Held this past Friday, February 3, in the James B. Branton Chapel were two major events: the blessing of the throat and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. All school day, students, faculty, and staff came to the chapel to get their throats blessed and to spend a few minutes in quiet reflection. Being the feast day of St. Blaise, teachers and staff rotated times in administering the blessing. Very little is known about the life of St. Blaise. He is believed to be a healer who spent most of the latter part of his life praying in a cave, but people often turned to him for healing miracles. For example, when the governor of Cappadocia arrested the then Bishop Blaise for being a Christian, a woman whose son was choking to death on a fish bone approached Blaise on his was way to jail and thrust her son before him. There, Blaise miraculously cured him. Later, he was beheaded for refusing to denounce his faith. Two candles are used in the blessing because when Blaise was confined in the darkness of his cell, a woman visited him and carried two lighted candles to drive out the darkness. In the chapel many sat or knelt to the aroma of burning incense and the soothing sound of Gregorian chant. The occurrence of the First Friday Adoration with the Feast of St. Blaise can be seen as relevant, intertwined events, for just as Blaise entered a cave to pray, so many people entered the chapel both to receive a blessing and to enter into prayerful meditation.
