Many came to him as a physician for physical healing but also received many miracles. Others came to him for spiritual healing, imparted by his deep faith. Even though Christianity became legal in the Roman Empire in 313, the Governor of Cappadocia began to arrest and kill Christians in 316. Bishop Blaise was among those arrested. While Blaise was on his way to jail, the mother of a boy who was choking on a fishbone sent her son to Blaise for his prayers. Bishop Blaise miraculously cured him on the spot. Another story relates that on that journey to jail, a woman begged him to save her pig that had been seized by a wolf. When Bishop Blaise ordered the wolf to release the pig, the wolf obeyed. Out of gratitude, the woman brought Blaise two wax candles to light his prison cell. When Bishop Blaise refused to renounce his Christian faith, he was ripped apart by metal combs used to comb wool and then beheaded. Today, Saint Blaise is the patron saint of wool combers and animals. More famously, he is the patron saint of diseases of the throat and other illnesses because he healed the boy with a fishbone stuck in his throat, was a physician, and miraculously healed many others of their ailments. Two wax candles are used to bless throats today in memory of the candles that the grateful woman brought to Blaise’s jail cell. *St Blaise, pray for us*