WHO WERE THE FIVE WEIRDEST SAINTS IN HISTORY?
Stories from the Middle Ages about saints and their miracles can seem strange and unlikely today - but they give us a fascinating look inside the medieval mind
Note to readers: This is a post requested by a History, Etc subscriber. If you’d like to support this newsletter, the accompanying podcast and the community around it, and submit ideas for new posts, please click the button below.
PS If you’re already a subscriber, thank you! Remember to post any requests for content on the weekly Q&A thread.
There were thousands of saints in the Middle Ages, whose powers to intervene in the world were well known. Saints’ relics - bits of their bodies, or things they had touched in life - might be brought onto the battlefield for good luck or venerated for good health.
The tales told about saints and their miracles could be highly entertaining. Here I have picked five of my favourite. But I could have gone on to five hundred. Who would be on your list?
Thanks very much to subscriber Mark Acres for suggesting this topic.
5. Saint Blaise (d.316AD)
In an earlier age, when the rhythm of the year was more connected (in the west at least) to the liturgy of the Church, we might all have known that today, February 3rd, is the feast day of St Blaise. Indeed, were you to wander into a church on this day in the early sixteenth century, you could have witnessed a ceremony in honour of St. Blaise, known as the Blessing of the Throats: a simple crossing of consecrated candles, which the priest then touched to the throats of the faithful.
Why? Well, St Blaise - a physician who became a bishop in fourth-century Asia Minor - was the patron saint of people suffering throat disease, because when he was alive he miraculously cured a boy who was choking on a fish-bone. He performed other miracles, too, including forcing a wolf to give back a pig it had stolen from its owner.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to History, Etc to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.