The blessing of throats
through St Blaise

The words said over each person’s throat on St Blaise’s feast, asking God to keep them from every illness of the throat.

Picture: St Blaise in his cave with the animals, illustration credited to John D. Batten (1860 to 1932), from St Blaise Parish, Austintown, Ohio

Plain English

Through the prayers of St Blaise, bishop and martyr,may God set you free from every illness of the throatand from every other illness.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.Amen.

Traditional wording, 1989

Through the intercession of Saint Blase, bishop and martyr,may God deliver you from every disease of the throatand from every other illness:

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Latin. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: the International Commission on English in the Liturgy, Book of Blessings, 1989.

More about St BlaiseWhy people ask him, his story and his feast days, with his best-known prayer

Where it comes from

Who wrote it

This is the Catholic Church’s blessing for St Blaise’s feast, 3 February, from the Roman Ritual. A priest or deacon says it over each person, holding two crossed candles at the throat, and a lay minister may say it too. No one knows who wrote it.

Blessing of Throats on the Feast of Saint Blase, Book of Blessings, The Liturgical Press, 1989

Why the throat

His Life says that in prison he saved a boy who was choking on a fishbone, and the sick have asked his prayers ever since, above all for the throat.

“St. Blaise”, Catholic Encyclopedia, 1907

In Latin

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.

From the Roman Ritual, the blessing of throats on the feast of St Blaise.

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