"IN THIS ENLIGHTENED AGE."
THE San Francisco Examiner of the 4th inst. has the following description of a superstitious ceremony in that city:— A spectacle that is not often witnessed in Catholic Churches was presented last evening in the ceremonies at St. Ignatius’ Church on Hayes Street. Thousands of persons were present, thronging the large interior from sanctuary to vestibule. They were there from all parts of the city, as the observances of this occasion are not held in other churches except St. Ignatius. It was the commemoration of the feast day of St. Blase, whose intercession is asked to bless throats of believers every year at altar rails. The services began last evening with exposition of the sacrament before an immense congregation of devout worshipers. The grand altar glittered with a blaze of wax lights from candelabra and stands about the altar. Meanwhile a priest led the congregation in the rosary, and the responses sounded as a solemn chant in reply. A sermon was preached on the saint and the practice about to be observed with due solemnity. At the close solemn benediction of the blessed sacrament was held. It was the same as on similar occasions, or Sunday evenings, but afterward the ceremony of blessing throats took place. The crowds arranged themselves in order, and proceeded to the sanctuary railing, where they waited for the gift conferred by a priest. Six fathers of the Society of Jesus stood inside the rail and pronounced the blessing, each upon one person at a time. The ceremony was very simple, nothing more than the recital of a prayer: “By the intercession of St. Blase, bishop and martyr, may God deliver thee from throat diseases and every other evil, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.” For more than one hour the people who were thus blessed continued to pass by the sanctuary in an unbroken procession. About three thousand of them knelt before the officiating priests, and then filed slowly out of the church, which was not empty till long after 9 o’clock at night. St. Blase, one of the early Christian martyrs, was Bishop of Sebaste in Armenia, and when persecuted by Emperor Diocletian, he sought refuge in a cave distant from the city. While a refugee he performed many wonderful cures, among them being that of a boy who had a bone in his throat. The practice of blessing throats in his name originated from this remarkable incident.