Celebrating the Feast of San Biagio and Sexagesima Sunday at Our Lady of Peace in Brooklyn, New York

The blessing of the throats

"Through the intercession of St. Blaise, bishop and martyr, may God deliver you from every disease of the throat and from every other illness, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." ~ Prayer from the Blessing of the Throats

Now that the Season of Christmas has ended, we began our preparation for the Great Lent with the Feast of San Biagio (St. Blaise) and Sexagesima Sunday at Our Lady of Peace Church in Gowanus, Brooklyn.

For the Feast of San Biagio, Fr. Christopher Cullen invoked the intercession of the great Saint and gave the traditional blessing of the throats with two blessed candles tied together to form a saltire with a red ribbon. The red represents the blood of the martyrs and the X-shaped cross represents the martyrdom of Sant’Andrea (St. Andrew). According to tradition, San Biagio was a great healer and saved a young boy who was choking on a fish bone. Persecuted and arrested for his faith, the mother of the child gave him candles so he could read the Scriptures in his prison cell.

Nativity Scene inside Our Lady of Peace Church

Following Mass on Sexagesima Sunday, we took one more opportunity to gain a plenary indulgence, under the usual conditions (Confession, Communion, etc.), by praying in front of the Nativity Scene at a Franciscan Church in celebration of the 800th anniversary of the first crèche at Greccio, Lazio. I thought bestowal ended on Candlemas, but the MC assured us it was still in effect. Plenary indulgence or not, we still meditated on the birth of Christ and prayed the Lord’s Prayer, the Nicene Creed and invocations to the Holy Family and St. Francis of Assisi.