The Feast of St. Blaise is celebrated on Feb. 3 or Feb. 11 in the Eastern Church. St. Blaise was a 4th-century Armenian bishop, physician and martyr. People – and even animals – reportedly flocked to this pious bishop to be cured of their ailments. The Acts of St. Blaise were written 400 years after his death and are widely regarded to have embellished some of the stories surrounding this popular saint. Legend has it that as he was being led away to be imprisoned and eventually martyred – or while he was in prison, depending on the version told – a mother presented him with her young son who was choking on a fish bone. At Blaise’s command, the child coughed up the bone. Today, we honor his feast by having our throats blessed by a priest to help protect them from disease. Two candles are blessed, held crossed together, and pressed against the throat as the prayer of protection is said.
The Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes is celebrated on Feb. 11. Beginning in 1858, in the grotto of Massabielle, near Lourdes in southern France, Mary appeared to a young peasant girl named Bernadette Soubirous 18 times. Mary asked that a chapel be built on the site of the vision and told Bernadette to drink from a fountain in the grotto. Since Bernadette didn’t see a fountain, Mary indicated a spot where she should dig. When she did, a spring began to flow that remains flowing to this day. Countless pilgrims have flocked to the spring over the centuries in hopes of benefiting from its healing powers. If a pilgrimage to Lourdes isn’t in your immediate plans, you can commemorate the feast by praying the Litany of Our Lady of Lourdes and perhaps watching “The Song of Bernadette,” a 1943 movie about the miraculous apparitions.