Saint Blaise, a bishop of ancient Sebastea (now in Turkey), was also a physician, like Saint Luke, a healer of body and soul. And, we may add, a martyr, tortured to death for the faith in 316 A.D., a scant three years after Constantine declared the faith legally sanctioned in Roman law by the Edict of Milan. Sometimes, however, law takes some time to have its effect, as it is promulgated and enforced, not least when the law must overcome deeply entrenched custom. And hatred of Christianity has always, and will always be so – persecution we will always have with us in one way or another, as Christ Himself warned, or promised, depending on one’s point of view.
While in prison, it is recounted that Blaise cured a young boy who was choking on a fishbone; hence, his intercession is invoked for ailments of the throat, and the blessing given in his name on this day using the two forked candles – a worthy devotion, through which God may work miracles.
Today we also celebrate Saint Ansgar (+865) – whose anglicized name is Oscar – an ascetic, mystic and missionary sent to the north of Europe, to Germany, Saxony and even to Sweden. The initial conversion of these nations to Catholicism was in large part due to this intrepid saint. The Protestant revolt in the 16th century undid much of his work. As Saint John Henry Newman predicted of Protestantism, it leads inevitably to the secular, socialist and even largely atheist regimes we now witness, at least at a practical level. And such spiritually hollowed-out nations are no match for Islam. Such is the inevitable drift when any nation and people leave the ‘one true Church’ which, for all its current difficulties, is still the one and only ‘pillar and bulwark of truth’.
Ansgar’s youthful conversion occurred when he saw his deceased mother in the presence of the Virgin Mary, which convinced him of the truth of the Faith, sustaining him through the trials ahead. The main difficulty for Ansgar was not the Muslims (although they nearly took Europe in the generation before his, many miles south, in France at the battle of Tours 735). Rather, it was the political upheavals and the raids of the pagan Danish Vikings. Ansgar suffered and worked with a peaceful soul through it all, seeing God’s pure and constant will behind the chaos, and the salvation of the souls under his care.
God is always working in the background, regardless of how tumultuous the world may seem.
Saints Blaise and Ansgar, orate pro nobis!
