints of the Middle Ages.[1] His cult became widespread in Europe in the 11th and 12th centuries and his legend is recounted in the 14th-century Legenda Aurea. Saint Blaise is the saint of the wild beast.
He is the patron of the Armenian Order of Saint Blaise. In Italy he is known as San Biagio. In Spanish-speaking countries, he is known as San Blas, and has lent his name to many places (see San Blas).
In Italy, Saint Blaise’s remains rest at the Basilica over the town of Maratea, shipwrecked there during Leo III the Isaurian‘s iconoclastic persecutions.
Many German churches, including the former Abbey of St. Blasius in the Black Forest and the church of Balve are dedicated to Saint Blaise/Blasius.
In Great Britain[edit]
In Cornwall the village of St Blazey derives from his name, where the parish church is still dedicated to Saint Blaise. Indeed, the council of Oxford in 1222 forbade all work on his festival.[8] There is a church dedicated to Saint Blaise in the Devon hamlet of Haccombe, nearNewton Abbot (Also one at Shanklin on the Isle of Wight and another at Milton near Abingdon in Oxfordshire), one of the country’s smallest churches. It is located next to Haccombe house which is the family home of the Carew family, descendants of the vice admiral on board the Mary Rose at the time of her sinking. One curious fact associated with this church is that its “vicar” goes by the title of “archpriest”.
There is a St. Blaise’s Well In Bromley, Kent [9] where the water was considered to have medicinal virtues. St Blaise is also associated with Stretford in Lancashire. ABlessing of the Throats ceremony is held on February 3 at St Etheldreda’s Church in London and in Balve, Germany.
In Bradford, West Yorkshire a Roman Catholic middle school named after St Blaise was operated by the Diocese of Leeds from 1961 to 1995. The name was chosen due to the connections of Bradford to the woollen industry and the method that St Blaise was martyred, with the woolcomb. Due to reorganisation the school closed down when Catholic middle schools were phased out, and the building was sold to Bradford Council to provide replacement accommodation for another local middle school which had burned down. Within a few months, St Blaise school was also severely damaged in a fire, and the remains of the building were demolished. A new primary school was built on the land, and most of the extensive grounds were sold off for housing.
14th Century wall painting of St Blaise in All Saints Church in Kingston upon Thames, UK
There is a 14th century wall painting in All Saints Church, Kingston upon Thames, located by the market place, marking the significance of the wool trade in the economic expansion of the market town in the 14th and 15th centuries.
In Croatia[edit]
Church of St. Blasius inDubrovnik
Saint Blaise (Croatian: Sveti Vlaho or Sveti Blaž) is the patron saint of the city of Dubrovnik and formerly the protector of the independent Republic of Ragusa. At Dubrovnik his feast is celebrated yearly on 3 February, when relics of the saint, his head, a bit of bone from his throat, his right hand and his left, are paraded in reliquaries. The festivities begin the previous day, Candlemas, when white doves are released. Chroniclers of Dubrovnik such as Rastic and Ranjina attribute his veneration there to a vision in 971 to warn the inhabitants of an impending attack by the Venetians, whose galleys had dropped anchor in Gruž and near Lokrum, ostensibly to resupply their water but furtively to spy out the city’s defenses. St. Blaise (Blasius) revealed their pernicious plan to Stojko, a canon of St. Stephen’s Cathedral. The Senate summoned Stojko, who told them in detail how St. Blaise had appeared before him as an old man with a long beard and a bishop’s mitre and staff. In this form the effigy of Blaise remained on Dubrovnik’s state seal and coinage until the Napoleonic era.
Blaise and Blasius of Jersey[edit]
In England in the 18th and 19th centuries Blaise was adopted as mascot of woolworkers’ pageants, particularly in Essex,Yorkshire, Wiltshire and Norwich. The popular enthusiasm for the saint is explained by the belief that Blaise had brought prosperity (as symbolised by the Woolsack) to England by teaching the English to comb wool. According to the tradition as recorded in printed broadsheets, Blaise came from Jersey, Channel Islands. Jersey was certainly a centre of export of woollen goods (as witnessed by the name jerseyfor the woollen textile). However, this legend is probably the result of confusion with a different saint, Blasius of Caesarea (Caesarea being also the Latin name of Jersey).
Iconography[edit]
In iconography, Blaise is represented holding two crossed candles in his hand (the Blessing of St. Blaise), or in a cave surrounded by wild beasts, as he was found by the hunters of the governor.[5] He is often shown with the instruments of his martyrdom, steel combs. The similarity of these instruments of torture to wool combs led to his adoption as the patron saintof wool combers in particular, and the wool trade in general. He may also be depicted with crossed candles. Such crossed candles are used for the blessing of throats on his feast day, which falls on 3 February, the day after Candlemas on the General Roman Calendar. Blaise is traditionally believed to intercede in cases of throat illnesses, especially for fish-bones stuck in the throat.[10]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ Jump up to:a b c Kirsch, Johann Peter. “St. Blaise.” The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 3 Feb. 2013
- Jump up^ Marco Polo, Travels of Marco Polo, the Venetian (1260-1295),I, ch. 46.
- Jump up^ William Woodville Rockhill, ed., tr.The Journey of William of Rubruck to the eastern parts of the world, 1253-551900:276.
- ^ Jump up to:a b “Life of St. Blaise, Bishop and Martyr”, Colegio de Santa Catalina Alejandria
- ^ Jump up to:a b Foley O.F.M., Leonard, “Saint Blaise”, Saint of the Day, Lives, Lessons, and Feasts, (revised by Pat McCloskey O.F.M.), Franciscan Media, ISBN 978-0-86716-887-7
- Jump up^ Vollet, E. H., Grande Encyclopédie s.v. Blaise (Saint); published in Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca “Auctarium”, 1969, 278, col. 665b.
- Jump up^ “St. Blaise, Martyr”, Lives of Saints, John J. Crawley & Co., Inc.
- Jump up^ Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1911: “Blaise”.
- Jump up^ Lysons, Daniel The Environs of London (Vol. 4), p307-323 (pub. 1796) – “British history online” (website).
- Jump up^ The formula for the blessing of throats is: “Per intercessionem Sancti Blasii, episcopi et martyris, liberet te Deus a malo gutturis, et a quolibet alio malo. In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.” (“Through the intercession of St. Blaise, bishop and martyr, may God free you from illness of the throat and from any other sort of ill. In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.)