Blessing of Throats (St Blaise)

A sacramental blessing administered on February 3 (feast of St Blaise) in which a priest holds two blessed candles crossed at the throat of each recipient and prays for protection from throat ailments and all evil, rooted in the veneration of Blaise of Sebaste, a 4th-century bishop-martyr credited with miraculous cures of throat obstructions. Devotion to Blaise spread from the Eastern church into Western Europe via relic translations (relics sent toward Rome c. 732, some stopping at Maratea, Italy). By the High Middle Ages the blessing was widespread across the Latin Church; the 1222 Council of Oxford noted his feast as a day prohibiting servile labor in England. The crossed-candle rite, enhanced by proximity to Candlemas (Feb 2), remains observed on February 3 in Roman Catholic and some Anglican and Lutheran churches worldwide.