Blaise, throats and superstition

[asteroid]

I’m in RCIA coming into catholicism from other churches. I’ve always been told certain things about catholic ritual and it’s been related to superstition and basic uselessness.

So I’m trying to get to grips with the blessing of throats on St. Blaise day. I know he is meant to have cured a boy miraculously who was choking on a fish bone and that’s where the whole practice and blessing with crossed candles began.

However I looked up Saint Blaise in various sources, such as the Catholic Encyclopedia at Newadvent.

That source states that it can “perhaps be assumed” he was a bishop and suffered martyrdom. It states that all the stories about him are purely legendary and have no claim to historical worth. Other sources seem to come out with different stories about him. The encyclopedia does say the traditions are not to be “absolutely rejected”.

Now, to someone like me that doesn’t sound like a glowing guarantee that all these things happened to and through Blaise. In fact it sounds more like the stories are based on sources almost as good as those that would say St George killed a dragon or that St Christopher helped people across a river with ease due to being 24 feet tall as one story has it, or the stories of St Ursula or Philomena.

Can we know that any of the stories about St Blaise are true?

If we cannot, are we basing a church practice on records that we cannot trust and on hearsay and stories from centuries after the events did or did not occur?

If that’s the case, what separates this festival and practice and belief from any form of superstition?

Can we really pray to a saint in any manner if we don’t have that good reasons to believe that the saint is all he/she is made out to be?

How does it feel if you honour a saint greatly and then that saint is repressed for not existing or not doing anything much?

Why is Philomena still so honoured in so many places when it has been shown that the bones found aren’t from the right century, the tomb cover wasn’t originally from that tomb and that there’s absolutely no evidence that the bones belong to a virgin martyr - which is why she was suppressed in 1961?

In the light of the suppressed Philomena and everything that sprang up around her name, what am I to make about devotions to saints?

Just wondering

Blessings

Asteroid

Apologies - one little question turned into qute a few bigger ones. And the question of Blaise got rather wider.

 

[Bill_A]

I have known people and include myself as having the blessing of the throat on the feast of Saint Blaise and gotten the flue with a strep throat. In the end it is faith that will get us threw. We do not know any of these saints, except Jesus and I have not met any saints except maybe one or two.

In the end it is always faith, that gets us threw from day to day. I am by no means successfull but I live the kind of modern day Apostolic life. I just get by but maybe the fact that I just get by is a miracle in its self. I know alot of people my age that did not get by and died a horrible life, descending to hell even in life.

Without faith Man is nothing.

Every day on earth, 6 Billion people get by. Not 1000, or 1 Million but 6,000,000,000 people get by everyday. Despite the government and all the bad things in the world. That in itself is a great miracle.

 

[mercygate]

I hear you! Take comfort: there is no mandate to have your throat blessed. The St. Blaise blessing is a private devotion. You are not required to accept it.

 

[puzzleannie]

the value of the ritual is in the blessing itself, which comes from the priest, who receives his authority to bless from Christ himself. It is a private devotion, and is not a good luck charm or vaccination against disease. It is a pious prayer for protection against disease, especially of the throat and against all sins committed through the throat or mouth. Blaise is one of many martyrs of his age, and we have ample testimony by and about the early martyrs, so if you don’t have documented proof about this individual, you do have it about the martyrs and the effect of their sacrifices, united with Christ’s, on the growing early Church.

 

[filumenae]

Unfortunately, there is a lot of confusion about this Saint.

Padre Pio, who had a devotion to her, stated that he felt any confusion over her is the work of satan.

Several of the common miss-information about the Saint is that the Cultus was suppressed in 1961. This is not true.

The Vatican recognized Saint Philomena today as strongly as when she was first canonized. The Universal Archconfraternity of Saint Philomena is still recognized and promoted by the Vatican. She is still recognized as the Patron Saint of the Universal Living Rosary and the Propagation of the Faith. Both organizations are still strongly supported by the Vatican.

The truth is that she was removed from the liturgical calendar in 1961. She had never been placed on the calendar in the United States and there are no churches that have changed their name, anywhere in the world, because of her removal from the liturgical calendar in 1961.

Several churches that bore her name in the United States were torn down, but that was in the name of progress, not in reaction to her being removed from the liturgical calendar.

She was canonized by Pope Gregory XVI.

From the liturgical approval of Gregory XVI to the papal decrees of St. Pius X, Nineteen acts of the Holy See in the course of five successive pontificates were issued in positive promotion of popular devotion to St. Philomena expressed in the form of elevations in rank of liturgical cultus, the erection of confraternities and archconfraternities, and the granting of plenary and partial indulgences.

Several acts of the Holy See particularly display the Magisterium’s approval and encouragement of ecclesial devotion to this Christian saint and martyr. Beyond the elevation of the rank of the mass and office previously granted by Gregory XVI, Bl. Pius IX approved a proper mass and office dedicated to St. Philomena with the papal confirmation of the previously submitted decree, Etsi decimo on January 31, 1855, a significant liturgical elevation, even though her name was never entered into the Roman Martyrology. The granting of a proper mass and office to St. Philomena, which took place following the return of Bl. Pius IX from a papal pilgrimage to Mugnano during his forced exile from Rome, was an unprecedented act in honor of a Christian martyr known only by name and evidence of martyrdom. Bl. Pius IX also granted plenary and partial indulgences to devotions in honor of St. Philomena at the Sanctuary in Mugnano.

Pope Leo XIII granted papal approbation to the Cord of St. Philomena with several plenary indulgences in association with its wearing, and accorded the title and privilege of “archconfraternity” for the respective Philomenian devotion and work in France. Pope St. Pius X continued the papal succession of encouragement for public Church devotion by approving the extension of the Archconfraternity of St. Philomena to the universal Church.

Far more than one solitary papal act by Gregory XVI, the papal Magisterium has repeatedly encouraged the nature and growth of ecclesial devotion to St. Philomena, in official recognition of her status as a saint, in public liturgical and devotional sanctions which extended to the universal faith and life of the Church, and thereby manifesting official and essential liturgical and devotional characteristics of her status as a saint as defined by the Church.

philomena.it

 

[filumenae]

A conference was held in Rome to get answers for “The Philomenan Question” on April 9, 2005, a panel, of scientists, priests and devotees presented reports that offered resounding answers which will put to rest the years of questioning once and for all time.

The following is the statement released by the Rector of the Sanctuary of St. Philomena, Monsignor Giovanni Braschi summarizing the conference:

Two hundred years ago St. Philomena was placed in a special Altar at the Sanctuary, situated on the central left side as you walk into the Church. And from that moment she changed the lives of everyone who encountered her. Now, in these present days she touches the lives of many people worldwide and calls them to the Sanctuary in Mugnano del Cardinale.

Sadly, many devotees have reported to me confusion stemming from the St. Philomena controversy. I have been Rector of the Sanctuary for over twenty years and I have worked to correct any confusion or misunderstandings surrounding St. Philomena. Therefore, as Rector, I decided the most effective solution was to devote myself to engage the best minds available in the scientific world today to find out the truth about our Saint. From the onset of this effort, I was prepared to accept the truth as final no matter what the results of the scientific research revealed. My desire was to settle the controversy once and for all to relieve any anxiety devotees may have about our Saint.

We announced the results of the new and exhaustive scientific research at the Conference of the New Philomenian Studies on April 9, 2005, at the Catacombs of St. Pricilla in Rome, where the tomb of Saint Philomena was discovered in 1802.

There are two main parts of this investigation; the first is that of the tomb stones. They tell the story of the person buried there with specific symbols depicting the history of the sufferings and the death which occurred along with the name of the person.

The controversy was initiated when the case of St. Philomena was discussed and argued in the beginning of the 20th Century: using scientific methods only available in his time, the archaeologist Orazio Marucchi stated the theory that the tomb stones had been sealed more than once, which would have meant they were re-used.

Additionally, he postulated that the reason the order of the first and last tomb stone were reversed is because the tomb had been opened and then resealed.

The present-day scientific investigations using modern and technically advanced equipment has demonstrated clearly that the tomb stones were only sealed once.

More importantly, with these modern techniques, they are dated 202 A.D, which mean that St. Philomena is an earlier Martyr of the Church than first thought.

With the new scientific results of the tomb stones which originally were placed in the wrong order now have an explanation; With powerful modern tools a closer and more detailed examination of the three tiles revealed a surprise that no one previously had realized.

At the time of her burial, there where originally two tomb stones, but three were needed to completely close the tomb. The larger of the two stones was cut horizontally in half resulting in two separate stones out of it, which made the required three in total. The now three tiles were laid out and the inscription was applied across the total of them, PAXTE – CUMFI – LUMENA. Each of the three tiles had a portion of the message the first stone had, PAXTE, the second stone had CUMFI and the third stone, LUMENA.

After having done this, the mason worker realized that the tomb was taller at one end than the other. The stones were reversed to move the wider stone to the wider opening to accommodate the wider opening. Therefore, in order for the stones to be placed to properly fit the opening, it resulted in reversing the three sections of the inscription to the following order: LUMENA – PAXTE – CUMFI, placing the last original stone in the place of the first one, which by doing this, meant that the words on them were put in the wrong order.

Monsignor Giovanni Braschi
Santuario Santa Filomena
83027 Mugnano del Cardinale
Avellino, Italy
tel:+39 81 8257204
fax: 081-511 2733
e-mail:SantaFilomena@philomena.it
philomena.it