Tuesday, 3 June 2025
ST BLAISE OF DUBROVNIK... (My poem about St Blaise, after visiting Croatia in 2016...)
St Blaise of Dubrovnik…
The Bishop, the healer and physician
Had been beaten with a wooden stick,
Before being raked to the bone by metal combs.
He was beheaded, notwithstanding his apparent skills
And thus he was martyred as St Blaise…
The Canon, in a dreamlike vision
Had been warned by the Saint
That the city was threatened by Venetian galleys
Near Lokrum Island, despite their apparent goodwill.
Dubrovnik was thus forewarned and forearmed by St Blaise…
The Saint, the healer and physician
Had once been forgotten but became a saviour,
Having protected the city from a maritime invader.
He was venerated and is duly revered and remembered still
As the patron saint of wool combers: St Blaise…
Pete Ray
Stojko, the Canon of St Stephen’s Cathedral in Dubrovnik, once known as Ragusa, had a vision in 971AD, seeing St Blaise, who warned him that the anchored Venetian galleys, lying off the island of Lokrum were planning an invasion.
The city was thus saved…
St Blaise, a Bishop of Sebastea, in what is now Sivas in Turkey, was highly thought of as a healer of both people and beasts, a physician of ‘souls’ also.
He was lauded for his ability to remove objects from the throat and he eventually retired to a cave to pray.
He was arrested in 316AD by the Romans because he was a Christian and it is said that on his way to prison, he saved a boy who was dying from a bone trapped in his throat but
although the Roman governor was amazed by this, St Blaise was eventually still beaten with a stick, raked by iron combs to the bone and beheaded.
It is said that he also prised a woman’s pig from the clutches of a wolf, unharmed and she took two fine candles to the prison to light the Bishop’s cell.
St Blaise is often depicted holding two crossed candles, or is seen with wild animals, or even steel combs and is the patron saint of wool combers and the sheep trade.
His Saint Day is February 3rd…
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