My local Anglican Church is very High Church, about as near Catholic as it's possible to get and completely different to any other C of E church I know. The Vicar is known as Father and has been there forever and they celebrate Mass everyday and seem to mark lots of other special days too including 3rd February.
This is the entry in the Parish Magazine
St Blaise was a popular saint from the 8th Century to the Middle Ages and nothing definite is known about him except as it says in the Parish Mag. above.
In my book "The English Year" by Steve Roud there is mention of processions held in wool towns to commemorate the day including this, which was taken from the Suffolk volume of the Folk-Lore Society's County Folklore series of February 3rd 1777.............
This day, Munday, being the anniversary of Bishop Blaze, the same was observed in this town in a manner far surpassing anything of the kind ever seen. The cavalcade consisting of between 200 and 300 woolcombers, upon horses in uniforms,properly decorated. Bishop Blaze, Jason, Castor and Pollux, a band of musick, drums,colours and everything necessary to render the procession suitable to the greatness of the woollen manufactory. The following lines were spoken by the orators: With boundless gratitude illustrious Blaze, Again we celebrate and speak thy praise.
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And also mentioned in the book is that the diarist Parson Woodfoode recorded a trip to Norwich on 24th March 1793 especially to see a parade there.
The picture below is also from The English Year
Back Tomorrow
Sue
'Traditional blessing of throats'.....wow, you do uncover some interesting facts!
ReplyDeleteI'd certainly never heard it before!
DeleteIn French we say "Tu mourras moins bête" ("You'll be wiser when you die") ! My secondary school (lycée) in lower Brittany was named Sainte-Elisabeth-Saint-Blaise (and still is). And we had extra dessert on this special day ("Paris-Brest" !)
ReplyDeleteMaguy
Nice to get a treat on the special day
DeleteI suppose that St Blaise would have been popular in East Anglia because of the wool trade here. February is definitely a month for sore throats and coughs.
ReplyDeleteYes, its curious that both mentions in "The English Year" are from East Anglia
DeleteOne of my local churches growing up, was high anglican. I hated the smell of wafting incense as they progressed up the aisle.
ReplyDeleteI've not been to a service there so don't know how smelly the incense is and I've been told that unknown visitors get odd looks and moaned at if they sit in the wrong seats! which sounds a bit off putting!
DeleteHenry VIII wouldn't like your vicar, would he?
ReplyDeleteNice that there's room for all. :-)
xx
No probably not. I wonder what will happen when Father P pops his clogs(I think he is in his early 70's so might go on for a while longer) as most vicars look after several churches, will this church have to change?
DeleteThere are several anglo-catholic churches around in Norfolk and Suffolk. A mass for St Blaise is being held in Norwich today at a tiny church just behind the shopping mall, which is probably passed by shoppers everyday without a second look. We were a city of dissenters in many forms of religion.
ReplyDeleteIs it Norwich that has/had more churches than many other cities?
DeleteI think it has more than any other city. We have more churches than Suffolk so just as well you aren't doing Norfolk churches!
DeleteI have never heard of St Blaise, but his death sounds pretty gruesome!
ReplyDeleteThere certainly some nasty ways of getting rid of saints back in the day!
DeleteNot a nice way to go. Interesting pieces about the celebrating of his life though, and of course Suffolk was built on the back of sheep, so to speak - old churches in "wool" counties are always more splendid.
ReplyDeleteLavenham church that I visited is one of the huge wool churches in Suffolk
DeleteI was researching some stuff yesterday and found that Pope Paul VI culled over 90 saints from the Catholic calendar in 1969 because their stories were a little too vague and non-historical. I wonder if Blaise survived. It does sound like the celebration was more for a chance for a show than remembering a saint.
ReplyDeleteMy late great aunt's Church of Wales church had a priest that called himself Father and wanted people to attend confession. She was very indignant and told me that he couldn't call himself Father as he had four children!
So many Saints - not enough days in the year!
DeleteThe Father at this Anglican church is also a father - his children are just a bit older than my lot so he is probably a grandfather too.
High churches seem to have very devoted followers. I have family members who are devout Catholics. Confession, communion and praying to saints is their common practice. It's all a bit much for me... I do like being inside churches and enjoy your blog posts.
ReplyDeleteSo many village churches struggle to have one service each week and here there is something every day!
DeleteI just read that in old days in Norway the name of St. Blaise was misunderstood and changed into the Norwegian word "blåse", which means to blow. So it was called "Blåse messe"/ Wind mass. If there was much wind that day it would be blowing much all the year.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing the stories found in different parts of the world
DeleteI went to a funeral at your church 10 years ago, so I expect it was the same Priest there then, and I could not get over how High Church it was. The smell of the incense was so strong. I did like his hat though, ( I am sure its got a proper name but I do not know it)
ReplyDeleteI've been told that most of the people who attend are not from the village - they come from miles - it's all so different to other village churches
DeleteNever heard of that one before :)
ReplyDeleteNo neither had I - something new to learn everyday!
ReplyDeleteMy BFF in high school and many years thereafter was Anglican (English High Church, she always described it). I went to church with her a few times, but the kneeling and rising confused me. She passed away when we were about 65ish.
ReplyDeleteHi, I really enjoyed reading your post, and hope to read more. thank you so much for sharing this informative blog.
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The catholic churches here still have the "Blasius blessing" either on 3 February or, more often nowadays, after the mass on the next Sunday. The priest is carrying two burning candles forming an X, I have never been able to find out why. Maybe it has something to do with a blocked throat?
ReplyDeleteHilde in Germany
I grew up next to St Blazey in Cornwall. These saint's names do get about. Apparently there was a woollen mill there too. http://www.stblaisetowncouncil.co.uk/history.html
ReplyDeleteLearn something new! Never heard of him before.
ReplyDelete