BLASIUS or BLAISE, SAINT, bishop of Sebaste or Sivas in Asia Minor, martyred under Diocletian on Feb. 3, 316. The Roman Catholic Church keeps his festival on Feb. 3, the Orthodox Feb. II. He is said to have been torn with woolcombers' irons be fore he was beheaded, and this seems to be the reason for his be coming the patron saint of woolcombers. In England St. Blaise was popular, and the council of Oxford in 1222 forbade all work on his festival. Owing to a miracle which he is alleged to have worked on a child suffering from a throat affection, St. Blaise's aid was held sovereign against throat and lung diseases.
See William Hone, Every Day Book, i. 210.